Sam Dill, the New Jersey homeless man who broke hearts last year when video of him watching a bulldozer destroy the tent he called home went viral on YouTube, had a brand new place of his own on Thursday, after a charity began building him a "tiny home" that he can move anywhere.
Make it Rain, a Harleysville-based nonprofit that helps communities in need, began raising money for Dill, 76, after his tent-home in Lakewood, N.J.'s infamous Tent City homeless encampment was razed in July by the township. As of Thursday, $11,615 of the $15,000 goal had been raised.
Residents of Tent City were placed into temporary housing in a hotel -- but the temporary housing for many recently ran out, according to Max Jones, a spokesman for Make it Rain.
On Thursday, volunteers started building a "tiny home" for Dill, who is originally from Old Bridge, N.J., in Sellersville, Bucks County -- but, Jones said, Dill won't be tethered to where the house was built. They expect it to be done within a month.
"It's on a trailer so he can take it around the country," said, adding that there are sites in some states where tiny mobile homes are allowed to stay, sometimes on government-owned land.
"We're building a tiny home for Sam, a man whose home was destroyed in front of the world -- because of political pressure," the charity's web site reads below the heartbreaking YouTube video of the man watching his tent house be destroyed. "Give five seconds to help Sam."
Donations can be made at HelpMakeItRain.org/a-home-for-sam.
