FORT WORTH, Texas — It has always been Pastor Darrel Auvenshine and his church members' dream to build a community for the unhoused in the Fort Worth area. His church, Southside City Church Home has always focused on serving the unhoused community, giving them shelter, food and love through God's power.
"13 years ago, we stared a housing ministry where those who were dealing with homelessness could come into a home renting program and re-establish their life," Auvenshine explained.
They have been at their new location on Hemphill Street for more than two years. The church owns a 10,000 sq. ft. piece of land behind their church that is currently unused.
With the housing marking being so high, the church board of directors was not able to continue renting homes for the unhoused to live in. So they came up with the idea to take advantage of their land to help those in need.
The vision is to have a tiny home community made up of four tiny homes, an outside grill, parking spaces and outside benches.
These homes would specifically be for mothers who do not have a permanent place to stay.
"This is the first time for there to be a tiny home community in our city so we want to do this with excellence and we want to finish well and then we want to do it again," Auvenshine.
After years of going back and forth with the City of Fort Worth to do zone changing requests and get the approval of city council, the church was finally able to start the project and reach the next step, finding a company that could build the tiny homes.
The church has a specific budget for the project, which is why they were drawn to A&L Sheds Construction Company.
"For about a year before being ready to build, we were already looking for a builder," Auvenshine explained. "We had reached out to several local companies before we then found A&L Sheds on Facebook."
A&L Sheds is headquartered in Houston, but Auvenshine asked if they could do a build in Fort Worth. The company agreed and Auvenshine said they came back with a price that was better than any price they could find.
They met with company owner Amanda Sparks and her team to explain their vision for the tiny home community. After months of planning and finalizing how the build would proceed, Auvenshine agreed for the company to build the homes onsite.
The church paid A&L Sheds $19,428 in Dec. 2022 as the first half deposit for the project. This money was fundraised through community sponsors and supportive people in the community.
A&L Sheds was supposed to begin the build in January 2023, but for months, that was pushed back. Sparks told Auvenshine a number of reasons why the project was delayed, which included having personal problems, being backed up on projects and simply running out of money.
"We had a build date in March 2023 but that came and went," Auvenshine added. "They communicated the day before they were supposed to build and pushed the project two weeks back."
When those two weeks passed, the company still did not show up for the build. That's around the time Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston area. Because of that, Auvenshine said the company pushed the build back even further.
"We were looking at a May build but that turned into June, then July," Auvenshine. "We offered to buy the materials to at least begin the builds of the tiny homes or receive a reimbursement."
Auvenshine said Sparks told him they could do either option but it would take 18 months. He was told by Sparks the company currently had no money to reimburse them and he was on a list behind 10 other people needing a reimbursement as well.
If things had gone as planned, the tiny homes community was estimated to open in August 2024. The delays have pushed the project back at least five months.
"It calls our integrity into question, people have donated funds, we've communicated build dates and it doesn't happen," Auvenshine said. "We have to communicate to our donors openly about what happened."
6 News reached out to Sparks about the status of this project and if or when Auvenshine will receive the church's refund. She has yet to respond to our messages as of the time this article was published.
Because the church is a non-project organization, Auvenshine said he had no choice but to take legal action against A&L Sheds.
"We're responsible to show that we've done due diligence to address basically theft," Auvenshine explained. "For the business, there has to be accountability."
A number of A&L Sheds customers are involved in a lawsuit against the company and an investigator with the McLennan County Sheriff's Office is in charge of the case.
There is a Facebook group with more than 90 A&L Sheds customers who have either not received their refunds or the company has yet to start or complete their builds.
As of Jan. 31, 2024, A&L Sheds Better Business Bureau (BBB) accreditation was revoked by the BBB's Board of Directors due to failure by the business to adhere to the BBB requirement that Accredited Businesses meet and abide by the following standards. This includes:
1. Address disputes forwarded by BBB quickly and in good faith.
2. Cooperate with BBB in efforts to eliminate the underlying cause of patterns of customer complaints that are identified by BBB.
Right now, Auvenshine is focused on moving forward with the project with a local construction company. With civil engineers costs and city fees, the church has already invested $138,00 into the project. It's then estimated to cost an additional $150,000 to complete once the tiny homes are built.
No matter what it takes, Auvenshine says the church's mission is to help unhoused mothers and the unhoused community.
"It is a bump in the road but not a fatal crash," Auvenshine said. "We're going to get back on the path and we're going to finish."