Lisa Kolvites was tired of crying during her drive home.
Ever since her friend, Steve Strackbein, became homeless a few years ago, Kolvites has been driving weekly from her home in San Mateo to San Francisco to check up on him and bring him some food.
On the drive home, Kolvites cries.
"I go to visit him and all he has, everything he owns, is in a shopping cart and it's just a bunch of junk. I can't imagine living like that. I just can't," Kolvites said.
The 46-year-old Strackbein normally spends the night in a temporary shelter he constructs for himself out of cardboard, scraps of wood, and a tarp.
Kolvites says she wanted nothing more than to help Strackbein find a home.
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So she decided to give him one. Once she built it, that is.
In November, Kolvites began construction a tiny home on wheels in the driveway of her San Mateo home. Once completed, she plans to deliver the home to Strackbein in the city.
"I'm committed to seeing this through," said Kolvites.
"It's a gleam of hope," Strackbein said. He has yet to see the home in person but Kolvites has shown him pictures of the progress.
Kolvites is using, almost exclusively, recycled and scrap materials she finds to build the home. Strackbein has even gathered some materials from the street in San Francisco that he gives to Kolvites to use in the home.
Though she has almost no experience with construction or carpentry, Kolvites says she is driven by a desire to help her friend to complete the project.
"I get to look back on my life and say I improved the quality of someone's life. Like that's... I feel that gives me purpose in my life," Kolvites said.
