This is why Robyn Yerian, a 70-year-old Texas woman spent about $150,000 from her retirement savings to build an all-women tiny-home community.
Eleven residents now live there and rely on each other for company and practical help, according to a report by inkl.com. Be it a divorce, a breakup, widowhood or single parenting, women are often left in situations where they have nowhere to go, no other home that they have invested in and no other residence whose doors are open for them.
She opened it in 2022, drawing money from her 401(k) retirement account after working out that her savings alone would not carry her through retirement. The site has concrete pads with rent starting from $450 a month, close to half the going rate in Cumby. The demand for her pads has far outrun the supply, with more than 500 women on the waiting list for a place. The residents at Bird’s Nest are aged between 60 and 80 and mostly single, divorced or widowed. At first, Robyn advertised The Bird’s Nest to anyone aged over 55, but after hosting a workshop for a group of women, teaching them how to use power tools, she pivoted to the idea of a women-only commune.
“I won’t put up with drama, pettiness, talking behind people’s backs – we don’t do that here.
“This community is our little utopia,” said Robyn to Metro UK. It just kind of evolved that way,” she said in a CBS Texas interview. “I spend a lot of time vetting people,” Robyn explained, adding that she’s after a “caring person who wants to be part of a real community.”
Called the Bird’s Nest, the community is located on five acres in Cumby, a small town roughly an hour northeast of Dallas. Residents pay that to park a recreational vehicle or set down their own tiny home. The gated community only has two rules: no men and no drama. Moreover, residents enjoy an idyllic life with access to fire pits, yoga sessions, book clubs and a private pool. “We have dogs running around, and get together all the time. We are a bunch of really great friends. Yerian did not begin with the intention of only housing women. “It’s all women. They gather at an outdoor pavilion they call the kitchen and have a unique rule: grievances are aired directly and put to rest. If we have an issue, we will say something. There’s a process for welcoming new members, too, as Robyn will initially speak to interested parties over the phone before inviting them to Texas to spend a few days on the land, with each plot coming with its own deck and a garden with flowers and landscaping.
“It is literally a sisterhood,” resident Donna Welborn told the broadcaster, saying she had not expected the group to grow so close. For residents of the community, the appeal of the place extends beyond just low-rent housing.