Former preschool teacher Robin Moore had a roof over her head during the COVID-19 pandemic, a cozy two-bedroom she shares with her husband, James Moore, in North Sacramento, but she could not make herself comfortable.

She volunteered for years with Family Promise of Sacramento, answering phone calls from homeless families seeking shelter, taking down information needed to determine their eligibility for assistance and helping to feed them.

For about two decades, Family Promise has partnered with several dozen local churches around the region to house families on a rotating basis. Church members would come together and prepare meals for them as well.

That all shut down because of COVID-19, first as a result of stay-at-home orders and later because neither Family Promise nor churches wanted to expose senior volunteers to a virus that had proven quite deadly for people ages 65 and older.

Family Promise started using hotels to house the families, Moore said, but those rooms were expensive and lacked the warmth that comes when one neighbor goes out of their way to help another.

Moore felt strongly that God was giving her “an assignment,” she said. About three years ago, that conviction led her to do something that surprised her husband and daughter but that provided Family Promise with emergency shelter to temporarily house families.

During her volunteer work, she met a woman who had tiny homes for sale. Moore bought four over time, using funds designated for family savings.

Their home sat on a deep lot, so Moore decided to give up about half of their backyard for the additional housing.

“My husband said, ‘Well, if God told her to do it, I won’t get in the way,’ ” Moore said.

Then, she began sharing what she’d done with like-minded people who wanted to see displaced families find shelter: The person who sold her the tiny homes chose to forgo a portion of the payment. An engineer volunteered to set up electricity for all the homes and plumbing for one that has a communal kitchen and bathrooms. After a number of meetings, construction specialists installed the homes and the city approved permitting. Volunteers donated furnishings, decorations and toys.

While Moore maintained ownership of the property and the homes, she established a nonprofit called WEforce of California to run the tiny home community as an emergency shelter. They call it Safe Harbor.

“I won’t advocate for myself as much as I will advocate for others,” Moore said.

Marsha Spell, executive director of Family Promise of Sacramento, said she has sent 37 families to the Safe Harbor community. Each of the three tiny homes is rented for $1,500 a month, she said, compared with the $2,500 to $3,000 a month for a hotel. On average, she said, families stay about 90 days.

“We still case-manage them,” Spell said. “We monitor how they’re spending their extra money to give them a chance to save up enough money to have their first and last month’s deposit (for apartments). We also give them $100 a week that they can use for food or gas.”

On average, the nonprofit spends about $7,500 on each family, and it helps 20-25 families a year. Church congregations and individuals provide the funds that Family Promise uses, Spell said, and the organization is hoping to replicate Moore’s success, negotiating to use two tiny homes in midtown Sacramento.

“Robin and I speak daily. We’re both very compassionate people, wanting to see that we’re making a difference,” Spell said. “Robin calls me if a family has a situation or I call her, and it’s just a wonderful partnership. It’s like one big family making this work.”

When families leave, Moore said, she tries to keep in contact and invites them back for special events at Safe Harbor because a lot of people don’t have parents or other family to see on holidays or at weekend barbecues.

Moore, 61, greets families when they arrive and provides them with potential resources when they hit walls, she said, and church and business groups have supplied funding for renovations, furnishings, home decor, meals, free labor, toys and other needs.

The tiny homes in Moore’s backyard have two bunk beds for kids, a large bed in a loft for parents, a television, furniture and an HVAC unit. Outside the homes, a free little library is stocked with books and a covered picnic table and benches allow families to dine al fresco.

When a power outage early this year left Moore and many of her neighbors in the dark, she said, she looked out her back window and saw lights on in the tiny homes. They operate on a hybrid solar power system.

Moore said she hasn’t recouped all of the money she spent to build and maintain the tiny home community because she didn’t found WEforce until after the largest investments were made and she didn’t think to get receipts for everything she purchased.

Yet she doesn’t give much thought to reimbursements, she said. Rather, her thoughts these days are on how Safe Harbor could shelter another family. If she gave up 10 more square feet of her backyard, she said, she probably could add another tiny house.