A fire destroying a shed would not normally make news.

But the red shed on a grassy lot in the 2000 block of St. Paul Street was more than just a place to store tools.

It was the center of a cluster of temporary shelters for people experiencing homelessness. It provided vital food and supplies for those in need. It was a place where those on the verge of moving into the housing kept their possessions. And it was the inspiration for the name of the community: Red Shed Village.

A fire destroyed the shed early on Thanksgiving morning, said August Page, mutual aid coordinator for Good Trouble Church, a Lutheran congregation that created Red Shed Village to provide safety and stability for those who would otherwise be sleeping on the streets.

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Carrie McLean hugs Rev. Elazar Atticus Schoch Zavaletta after Family Life in Baltimore, Thursday, June 1, 2023. Family Life, a spiritual gathering with the Good Trouble Church and for those in the in the community to join.
Carrie McLean hugs the Rev. Elazar Atticus Zavaletta after a spiritual gathering with the Good Trouble Church in Baltimore last year. (Jessica Gallagher/The Baltimore Banner)
Members of the Good Trouble Church hold hands in prayer during the church’s Family Life service at The Ynot Lot in Baltimore, May 11, 2023.
Members of the Good Trouble Church hold hands in prayer during the church’s service at the Ynot Lot last year. (Jessica Gallagher/The Baltimore Banner)

Good Trouble Church was started by the Rev. Elazar Zavaletta and a community of marginalized people, including many who are unhoused or unstably housed, those who have struggled with addiction and those with serious health issues.

“We’re outcasts who embrace each other in solidarity,” Zavaletta, one of the country’s few trans clergy members, told The Banner last year. “When I stand with people who are on the underside of power and the outskirts of hope, I’m healing a part of myself.”

Myke Richardson Sr., the village team lead for Good Trouble Church, takes in the damage after the fire.
Myke Richardson Sr., the village team lead for Good Trouble Church, takes in the damage after the fire. (Courtesy of August Page/Good Trouble Church)

No one was injured in the fire, which a resident of one of the temporary shelters brought under control with an extinguisher while waiting for firefighters to arrive, Page said. However the shed, and all the items that had been stored in it, were reduced to ash.

“It was very scary and that shattered their [residents’] sense of safety,” said Page, noting that at least one of the three current residents of Red Shed Village had been traumatized by a fire in the past.

The cause of the fire is unclear, Page said. It is not known if it was arson or started by accident.

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While fire officials work to determine the cause of the fire, the residents are staying with friends, Page said. The church has launched a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of cleaning up, rebuilding the shed and providing temporary housing for Red Shed Village residents.

“The loss of the Red Shed is not just a practical loss, but also a symbolic one,” reads the fundraising page, calling the shed “iconic” and the site around it “an ambitious experiment to address homelessness in Baltimore City.”