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Family helps create 'Dave's Place' at Hope Village to honor big-hearted man Curt Keeler, of Medford, and Karsten Harvey, 8, of Jacksonville, work on a tiny home as part of the Hope Village construction project. Mail Tribune / Jamie Lusch Saturday Jan 28, 2017 at 3:29 PM Jan 28, 2017 at 3:29 PM Nick Morgan Mail Tribune @mtcrimebeat While her son was in hospice, Judie Salter promised him she'd be kinder to the homeless after he was gone. As Salter of Shady Cove, her two grandchildren and her daughter hammered away at the last prefabricated walls needed for the Hope Village project today, Salter was keeping the promise she made to her son, Dave Forster, known for opening his small Central Point apartment to anyone in need before he succumbed to Lewy body dementia and ultimately cancer.  Forster's sister, Cheri Forster of Eagle Point, remembered less-fortunate people being "packed" inside Forster's apartment.  That legacy of kindness will continue on as one of the tiny duplexes will be dedicated to Forster. "Now they'll forever be able to say, 'I'm going to stay at Dave's Place,'" Cheri Forster said. "That's just the greatest." Though the family looks back warmly on Dave Forster's giving ways, Salter admits it was a point of frustration when her son was alive to see people on his couch, on the floor, raiding his kitchen and stealing from him. "I was never nice because they were stealing from him, taking advantage of him," Salter said. "I didn't see his heart." Hope Village, which will hold 28 tiny homes on a city-owned property at the intersection of North Columbus Avenue and West McAndrews Road, has conditions her brother never set, Cheri Forster said. Residents of the 14-duplex village must search for work, remain sober and live peacefully together in the community. Forster said she hopes people her brother helped will be motivated to "do better" so they can stay at Dave's Place. Wearing a gray T-shirt that belonged to her uncle, 10-year-old Alivia Bellanger, Cheri Forster's daughter, helped nail wall frames to the outdoor paneling. She remembered helping her uncle build her loft-style bunk bed in her bedroom. "We basically built my room together," Bellanger said. Bellanger now remembers her uncle by collecting toiletries, socks, gloves and other small care items that she arranges into packages in Ziploc bags and hands out to the homeless monthly. For a different reason, the event this weekend was slightly bittersweet for construction project manager Jim Keeter. The work ends six weeks of volunteers building 98 prefabricated tiny house pieces outside his rural home near Medford city limits. About 20 volunteers have put a total of 400 hours into the project since December, building stacks of walls, floors, roof panels and floors.  The volunteer labor saved about $400 per duplex unit, Keeter said. About $100 in savings went into extra materials for more windows and ventilation, taking lessons from Eugene's Opportunity Village. They'd budgeted about $3,500 for each of the 28 units, Keeter said. Actual costs would be about $3,200.  Some homes will come together by February, but most will be built in March. Keeter said he's excited to see the community's reaction to the result. "The city's going to be proud of this little project," Keeter said. "I think they're going to be surprised." — Reach reporter Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mtcrimebeat.