In a TikTok video posted July 27, Matt Sowash wears a “My Life Was a Fiasco Without Jesus” T-shirt, stands beside a half-built tiny home and makes his sales pitch.
The Englewood nonprofit and its owner Sowash — a convicted fraudster who was once the intended target of a— have taken their money, lied repeatedly about when their homes will be built, and refused to issue refunds, according to seven customers who spoke to BusinessDen and three others suing Holy Ground.
In an interview, Sowash acknowledged that some customers have waited a long time for their houses and some will have to wait a long time still. It is all part of what he called “a constant juggling act to get us out of the situation that we got ourselves into.” “It’s a story out of the Wild West,” a spokesman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said at the time. “There’s poker, rattlesnakes and unsavory characters. The only thing I haven’t heard is someone calling another guy a varmint.”
Robyn and Mark Bellamy, who live in Oregon, each bought a Holy Ground house that spring. She wired $48,000 in March 2021 with assurances it would be finished that July; he sent $22,000 for a house he was told to expect in October, according to their June 6 lawsuit in Arapahoe County District Court. Neither received a house or refund.
Matt Sowash wears a T-shirt stating “If You Bring Up My Past You Should Know That Jesus Dropped The Charges” in a December 2021 video. “If I only built those older homes,” he said of homes ordered in 2021, “we’d be out of business in a month because we don’t have any money.” Holy Ground uses new money to finish old orders.Anderson considers himself one of the lucky ones.
Tiny home builder. That's the tweet.