Tiny Homes For Homeless?
By Bob Small
In the ’90s when I finished my degree at Neumann (Night School), one of their “causes” was “Books for the Homeless”. Other groups collected clothes, food, offered donations of haircuts, healthcare, raincoats, shaves, shoes, and etc.
Now, someone has come up with a fairly radical solution, homes for the homeless.
The Tiny Homes Community Collaborative (THCC) Facebook page explains the alternative therapeutic farm at Penny Lane is just one part of the project. Each tiny home can be produced for $50,000 through a public/private partnership through XDS, inc. and the UNC School of Social Work
Their first goal is 15 tiny homes with five of those prioritized for veterans with chronic health conditions.
The engine behind this is Thava Mahadevan,who is a clinical addiction specialist and director of operations at the UNC center for Excellence in Mental Health. He began his journey as a Tamil in Sri Lanka and then fled to India where he experienced homelessness. Mahadevan expects these houses to rent for $250 per month.
Alaina Money-Garman, the founder and CEO of Garman Homes, says she believes private and public partnership are key to addressing affordable housing challenges.
Not everyone is thrilled with this concept.
“We don’t want this here,” Robert Wilson of Charlotte said. We don’t think it’s the right place for it here. We feel like it’s going to hurt our property values.”
Tiny Home Industry Association is a website dedicated to the latest in tiny homes.
Some of these proposals even include tiny homes on wheels!
There are even tiny homes TV shows.
Some of these, by the way, are not for persons with mental problems, but for people with tiny incomes.
This is happening throughout the country.
Is Delaware County next?
Tiny Homes For Homeless coming?
How many homeless people’s problem is a tiny income, and how many have mental health problems, from mental illnesses to addiction?