Will Tiny Homes Solve Homelessness?
By Bob Small
I first reported on the “tiny house” phenomenon in September.
Tiny home communities are being developed for homeless persons, locally and nationally. The New York Times carried a lengthy article on Community First! Village outside of Austin, TX.
The typical home is a one-room unit with a bed, kitchenette, and recliner, all in 200 square feet. Residents get around to the bathrooms, chicken coops, convenience store and vegetable gardens by foot or the village golf cart (seats 8).
Community First soon hopes to grow to 3,000 homes in three locations, enough to house 50 percent of Austin’s Homeless population.
Community First is a project of Mobile Loaves and Fishes.
Some donations, both land, monetary and other came from Alamo Drafthouse, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, and other area businesses.
There are around 50 “Missionals”who also live adjacent to the village, as volunteer helpers.
Besides Mobile Loaves and Fishes own income it got $35 million from Travis County in American Rescue Plan Act funds to build 640 units as part of its expansion. “
Then, in May, HUD “ approved the use of federal housing vouchers, which subsidize part or all of a low-income resident’s rent, for the village’s tiny homes. “
This has inspired spinoffs.
Springfield, Mo has villages limited to 50 homes or less, but each home has its own bathroom and kitchen.
Dennis Culhane, a social science researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who studies modern homelessness, said he ”understood the desperate need for housing, but was wary of relying on tiny homes as a permanent answer.”
Mary Beth Shinn, a Vanderbilt Professor specializing in Homelessness, said “The tiny homes are often just not at a scale to be helpful.”
Below are articles on “tiny homes” in Delaware, Lancaster, and Philadelphia Counties;
Tiny homes for homeless veterans on track for Spring 2024 …
In Harrisburg, a nonprofit builds a tiny-house village for …
Philly’s first tiny house village for homeless slated for 2023
One Man’s Dream Means Housing for Homeless Vets .
Will Tiny Homes Solve Homelessness?
Are these for homeless American citizens or illegal alien invaders is the question.
Many of these are for homeless veterans. not sure if there’s a citizenship test.