Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On by Erika Lundahl — YES! Magazine

I knew I had briefly written about the "Tiny House Movement" before just couldn't remember when or under what context. It was in January in regards to Senator Tom Murphy's vacation day spent with a homeless gentleman.

In my comments about having just the basics necessities (food and shelter), I pointed to an article concerning the Tiny House Movement. It's good to see that this idea is gathering support and so many are volunteering property, supplies and time.

Erika Lundahl, in this piece lays out the continuing growth as well as some of the challenges faced by the grass-root organizations pushing to house the homeless.
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On a Saturday in September, more than 125 volunteers showed up with tools in hand and built six new 16-by-20-foot houses for a group of formerly homeless men. It was the beginning of Second Wind Cottages, a tiny-house village for the chronically homeless in the town of Newfield, N.Y., outside of Ithaca.

On January 29, the village officially opened, and its first residents settled in. Each house had cost about $10,000 to build, a fraction of what it would have cost to house the men in a new apartment building.

The project is part of a national movement of tiny-house villages, an alternative approach to housing the homeless that's beginning to catch the interest of national advocates and government housing officials alike.

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Many other tiny-house projects are just beginning to get of the ground, raise money, find land, and gain approval from local officials and members of the public. But the unorthodox nature of the small houses presents unique legal zoning limitations and barriers that limit where tiny houses can be stationed.

In Madison, Wisc., Occupy Madison has been facing this very challenge, as the group forged ahead with plans for a tiny house village.

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"There were some great moments throughout the Occupy movement where a lot of dialogue was going on between the people without homes and the people with homes," says Allen Barkoff, one of the board members of Occupy Madison, Inc., a nonprofit formed in December 2012 to address the need for legal places where homeless people in Madison could congregate and stay safe. The organization first looked into buying an apartment building or a shared house for the homeless but ultimately settled on tiny houses as the most flexible and economical way to create homes for people.

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Efforts to break through the red tape and raise money to house the homeless almost always pay off for a community. Even the most expensive tiny-house projects—such as a new, ambitious $6-million campaign to build a 200-person tiny-house park this year in Austin, Texas—can't rival the cost of homelessness to taxpayers, which was more than $10 million per year in Austin, for example, as YES! reported in December 2013.

"Chronically homeless people—people who have disabilities and are homeless for long periods of time—can be very expensive to systems of public care," explains Roman. In 2007, the National Alliance to End Homelessness compiled three studies showing that it costs the same or less money to provide permanent housing as it does to allow people to remain homeless. In Denver, Colo., a housing program for the homeless reduced the costs of public services (including medical services, temporary shelter, and costs associated with arrests and incarceration) by an estimated $15,773 per person per year, saving taxpayers thousands of dollars.

Government officials and city planners are beginning to see the tiny-house village as one viable solution for addressing homelessness.

Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On by Erika Lundahl — YES! Magazine

A Senator Walks In A Homeless Man's Shoes | New Haven Independent

One caveat before I begin, I am very well aware that there will always be some type of suffering around us. I spoke of it briefly in regards to Stephen Fincher's asinine interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 3:10 and how he, in his zeal, ignores Christ's teachings in Matthew, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."

To those that say, "Stop using these poor people as propaganda." I ask, where the hell is the Reich. They sure didn't show any concern in June, when 26 Democrats took the SNAP Challenge to draw attention to House Republicans cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

And no, being poor does not highlight the Darwinian concept of survival of the fittest.  To borrow a bit from Aristotle, we are rational, thinking animals who are able to come together to form a society whereby everyone should be properly cared for.  Unless of course you are a member of the Reich. Mankind (should) continue to evolve as a society, the so-called law of the jungle, no longer applies.

Here's my point, have we learned nothing in our time on this flying rock we call home.  I am not asking for a Utopia here, just some order and stability. Imagine what we (as a nation) could accomplish if everyone had, at the very least, the basic necessities of life; food  and shelter (see also this innovative idea: Could a Tiny House Movement End Homelessness?) And yes, I do blame the Reich for their greed, nothing good ever happens when a select few keep everything for themselves when there is more than enough to go around. It is impossible to have a stable society that way.

With that being said, I applaud Senator Murphy for at least exploring this issue by stepping "outside the boardroom."

“I learned what’s involved in getting out at 7:30 a.m.”—when the shelter expects residents to be up and about job searching, going to their support groups—“and keeping your life together until they let you back in” at 3 p.m., said Murphy.

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“This is a guy who’s trying hard, with kids, trying to get a job back. He’s clean; he’s in recovery. He’s worked his entire life. His path is getting himself straight, and then he’s whacked by a bad economy,” said Murphy.

Of course the picture is complicated. Murphy said that he and Fred as they trudged also spent a lot of time talking about Fred’s difficult upbringing, the drug culture from which it’s difficult to break free.

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Murphy said his eight hours on the hard urban streets with Fred didn’t so much provide new illumination as put flesh and bones and shoe leather on what he’d already perceived.

He did say that he was moved by the amount of hope and planning out there.

“As sobering as a day like this is, it’s slightly inspirational to hear these guys think there is still a better day coming. Each of these guys has a path, but without the resources to execute the plan, they’re stuck,” he said.

A Senator Walks In A Homeless Man's Shoes | New Haven Independent

See also:
Senator Spends Vacation Day With Homeless Man To Learn About The Challenges He Faces

His drive to get back on his feet is clearly strong. What was really holding Nick back, however, was his lack of an address. Even though Nick has worked for 20 years and has an impressive résumé, he’s caught in something of a catch-22, Murphy told ThinkProgress by phone Thursday. “He can’t get a job without a permanent address and can’t get a permanent address without a job.” Nick used the address of the shelter on applications, but some employers might harbor prejudice against those who can’t afford a home.

If there’s one thing Murphy took away from the experience, it’s a better sense of how critical stable housing is as a foundation for solving other problems. “Without a place to live, Nick can’t find a job,” Murphy said. “Without a house, it’s much harder for him to kick his drug habit.” But without more affordable housing in Connecticut and funding for the poor, it’s extremely difficult for people like Nick to leave the shelter and break out of the cycle of poverty.

The challenge became even more difficult this week as Nick’s only source of income — $100 in unemployment benefits — wasn’t renewed by Congress. “If we don’t extend unemployment benefits this month, you’re going to see a lot more homeless people here in Connecticut and across the country,” Murphy said.