California Town Considers Tiny Houses for Homeless

Tiny House (Jon Callas / Flickr / CC / Cropped)
Jon Callas / Flickr / CC / Cropped

An organization called Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives is proposing to build tiny houses for homeless people in the Northern California town of Eureka.

According to the Eureka-Times Standard, the houses are “hand-crafted” and pack a number of features into a very small space, including “bedrooms, a greenhouse, and even a shower and sauna.” Villages of tiny houses already exist in “Eugene, Oregon; Olympia, Washington; Madison, Wisconsin; and Austin, Texas.”

The tiny houses would not be permanent dwellings. Rather, they would offer homeless people a way to make the transition from street life to proper housing, while gaining access to basic necessities.

A village of tiny houses is also reportedly more cost-effective than other alternatives. In Eugene, 35 people were housed for a cost of $100,000, the organization says.

One home appears to look like a large scale version of a doll’s house, while another seems to be a large barrel.

Many California cities have large homeless populations, especially in winter months, as homeless people from elsewhere in the nation trek to the Golden State for the warmer weather.

Photo: file

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