Tiny home village in Los Angeles for the homeless

hollydolly

hollydolly

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Villages of tiny houses are being built in Los Angeles as a way to tackle the city’s massive homelessness crisis - which has been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic - and help people living on the street live normal lives again.

The Chandler Tiny Home Village in North Hollywood is one of several tiny home villages which are being built around the American city.

Local officials say homelessness in Los Angeles has become a humanitarian crisis and the numbers of people living rough have swelled since the pandemic.



According to the last count, there are more than 60,000 unhoused people in Los Angeles County, but charity leaders say it is more like 80,000 to 90,000.

Three months to build a village​

The developers hope each of these little homes will create a sense of hope, safety, and security for the people now living inside them.

Unlike traditional homeless shelters, these little dwellings measuring 8 ft by 8 ft (2.4m by 2.4m) can be quickly built with an entire village taking around three months to install.

Ken Craft, the Founder and CEO Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, says the villages exist to prevent, reduce and eliminate poverty, and provide long term solutions as well as emergency assistance.


"We realise this is not the solution but it is part of the solution to address the homeless and humanitarian crisis, not just here in Los Angeles but across the world,” said Craft.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/...ages-are-being-built-to-tackle-homelessness-i
 

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Man, don't even get me started. (too late :giggle:)

FOUR YEARS AGO, a regular citizen of Los Angeles, with help from a couple friends and donations from strangers, started cranking out tiny homes for the homeless after city officials squandered $4.5 Billion on homeless projects and programs that went nowhere. After this guy housed dozens of homeless people in his tiny homes, and while he was still cranking out more, the city threw people out of them and hauled them off to be destroyed. (the tiny-homes, not the people)

Here's the guy happily talking about getting the homes built and occupied...

Here's him totally bummed out after the city started tossing folks back onto the streets and destroying the homes.

And the city's actions have everything to do with money. They don't give a crap about the homeless.
 
Murrmurr said:
Man, don't even get me started. (too late :giggle:)

FOUR YEARS AGO, a regular citizen of Los Angeles, with help from a couple friends and donations from strangers, started cranking out tiny homes for the homeless after city officials squandered $4.5 Billion on homeless projects and programs that went nowhere. After this guy housed dozens of homeless people in his tiny homes, and while he was still cranking out more, the city threw people out of them and hauled them off to be destroyed. (the tiny-homes, not the people)

Here's the guy happily talking about getting the homes built and occupied...

Here's him totally bummed out after the city started tossing folks back onto the streets and destroying the homes.

And the city's actions have everything to do with money. They don't give a crap about the homeless.
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I actually remember that being in the news...
 
hollydolly said:
I actually remember that being in the news...
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It was nasty. The city gave that guy permission and permits, so what he did was perfectly legal. But instead of contracting with him, which would have allowed him to become an enterprise, or even a not-for-profit business, city officials seized his homes, copied them, and got yet another multi-billion dollar check (cheque). They get fatter, he gets screwed.
 
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Murrmurr said:
It was nasty. The city gave that guy permission and permits, so what he did was perfectly legal. But instead of contracting with him, which would have allowed him to become an enterprise, or even a not-for-profit business, city officials seized his homes, copied them, and got yet another a multi-billion dollar check (cheque). They get fatter, he gets screwed.
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there's no words for this.. do you know if he started again somewhere else
 
Just after the war, there was a housing shortage in Britain because of the bombing. Many people were moved into 'pre-fabs'......houses made of a type of board. Some of them are still in use now. I imagine something along those lines will be needed for Ukrainians while their cities are re-built.
 
AnnieA said:
Why in the world are they doing single story units in a high density population area?
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A) It's way cheaper
B) City officials don't think outside the box.

A city in the eastern US (Georgia, I think) hired a designer who quickly figured out a way to safely stack big metal shipping containers converted into tiny homes, and built a whole apartment complex with them. They were meant for the homeless and low-income families, but they were so popular with people who were doing well in life, the city purchased the complex under the name of a property management company and rented them out for over $2000/mo. Currently no vacancies.

There's no end to greed among city officials (and politicians in general). It wasn't so long ago when 3 or 4 of California's major cities went bankrupt due to city gov't greed.
 
Murrmurr said:
A) It's way cheaper
B) City officials don't think outside the box.

A city in the eastern US (Georgia, I think) hired a designer who quickly figured out a way to safely stack big metal shipping containers converted into tiny homes, and built a whole apartment complex with them. They were meant for the homeless and low-income families, but they were so popular with people who were doing well in life, the city purchased the complex under the name of a property management company and rented them out for over $2000/mo. Currently no vacancies.

There's no end to greed among city officials (and politicians in general). It wasn't so long ago when 3 or 4 of California's major cities went bankrupt due to city gov't greed.
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They did the same here and moved in those low income families who immediately complained about them being unihabitable due to the lack of insulation, making them sweatboxes with damp running down the inside walls in summer, and freezing cold in winter.. so as far as I know those shipping containers are no longer in use as homes ..
 
hollydolly said:
They did the same here and moved in those low income families who immediately complained about them being unihabitable due to the lack of insulation, making them sweatboxes with damp running down the inside walls in summer, and freezing cold in winter.. so as far as I know those shipping containers are no longer in use as homes ..
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Shipping containers were a fad at one time.
AnnieA said:
Why in the world are they doing single story units in a high density population area?
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Murrmurr said:
It's way cheaper
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It really is
and moveable, especially if they're designed to easily take the walls apart
 
Don M. said:
And then, if these tiny homes do become available in sufficient quantities, how long will it be before the residents begin to strip them of any appliances.....the small AC units, for example....and sell everything they can to help support their drug habits??
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That has always been the big issue

If makes it really bad for those in real need of a hand

Drug testing to qualify may help
 
Gary O' said:
That has always been the big issue

If makes it really bad for those in real need of a hand

Drug testing to qualify may help
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These tiny home communities do require drug screening, and you'll be turned away if you show up drunk, stoned, or loaded.

Also, there's a manager/maintenance person on site, plus you have to wait for-freaking-ever for appliance replacements, so it's no surprise that quarterly reports say residents take good care of them and keep a lookout for thieves. Plus, the appliances are impracticably small, so not a good quick-sell item.
 
Don M. said:
And then, if these tiny homes do become available in sufficient quantities, how long will it be before the residents begin to strip them of any appliances.....the small AC units, for example....and sell everything they can to help support their drug habits??
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To qualify for one of these homes, every applicant is required to enter rehab if they have a substance abuse problem. All these communities offer that service and others, like assisting residents to apply for training school tuition grants, social security benefits, food stamps, etc.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Yes, there's even an HGTV show: Container Homes. Some of them are very nice. Check out these two lovely container homes (not on HGTV) @hollydolly


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They got so popular, people were paying up in the 10s of thousands of dollars for them. Originally, you could get one for a few hundred bucks. Even with the cost of materials to make them a home, they were still cheaper. (material costs were, too, tho)
 
There are some of these in my area. I'm not sure if they are being occupied yet. Minus the fancy paint colors. I'm with Don M, I too have wondered if they will become tiny drug houses. The fact is some people will use them as a help up, but they will be stuck among some unsavory people. It seems like that will be the way it is.

I'm all for helping. But we also need affordable housing to buy for the working slob. Prices so high in California and my area went up due to the fires. But no places being built. Just large houses and apartment complexes. To rent. And make some jerks lots of money.
 
Remy said:
There are some of these in my area. I'm not sure if they are being occupied yet. Minus the fancy paint colors. I'm with Don M, I too have wondered if they will become tiny drug houses. The fact is some people will use them as a help up, but they will be stuck among some unsavory people. It seems like that will be the way it is.

I'm all for helping. But we also need affordable housing to buy for the working slob. Prices so high in California and my area went up due to the fires. But no places being built. Just large houses and apartment complexes. To rent. And make some jerks lots of money.
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They probably won't, Remy. Those tiny Homes for Homeless have managers who spend the day working in a home that's used as an office, and a maintenance crew that's there all day, too. Also, at least the ones in L.A. drug-screen all applicants, offer free rehab services to anyone who wants it, and drug screen people for 6 to 8 months after rehab .

Also, a lot of the residents who live there report anyone using drugs, and anyone who steals, too. They police the place themselves because they don't want anyone to mess this up for them.

The buzz here in Sac is they're going to focus on family housing for people with kids who are chronically unemployed before even considering helping people who have to scrimp and sacrifice to pay their rent. They used to raise the poverty line to get those people aid and services. Now they call them the new middle-class.
 

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