Portland Oregon’s planning a village of tiny houses for the homeless. The tiny house movement offers an appealing alternative to shelters. (Portland Ore, a sister city in our PNW bio-region of under 600,000 shows how it can be done to alleviate homelessness, while Costly Couver, BC presided over by Mayor Greg-veloper + his Visionistas councillors flounders aimlessly in apathy...) Despite the fact that Pinterest is obsessed with them, tiny houses are more than just a novelty. As the growing tiny house movement attests, people see the minimal square footage, environmentally friendly domiciles as ways to simplify their lives and keep themselves out of debt. And some see their potential as going even beyond that: in a plan being developed in Portland, the miniature homes could soon provide safe, affordable housing to the city’s homeless population. Tiny house company Techdwell calls their product the ”perfect housing solution for people in transition and hardship.” Their basic designed has already been deployed in Haiti, and as co-founder Tim Cornell explained to Co.Exist, is easily adaptable to an urban environment. “I said, look, we can do a community — 25 homes, 40 homes — in an infill lot, making it look acceptable,” Cornell said. “Not a camp, not tents, but aesthetically pleasing. Just do something — here’s a plan that’s feasible.” Techdwell predicts that the 12 by 16 foot homes would cost about $12,000 to build (out of all recycled and recyclable materials) — construction, from the prefab models, can be accomplished in two days, entirely by unskilled laborers. They’d include a kitchen, bathroom and couch that coverts to a bed. salon/2014/09/05/portlands_planning_a_village_of_tiny_houses_for_the_homeless/
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 06:02:14 +0000
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