
An LA man who has built dozens of tiny houses for the homeless - prostoalex
http://la.curbed.com/2016/9/23/13026572/tiny-houses-homeless-los-angeles-elvis-summers-interview
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ChuckMcM
This is epically awesome. Enough solar to charge a cell phone and provide some
light at night, a door you can lock to prevent being hassled, a composting
toilet to keep the area clean and a place to sleep. I can totally see this
working for a lot of people.

I am surprised this isn't more common. There is a lot of unincorporated land
in Santa Clara county ([https://www.sccgov.org/sites/sccphd/en-
us/Partners/Data/Page...](https://www.sccgov.org/sites/sccphd/en-
us/Partners/Data/Pages/Unincorporated-Areas.aspx)) that might support this
sort of housing.

~~~
Johnythree
There is a good reason why it's not more common.

As always, the problem is getting permission to build on that land, then
permission to build a tiny house, and finally permission to live there.

I don't know about Santa Clara county, but in most places you can't build
without a Building Permit, and you can't live there without a Certificate of
Occupancy.

So the main problem is not building a cheap house, it is getting land to live
on. In this context the tiny house movement solves nothing.

I love the idea of Tiny Houses, but to me they are tackling the wrong problem.
And I worry about people who build a tiny house in good faith, then find they
can't legally live in it.

~~~
draugadrotten
There is also the problem that - even when you give the homeless a home - they
will not always take good care of it

Take for example the bulgarian attempts to give houses to their homeless
ethnic groups. Search for the documentary "hotel paradise bulgaria" on youtube
or other video sites.

[https://vimeo.com/13906172](https://vimeo.com/13906172)

It is remarkable how hard it is to provide something as basic as shelter.

~~~
dalke
I know nothing about "Hotel Paradise" other than the movie still showing a
highrise apartment building in squalid condition. But I do know that the
American experience says such things are not as simple as saying "give the
homeless a home - they will not always take good care of it". The usual
example is Chicago's Cabrini–Green.
[http://whitecenternow.com/2008/11/28/greenbridge-the-
failure...](http://whitecenternow.com/2008/11/28/greenbridge-the-failure-of-
the-cabrini-green-model-of-public-housing-and-the-rise-of-the-new-urbanism/)
gives a summary of one description of the failure. I'll pull out two quotes:

> "Sprawling high-rise projects housing exclusively poor families with many
> children amounted to a tragic, terrible mistake."

> "... it was one thing to build apartment towers for the upper-middle-class,
> as Mies did, and quite another to adopt them as solutions for housing the
> poor. The well-off have doormen, janitors, repairmen, and baby-sitters; the
> poor have none of these things. Without restricted access, the lobbies and
> corridors were vandalized; without proper maintenance, elevators broke down,
> staircases became garbage dumps, roofs leaked, and broken windows remained
> unreplaced; without baby-sitters, single mothers were stranded in their
> apartments, and children roamed unsupervised sixteen floors below."

Now quoting from [https://westnorth.com/2003/01/02/short-history-of-cabrini-
gr...](https://westnorth.com/2003/01/02/short-history-of-cabrini-green/)

> The rapid decline of industry and general flight from the city – Chicago
> lost a million residents between 1970 and 1990 – led to widespread
> abandonment throughout the city, but particularly in its poorer quarters.
> The blocks immediately surrounding housing projects like Cabrini-Green went
> vacant as residents and businesses left. City government, reacting to
> political and fiscal pressures, cut services to many housing projects. Train
> stations serving projects were shuttered, police patrols ceased, and schools
> were written off. The CHA effectively stopped maintaining units: lawns were
> paved to reduce maintenance costs, light bulbs blinked off, vacant units
> were left unlocked, water and fire damage went unrepaired. Deferred
> maintenance rendered thousands of units uninhabitable. The result was a near
> total isolation of the housing projects from the life of the city. The
> lawlessness of the projects in many ways was a logical outcome of their
> isolation from legal forms of social organization.

The type of housing and the large social situation therefore also play a role,
making it hard to single out the residents as the primary reason for a housing
failure.

The tiny homes project is a different organizational scheme than a highrise.

Also, is it really fair to say that gypsies are homeless? As a
nomadic/itinerant culture, I thought the gypsies placed little value in a
fixed place to live. We don't tend to call full-time RV'ers, or global/digital
nomads homeless, even though they have no fixed residence. While the people
we're talking about in L.A. want a fixed place to call home.

~~~
ChuckMcM
This is key. I've been researching solutions to homelessness and part of that
has involved looking at attempted solutions. In the 60's and 70's the idea
that you could just "build them homes and that would fix it" failed pretty
miserably for all of the reasons you describe and more, which was that "home"
was only one part of the problem.

One of the things my research has turned up is that you have to build a
community rather than simply shelter. The keys being governance and an
economy. As there are a number of goods and services these communities need, I
am looking at how a project could empower residents of the community to
provide those goods and services. As examples, providing basic groceries or
child care in a way that it can be both staffed locally and delivered locally.
Also the local delivery of mental health, general health, and addiction
management services.

Basic shelter though is key and it has to be low enough cost/maintenance that
you manage it through the inevitable destructive people. The tiny houses in
the article had the simplicity that you could pull out a damaged unit, salvage
what you could from it (solar panels for example) and then replace it with a
new unit relatively cost effectively. Not so with a multi-story apartment
building.

------
WheelsAtLarge
I know a social worker that worked with the homeless. She told me that many
have just given up. No matter how hard you try they will not change their
ways. And they rather be on the street than be bunched up in places where they
get a bed to sleep. These places have too many rules and they are dangerous
places.

Given that our current fixes are not working. Building a home for them is a
great way to go. But putting the homes randomly through the city is a problem.
They should be built in a complex like system. Where people can have their own
space and be close to services they might need and hopefully get
rehabilitated.

This is the place where innovation needs to be applied. We don't need another
chat app or Facebook. There is no app for this. No matter how you look at it
it's a hard problem to fix but it would be nice to put a dent on it.

Here's a place to start, how do we make it easier to build new affordable/tiny
homes in large cities like LA and San Fran.? For that matter just getting the
permits. Adding supply would bring down prices and help with the problem.

~~~
pkaye
If this is targeting homeless, would it not be cheaper to start building them
a little outside LA and San Francisco where the land is much cheaper and the
permitting is looser?

~~~
nibnib
The homeless are likely to be reliant on support systems in cities beyond just
housing. Moving them further out means they have to travel further.

------
davidllewellyn
In Aus we have a few shelter programs including Backpack Beds and Sleep Bus,
but these Tiny Houses are next level. A lot to consider with ownership,
registration, land, environment, permits, safety, insurance etc. Maybe between
the government, charities and good samaritans, perhaps efforts combined could
be better geared towards larger and more sustainable community housing
projects. A good story though and hopefully the kind hearts and generous
spirits continue.

------
shasheene
Temporary emergency accommodation and mobile shower buses are helpful, but as
often gets repeated, "homelessness is more than houselessness" \- for the
longer term homeless population, there's often deep drug, alcohol and mental
health issues acting as barriers against re-integration into society.

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BlytheSchuma
Stealing from the homeless? How low can they go? Serve and protect my ass.

------
milesf
Can someone help me understand why the city confiscated some of the houses,
then returned them damaged with the solar systems removed?

This makes no sense to me.

~~~
CPLX
We don't just let people put up houses on random pieces of land they don't own
and live there.

I don't see anything remotely surprising or controversial about the basic
concept, though clearly it seems more productive to channel the energy of this
project into something workable rather than dismantle it.

~~~
whybroke
>We don't just let people put up houses on random pieces of land they don't
own and live there.

The current lack of any serious action or even any real interest in solving
the now generation old homeless problem makes shanty towns eventually
inevitable. I know it will be embarrassing to have them scattered outside the
richest cities in the country but for some unfathomable reason that is the
economic path we chose.

I suggest Mt San Bruno will make a fine favela for what is already the world's
richest 3rd world city in all but name.

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internaut
I know lots about Tiny Houses, am currently designing one, ask me anything

~~~
jackyinger
You should do a build log blog! Would love to see designs.

~~~
internaut
I'll do what I can!

I am trying something very unusual with respect to the roof that no Tiny
Houser has done before, which is to use a metal mansard roof.

They look elegant in metal if done correctly. My TH is following a Georgian
design so it suits the time period. Also mansards were invented to avoid taxes
so it is also about heritage and continuing tradition. Gambrel would also work
since I'm going > 10ft wide, that is plan B.

Am having difficulty finding good information on this subject but at least I
have the Prince of Wales as my spirit animal:

"You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe," Charles told the Corporation of
London Planning and Communication Committee's annual dinner at Mansion House.
"When it knocked down our buildings, it didn't replace them with anything more
offensive than rubble."

This is the basic problem with being reactionary, everybody cool is totally
dead and then the living are like 'why don't you build a flat roof brah,
everybody's doing it'.

Never!

------
Pulce
I'm a near-homeless-boy. He is my hero.

~~~
internaut
IF you need help in a hurry there are very small nano sized Tiny Houses that
can be pulled by bicycles and easily stored.

[http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/a-real-bike-trailer-
house/](http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/a-real-bike-trailer-house/)

You can make one for about 200 bucks or less.

~~~
Pulce
WOW, now I'll try to build a Bashmobile!

Thanks :)

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phodo
You can see these tiny houses in SOMA in SF, too - on division st or 7th st.
I've seen them replace tents and I admire whoever is providing them / helping
the homeless put these together.

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intended
Man what is going on?

Since when has creating slums become a thing to laud? How does it get covered
in such shining terms?

~~~
sangnoir
> Since when has creating slums become a thing to laud? How does it get
> covered in such shining terms?

42 dispersed shelters constitute as slum now? Ok, I'll bite. It becomes a
thing to laud when it's an improvement to the current status. Being sheltered
in a slum is better than not being sheltered at all. Unless you believe
homeless people shouldn't be seen or accommodated.

------
known
45% of USA is uninhabited :)

