On another front, last week I condemned New Orleans for joining the ranks of US cities striving to make homelessness invisible rather than trying to do something about it - and just shunting people into shelters is not an answer.The Update here is that some places are trying to actually do something:
For example, the city of Portland, Oregon, is nearing approval of a project to construct communities of tiny homes on public land in order to house homeless and low-income residents.
The houses are indeed tiny, measuring only 192 square feet, but they are well-designed and more importantly provide a stable place of residence. Not a bed in an overcrowded shelter, but a stable place; a place, if you will, to plant your feet so you can stand back up. They would cost $250-$350 a month in rent, allowing people making as little as $5,000 a year to afford them.
Other tiny house projects of various sorts have already borne fruit in a half-dozen places, including in Wisconsin, Texas, and New York, with the houses often built by members of the local Occupy movement.
Portland hopes to have its first micro-community in place by February 2015.
Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/08/1718-outrage-of-week-making.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/22/portland-oregon-tiny-homes_n_5698214.html?cps=gravity
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/12/tiny-homes-homeless_n_5300716.html
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