A Model: Tiny House Communities in Eugene, OR
Hello Readers!
I apologize for the gap of time between my last post! I wanted to share with you this video made for HuffPost this week. It features a tiny home community in Eugene, Oregon that was built to shelter unhoused people. I will write more about the debates about the pros and cons of tiny houses as a solution to homelessness in another post. For now, I think the model featured here is really important to share for these reasons:
1. It is a response to homelessness that provides people with a place to stay that gives them privacy and a physical place that they "belong"
2. It provides a balance between the autonomy so often denied to unhoused people in social policy solutions that have been put forth most often in the U.S. such as emergency shelters, street sleeping, couch surfing, or transitional group housing while also bringing people into collective community building in the form of shared upkeep of the collective spaces and community meetings.
3. The organization identified the need for affordable permanent housing for residents who were ready to pay for permanent rental housing, and took initiative to build larger, more common tiny houses, enabling people to have access to stable, affordable housing in the long term.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
I am looking forward to posting more throughout the summer as I return to the Oakland/SF Bay Area and move away from the farm. The farm is a beautiful place and it had a LOT of creatures and buildings and plants that needed tending to; now will have more time for writing, including posting updates about the programs, campaigns, and housing policies I am tracking.
For now, take care of each other.
Grover