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Joe Shlabotnik

(5,604 posts)
Sun Feb 23, 2014, 07:16 PM Feb 2014

Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On

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On a Saturday in September, more than 125 volunteers showed up with tools in hand and built six new 16-by-20-foot houses for a group of formerly homeless men. It was the beginning of Second Wind Cottages, a tiny-house village for the chronically homeless in the town of Newfield, N.Y., outside of Ithaca.

On January 29, the village officially opened, and its first residents settled in. Each house had cost about $10,000 to build, a fraction of what it would have cost to house the men in a new apartment building.

The project is part of a national movement of tiny-house villages, an alternative approach to housing the homeless that's beginning to catch the interest of national advocates and government housing officials alike.

But Second Wind is truly affordable, built by volunteers on seven acres of land donated by Carmen Guidi, the main coordinator of the project and a longtime friend of several of the men who now live there. The retail cost of the materials to build the first six houses was somewhere between $10,000 and $12,000 per house, says Guidi. But many of the building materials were donated, and all of the labor was done in a massive volunteer effort.

"We've raised nearly $100,000 in 100 days," he says, and the number of volunteers has been "in the hundreds, maybe even thousands now."


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From: http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/tiny-house-villages-for-the-homeless-an-affordable-solution-catches-on
26 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On (Original Post) Joe Shlabotnik Feb 2014 OP
This is a wonderful thing SummerSnow Feb 2014 #1
....^ 840high Feb 2014 #2
I have my cottage all picked out Warpy Feb 2014 #3
put it on wheels honey roguevalley Feb 2014 #13
I'm not your honey Warpy Feb 2014 #15
ah. more info. A lot of people put their tiny houses on wheels roguevalley Feb 2014 #18
Excellent! n/t DirkGently Feb 2014 #4
Much better to have your own tiny house Cha Feb 2014 #5
Cool A Little Weird Feb 2014 #6
Building codes for multi-unit dwellings. Daresay they got a variance on single-units. n/t TygrBright Feb 2014 #8
K & R Lifelong Protester Feb 2014 #7
It's a great idea..... DeSwiss Feb 2014 #9
16' x 20' is a very nice size for a small house! meti57b Feb 2014 #10
I think it's a perfect size, at least for one person and a couple of small pets - or one large one. IrishAyes Feb 2014 #12
Vlunteer Decorator copperearth Feb 2014 #25
I applaud your ambition to serve and would like to do the same myself if I lived where IrishAyes Feb 2014 #26
I've followed the Tiny Home movement for a long, long time and think the world of this concept. IrishAyes Feb 2014 #11
This is a great idea. Thank you so much for the post. nt Sarah Ibarruri Feb 2014 #14
A Creative & Humane Solution copperearth Feb 2014 #16
When are the Koch Bros going to move in? TBF Feb 2014 #17
Little house > no house. Joe Shlabotnik Feb 2014 #19
Yes!!! Now you're talking. nt TBF Feb 2014 #20
Simple is better! copperearth Feb 2014 #22
You're missing the point - TBF Feb 2014 #24
Opportunity Village (Eugene, OR) is in my neighborhood! central scrutinizer Feb 2014 #21
Floor Plans copperearth Feb 2014 #23

Warpy

(113,130 posts)
3. I have my cottage all picked out
Sun Feb 23, 2014, 07:47 PM
Feb 2014

and all I need to do is detash enough to fit into it and buy a piece of land with water to put it on.

roguevalley

(40,656 posts)
18. ah. more info. A lot of people put their tiny houses on wheels
Mon Feb 24, 2014, 02:00 PM
Feb 2014

as for the honey, I taught school for thirty years and one of the things I noticed is that kids, too many of them were never called nice words, kind words, words a mother might say to a child.. Its a habit. If you are offended, well, that's the way it goes. put me on ignore. I am always learning something about others. thanks for the lesson on you.

Cha

(305,390 posts)
5. Much better to have your own tiny house
Sun Feb 23, 2014, 08:19 PM
Feb 2014

I think.. and more affordable to build!

Great, thank you, Joe Shlabotik

A Little Weird

(1,754 posts)
6. Cool
Sun Feb 23, 2014, 08:26 PM
Feb 2014

I wonder why an apartment would be more expensive? It seems like it would be cheaper and could house more people.

 

DeSwiss

(27,137 posts)
9. It's a great idea.....
Sun Feb 23, 2014, 09:20 PM
Feb 2014

..to help us devolve from this cancerous consumer society we've built. And for us older ones looking for a cheap, soft-landing vehicle, there's also this.

- K&R

meti57b

(3,584 posts)
10. 16' x 20' is a very nice size for a small house!
Sun Feb 23, 2014, 09:37 PM
Feb 2014

May those who will live there, have many years of success and happiness!

IrishAyes

(6,151 posts)
12. I think it's a perfect size, at least for one person and a couple of small pets - or one large one.
Sun Feb 23, 2014, 09:41 PM
Feb 2014

Design fascinates me anyway, and these can be made very attractive, efficient, and convenient.

copperearth

(117 posts)
25. Vlunteer Decorator
Tue Feb 25, 2014, 03:47 PM
Feb 2014

Wouldn't you love to help design and decorate the interiors? You could talk with a potential owner and find out his interests, favorite colors, and any special needs. It would be fun to try to furnish and accessorize the house as inexpensively as possible and still have it be attractive. I would love to volunteer to do this kind of thing.

The Scribe

IrishAyes

(6,151 posts)
26. I applaud your ambition to serve and would like to do the same myself if I lived where
Tue Feb 25, 2014, 05:51 PM
Feb 2014

it could be done. Although I've never been able to pay for cable, there are other ways to get the shows I love. Been crazy about 'Decorating On A Dime' and similar ones all my adult life. A lot of things I see in modern design make me want to retch, since my favorites date from Art Deco backward. But a lot of that is personal taste, too, and interior decorators need to serve their clients, not themselves. I subscribe online to Tiny Homes and Mother Earth Living among others. Just watching what others have done causes me to learn a lot by osmosis.

For myself, I'd have to turn those lofts into storage, however, since there's no way I could pare down enough otherwise. I'm getting to the age when climbing loft ladders could be a problem, too.

IrishAyes

(6,151 posts)
11. I've followed the Tiny Home movement for a long, long time and think the world of this concept.
Sun Feb 23, 2014, 09:39 PM
Feb 2014

Even though I currently live in a huge house by most standards, I can already feel myself slowing down in retirement. Maybe my fascination with Tiny Homes is a harbinger of things to come. It's certainly what I'd do if some disaster wiped out my current quarters - I can't afford full replacement value insurance. After a disaster I'd be more than glad to rebuild with a Tiny Home. I'm definitely not cut out for apartment living, and I'm afraid of mobile homes. This is tornado alley, after all.

copperearth

(117 posts)
16. A Creative & Humane Solution
Mon Feb 24, 2014, 03:19 AM
Feb 2014

Last edited Mon Feb 24, 2014, 07:35 PM - Edit history (1)

My sister and I are buying a home, in our senior years. It might have been less stressful sometimes for us to move into a senior appartment. But we wanted a place of our own, where we could have a big dog or two, keep our own hours, and enjoy hobbies that can make a mess - like cooking, painting, gardening, and collecting - model horses, books, music, and videos.

If these homeless men are anything like us, they might feel uncomfortable in a large communal setting, while something small and private, where they could enjoy a pet and quiet privacy would make them feel welcome and at home. "Tiny Houses" is a creative and humane way to deal with a big and tragic problem in our society.

The Scribe

TBF

(34,294 posts)
17. When are the Koch Bros going to move in?
Mon Feb 24, 2014, 08:21 AM
Feb 2014

Little houses are fine - I have no problem w/minimalism - but I think multiple estates for billionaires while the rest of us live in tiny houses is a bad plan.

Joe Shlabotnik

(5,604 posts)
19. Little house > no house.
Mon Feb 24, 2014, 02:41 PM
Feb 2014

Collective farms and gardens, public parks and civic centers, and ample room to build homes on former 1% property = ideal.

copperearth

(117 posts)
22. Simple is better!
Mon Feb 24, 2014, 07:32 PM
Feb 2014

Would you really want to live in a house as big and fancy as the Koch Bothers' home? Most people prefer something more simple.

The Scribe

TBF

(34,294 posts)
24. You're missing the point -
Mon Feb 24, 2014, 08:05 PM
Feb 2014

Yes, simple is better. It is better for all of us because we can pool our resources and try to save this planet.

Capitalism and all of it's excesses have to go - and that includes the Koch family extra homes in various locations.

copperearth

(117 posts)
23. Floor Plans
Mon Feb 24, 2014, 07:44 PM
Feb 2014

I really find this a most intriguing solution. Are there any interior floor plans available?

The Scribe

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