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Tiny Houses, coming in a flurry

Whoa!

I had come to believe in just the last ten days or so that Homeless World was fully stuck – unable to progress in any effort to expand the number of beds needed to give comfort to the many, many homeless people who are out on the street, idling away their lives and not getting good-nights’ rests.

Tiny-houses articles in the Bee and in East Sac News
BUT, an article on the third page of the current issue [for May 4, 2017] of East Sacramento News tells us that a tiny-houses community is being build, called Compassion Village, that will be a “scalable, grassroots, privately funded tiny-home community focused on temporary, interim and permanent  homes for the chronically homeless." The expectation is that twenty tiny homes will be build.

[UPDATE: Turns out that the effort, if all things go well, is for Tammy Vallejo and her organization, Real Estate with Purpose Group, to produce all the tiny houses for church-related groups that are now authorized, by law. It is possible that 400 tiny houses will be constructed with twenty church groups each maintaining twenty houses on their property. This all relates to the April 29 appearance of Mayor Steinberg and Joan Burke on KCRA where they called for tiny-houses communities at churches to aid in helping the burgeoning population of homeless people on the streets in Sac County. Steinberg and Burke called for 15-to-20 faith-based groups to 'take in'  15-to-20 homeless people. The new "call," apparently, is for each of 20 church groups to allow 20 tiny houses on their property that might house more than a single person in each house.]

I’m not sure what specific meanings are intended for some of the terms used in the East Sac News article about the houses -- scalable, grassroots, temporary, interim, permanent -- to describe the village [or, villages] in its/their ultimate manifestation(s), but I think we get the general idea. A village -- or, up to twenty villages -- will come into being that will provide shelter and comfortable sleep space for many of our brethren.

A story in today's [5/11/17] Sacramento Bee [page 3A] is about tiny houses being built by students as part of a two-day competition by the Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange Education Foundation at Consumnes River College. Fifteen high-school teams were involved. Four of the teams focused on creating tiny houses to be used by Veterans. The other groups focused on creating sheds.

I don't know the location for either Compassion Village or where the houses for Veterans will be placed, ultimately. Of course, more specifics will become known as progress in the creation of the houses continues.

I know that I have a wee bit of a reputation for complaining, but the name "Compassion Village" is terrible, in my humble opinion. For a house -- even a tiny house -- to be a home, the inhabitants of the structure need to feel that it is theirs -- where they have the freedom to do things in their lives with their "home" acting as the foundation for them to pursue work, create and enjoy their lives. I think it is highly unhelpful for the idea behind tiny-house building to be one of making people feel continually that they are impoverished charity recipients, in never-ending need of sympathy and pity from others.

Of course, the idea of using charity-giving terminology as the name of an enterprise that is in the "give people stuff" business is mighty common and is understandable. Still, it is both tiresome and painful how homeless people cannot escape, for a moment, labels that undermine their personhood or freedoms or are otherwise demeaning. 

Another thing that is odd is that tiny houses are being build for veterans at Consumnes River College. Veterans -- at least, those who were honorably discharged -- are put at the top of the list in getting apartments. Plus, they get a lot of attention, from veterans organizations, such that their other needs are mostly met.

I hope to pursue the tiny-houses issue frequently in the next few weeks.

Hurrah!, I say, for the work being done to make homeless people's lives better.

Comments

Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said…
I pay
$1105 rent
$ 52 water
$ 95 Smud
$ 46 PG&E

balance for food, phone $200
I don't qualify for the food stamps
I jeep loosing weight
oh yeah my tenancy is terminated in about 45 days. I'm scared ill be homeswll again. I monev 15 x in 18 months

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