Housing First - Tiny Home Paradise
Let’s talk about our nation’s affordable housing crisis. I spent time each week volunteering at a local warming shelter while it was open during the winter months, and I’ve learned so much from engaging with the ‘guests’, organizers, and other volunteers. Each of their separate perspectives are worlds apart, and maybe that’s the problem.
Organizers don’t want the ‘guests’ to get too comfortable, or as I’ve heard it put, feel like they’re staying at a hotel. In fairness, they had a 12 bed limit, and they often had to turn people away, so they really didn’t want to attract people who might have had other options. In fact, they were quite cautious about spreading the word of their existence at all. They could not meet the existing demand, let alone make room for even more people who might be in need. Still, this frustrated me so much that I wanted to start bringing in little mints to put on their pillows. I refrained. But I intentionally treated every guest with heightened dignity, as though they were my own family.
It’s ludicrous to me, having spent a good part of my childhood living in shelters, that anyone would think someone would aspire to be there. And this is a warming shelter. With cots. People begin lining the sidewalks in front of the church at 2:30 PM in subzero temperatures and snowstorms to make sure they get a spot, even though they know they won’t be let in until 8 PM. People drive by screaming hateful things at the guests, and they just have to sit there and take it for fear they will get kicked out of the shelter otherwise. This is not a vacation. This is not where anyone hopes to find themselves.
Oftentimes I would bring coffee and sit outside with them while they waited for hours so I could get the experience. It was horrible, demeaning, and depressing.
The volunteers were endearing and always well-intended with huge hearts. But they don’t get it either. They’ll talk as though the ‘guests’ are not right there in front of them. One evening a fellow volunteer loudly said to me, “I hope they start looking for jobs; the shelter will be closing for the year soon” (this warming shelter, like many others across the country, is only open a few of the colder months of the year).
A ‘guest’ heard this and defensively responded, “I wish I could work. I used to be a welder before a stroke made me useless.”
I told the volunteer that those who are able to work ask me about jobs every night I’m there. They listen attentively to each of my suggestions, and they ask me if I’d be willing to make a call on their behalf. And I have found that most of them are on social security, and unable to work, but there is no affordable housing to be found.
Another hurdle is that they don’t have an address to put down on applications, they’ve misplaced their birth certificate or social security card years ago due to no place to store them, and many don’t have a phone. Many government-issued phones are archaic flip-phones that make it nearly impossible to simply compose a text message, let alone fill out a form online. Some guests are computer illiterate, and many struggle with filling out all the many applications that services require.
If you don’t have a stove or a can opener, it becomes very difficult to cook and you will go hungry. If you don’t have an address, many employers won’t give you a chance. If you don’t have a shower, you tend to smell. It all comes down to housing.
One night, while volunteering as a Night Monitor at the shelter, I brought in some bottles of cologne that we had sitting in the back of our bathroom cabinet at home. The men scooped them up enthusiastically. You’d think it was Christmas morning. This did wonders for their confidence, just to smell good.
While identifying sources of the problem is much easier than executing a solution, we all need to embrace the ‘housing first’ mentality. Tiny homes villages are starting to sprout up in big cities like Seattle to combat the issue, and they’ve been pretty successful. We need to start scaling those models to cities of all sizes. How wonderful would it be if all community foundations issued an RFP for a tiny home village? I’ve yet to see a community that would not benefit from this concept to address their homeless crisis. The foundations could work together to share notes and present best practices to the NGOs. Make it known in the RFP that applications will be shared with other endeavoring tiny home projects across the country so everyone can benefit from all the ideas.
I’ve spoken to homeless individuals about the concept of tiny homes, and they get so excited. One lady actually started sketching the tiny home neighborhood she would love to live in. She had endless ideas on how it could be monitored, safe, and self-sustaining. They could partner with organizations such as community gardens and career services. She wanted every resident to have chores and responsibilities. She went on and on describing her little Tiny Home Paradise.
Funding is always the issue that everyone talks about, the instant stifler of these projects. If the idea was presented in an RFP to provide funding, homelessness could become a thing of the past. This is a model that works. Let’s put our dollars behind it.
