I have been interested in tiny
houses for a while. Having participated
in the building my own home, I realized, through the ingenuity of my husband,
that there were many ways to save financial resources while building. Due to having an extremely limited budget, with
help of many friends, family, and interested community members, we put up the
foundation, framed, sheathed, and roofed our home in time for cool
weather. Granted, we had one light bulb,
a sink, toilet, and a couple of windows, with no sheet rock, limited insulation,
and a few windows in place. We had a
friend guiding the chimney-making that had to go up a few feet at a time in
order to allow for the mortar to dry along the way. The weather had turned to freezing when the
chimney was set enough to attach a scavenged wood stove for heat.
Why did we build this way? Many friends and family asked that
question. We didn't want to sign up for
decades of debt in order to have a home.
Forced by a fire, we built before we were ready to begin. We both understood that by deferring a
finished home, we could afford to live indoors and eat and not have to live out
our next years of life working to pay a mortgage.
The long version of this story is
that there were also multiple extenuating circumstances that lent to us going
this route – I’ll save that for another time – we had quite a few family
hardships that had we not done things the way we did, someone else would own
our home now. By keeping our operating
costs to the bare minimum, we were able to remain in our home when hard times
hit. Because of this, the tiny home
thing has been a thought of mine for some time.
I’m not sure I would sign up for one, but I have many ideas of how I
would build another home to be more self-sustaining if I were afforded the
opportunity in the future.
Tiny homes allow a person or
persons with little resources to have their own independent space on a small
income. I have mentioned to builder
friends over the last few years how a project that would consist of a community
of little homes is something that I thought would be appealing to young people as
well as older people. Having a larger
community space available for gatherings, having a place for laundry; possibly
providing transportation for community members and watching out for one another
are all ideas that always seem to meld together when I think of this.
The idea of building these types of
communities for people who are experiencing homelessness seems to be a good
idea that also keeps affordability in mind.
The article “Tiny Homes for the Homeless an Occupy Madison Project”
mentions that they have “goals of a Tiny Village complete with 9 tiny homes”. That seems like a drop in the bucket, but I
guess a small start is better than none at all.
Quote - “When you are homeless,
“the system” is rife with obstacles designed to prevent creative innovation or
adaptation–“
Planning boards and building codes prohibiting these small
structures seems pretty bizarre when one knows of the circumstances that the
homeless population are trying to negotiate on a daily basis. I cannot understand the mentality of cities
and communities not wanting to provide a safe space for people in a way that
they can afford it and that actually helps them to stabilize their lives,
instead of using every ounce of strength they have to manage life every day.
QUOTE - “It’s stunning how a
flowerbed on a windowsill can be so much better for PR than the window itself, or
the house it’s attached to.”
Knowing that cities are developing “homeless spikes” in
somewhat the same way that they do things to keep pigeons from nesting in
places astounded me. We may not be able
to individually solve the problems of homelessness or the conditions that
render people homeless, but how can this idea be openly talked about as a way to
help with “the problem”??!!!
QUOTE - “Homeless Spikes. One OM
Build organizer in Madison stated that Homeless pikes
are “disgusting” and a “weak
attempt to make even society’s most uninviting spaces– doorways, parks, etc–
uninhabitable as well””
By Jennifer Baker 11/13/2014 (in
the State of Wisconsin)
Quote - “How can I use art as a
tool for civic engagement and social change?
…expanded model of creative
placemaking is needed to address the complexities of today’s urban
neighborhoods, a new model that develops places of belonging for the collective
good”
Placemaking and Social Equity:
Expanding the Framework of Creative Placemaking
20 Monday Jan 2014 Posted by admin
in Entrepreneurship, Vol. 3 No. 1 (Winter 2014)
Having community spaces in apartment
buildings and dispersed in areas in towns and cities that are accessible in all
seasons would be ideal. Living in a
small community, we have parks, schoolyards, public accesses to lakes, and a
community library that is open regularly multiple days of the week. They are not all easy walks from where I live,
but I have access.
Having spent time in service
learning at Logan House in Portland for another course for which I’m enrolled,
I saw firsthand the value of having community space. They have a community kitchen where groups
can cook and serve a meal, dining tables, comfortable chairs, a television,
computer and game system and board game cabinets. Tenants can hang out with one another and
congregate for activities in a common space.
I saw that it benefited tenants who had mental health issues in that
they could come and go and socialize within their own building. I think that this is such a valuable asset to
the recently homeless population. The
support staff at Logan House also help tenants to negotiate everything that
comes with being a tenant while they learn everything that is required to keep
their dwelling and learn to live life again, not just to survive. I can see how this model of supported housing
can benefit many of societies’ vulnerable population. For many, there are dominating reasons that
put them into the vulnerable category.
These supported housing facilities are a much a need as are retirement
communities that provide affordable housing to retired persons.
I am interested in hearing more of the
project that the architect students are planning at the Waterville homeless
shelter site. I read the word “encampment”
and was immediately intrigued. What will
it look like? When will it take
place? Is it permanent?? I must find out more.
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