Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Planning to house those without homes, San Jose


San Jose Mercury News /Eric Kurhi and Ramona Giwargis, Staff writers, 3/20/16. "San Jose: No tent city, but modular shelters for lot near Communications Hill." 

Very green, with room
for a bicycle outside
"SAN JOSE, CA ...  a new proposal is moving forward that would create a village of prefabricated homes near Communications Hill.  ....  But for now, they're focusing on something more structured: modular temporary homes for up to 170 people on a vacant 6-acre site on Evans Lane in the Canoas Gardens neighborhood near Communications Hill. 

....  ... Jan Bernstein Chargin (Chair of Gilroy Compassion Center) said the county's initial contract would allow the center to create a more detailed plan, but it's already developing a prototype for "tiny homes on wheels," which it would like to see become a viable model for villages of little individual residences. "We're also looking at shorter-term options," she said. "Safe, legal parking lots, RV parking, the use of hard-shell tents."

.... Jennifer Loving, an advocate who directs the nonprofit Destination: Home, likes the San Jose modular plan because it's affordable while still being "dignified and stable." "This will offer longer-term stability while folks are on a path to permanent housing and while projects are developed," Loving said. "Main thing is, this is not a tent city." 

 ....  The concept of modular shelters might be new to Silicon Valley, but it has been used in Santa Cruz County, where eight such facilities are in place to house 40 people with on-site supportive services."   Read article.
Image result for tiny modular homes for homeless picture
Tiny village, better than tent city
... and put it on GGNRA land

Related articles.  Inhabitat/Architecture News/Tiny Homes/Lucy Wang, 11/6/15, "Sonoma County contemplates building a tiny home village for the homeless." "California’s Sonoma County may join a national trend of using tiny homes as low-cost homeless housing solutions. The county supervisors recently allocated $75,000 for county staff to study six sites in Santa Rosa that could potentially host a micro-home village. .... ”

The St. Petersburg Tribune/Steven Girardi, Staff, 12/12/15, " 'Tiny houses' help St. Pete tackle challenge to house homeless veterans." "The average tiny house is about 186 square feet and costs about $25,000 to build, according to figures Bolden has gathered. At that price many people can afford to own them, and they even have become popular with middle-class workers who sometimes can buy them without a mortgage. 'We’re not giving the houses away,' Bolden said. 'We’re preparing people to lease them or to buy them. This is permanent housing.' The homes will have kitchens, electricity and plumbing. Residents will be required to take courses about homeownership and maintenance and financial management, and each will be provided with a case manager." 

Note tiny house photographs:  right from the related  St. Petersburg, FL Tribune, a Eugene, Oregon 30 house village;  near the water tiny house community from Inhabitat, Sonoma County, CA. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

finally someone with some brains is thinking about the veterans and homeless. great job on building the prefabs, and housing for people in need. can you give the city of pacifica some tips on how to house people in need, so far all the city is doing is allowing 4 million dollar homes to be built on our beautiful mountains, which no pacifican can afford. which leaves pacificans again out in nowheres land. we need people on the council to think about pacificans and what we need, here , and now. bringing in millionaires from the outside is not going to help our economy. so far all we have is a monopoly of 3 safeway stores, and fast food monopoly of mcdonalds. we have no mall, no trader joes, only one dog park, only main road, little housing for middle class residents. great job san jose!!!! please give our council some pointers.