As promised, I will tell a social worker success story every month to balance out the problem solving tone of most of my blog posts.
Recent reporting on NBC, and in the New York Times, has brought this delightful success story to light, but on the chance that our social worker colleagues working with the homeless missed it, I would like to recount some of the story here today.
Linda Federico-O'Murchu writing for NBC News reported the following:
Tiny Houses: A Big Idea to End Homelessness
In Austin, Texas, a village of 200 tiny houses is being built for the homeless. In upstate New York, "Rochester Greenovation" has designed a prototype for small-scale individualized shelters. "Homeless No More Survival Pods" have been built in Utah, micro-pods in Florida, miniature homes in Wisconsin and mini mobile houses in California.
The "Tiny House Movement," once an architectural component to a downsized life, is now becoming something much bigger; an escape from chronic homelessness...
Occupy Madison, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement based in Madison, Wis., finished building its first fully functional tiny house last month The 98-square-foot structure, complete with a bed, toilet and tiny kitchen, will serve as a template for 40 homes to follow...
But California artist Gregory Kloehn, 43, says there's an even cheaper and faster way. For the past several years, Kloehn has single-handedly built small, portable homes using salvaged materials he finds on the street. His cost? Less than $100 each.
"An inexpensive structure like a micro-pod - with insulation, a small bed and a place to store belongings - is a good, temporary solution to keep a person warm, safe and out of jail," says Kloehn.
In 2013, an estimated 610,000 people slept without shelter every night, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. We all know that homelessness is not caused by a lack of available shelters, but rather by chronic poverty, addiction, alcoholism, and mental illness.
However, "homeless people spend excessive time in jail or prison, often for petty offenses such as loitering," stated a 2011 Utah government report. The penal system has become housing of last resort.
Do tiny houses have merit as a solution to homelessness?
"As far as giving people a shelter, yeah, definitely," Kloehn says. "Is it a solution to homelessness? It's an answer. An attempt."
We here at Global Vision Technologies applaud your attempt, Mr. Kloehn. Keep up the good work!
