Agreed , Carin,
The ongoing and failed mantra of building affordable housing projects I.e.
usually 60 per cent of median income is not true affordable housing. The mantra
of including a few affordable
units in apartment developments , is a paltry number and again developers are
allowed to call them affordable at 60 per cent of median income.
And, even the above take years...and involve complicated streams of funding
sources.
Mpls and Minnesota has lagged behind on the concept of tiny homes. What often
gets missed in discussing any discussion of homes for people experiencing
homelessness is community and health care services. The tiny homes concept
combined with community
is not about sticking people into just a tiny home. I believe Envision has a
clear understanding of this.
Whether the non profit managing this current tiny home before the city council
has that clear a vision remains to be seen. Someone mentioned Avivo? As that
non profit? I thought it was Simpson? Either way....my hope is that the non
profit does not screw up what I see as an opportunity to provide decent , safe
homes,,,,even if tiny. They cannot manage it the way the temp winter tent
shelter was managed when the wall of native encampment was transitioned to that
temp shelter made of large tents.
As I and Guy Gambill have noted over the years in our analysis on this
forum...the
homeless so called experts have remained focused on shelters, have flushed
millions
of dollars over the years in dead end plans to end homelessness.
They have allowed the federally required HMIS ( Homeless Information System) to
turn into another barrier, with the required assessments which rate who is at
the top of the list
for housing.
What is quite informative is the ability of unpaid, grass roots efforts by
community members in finding housing and connection to resources for some of
the people camped outside, in the parks.
It is a sign of progress ( should have happened long ago), that the city seems
to be realizing that tiny homes COMMUNITIES are one ... not the sole...but one
way to provide
homes and connection and care for people experiencing homelessness.
Years ago, the city had rooming houses....shared bathrooms, sometimes shared
kitchens,
A place for a person who was poor to have privacy, a lock on the door and a
sense of
security. For the most part lost to development. They were not prisons.
Neither are tiny homes.
Let the arm chair quarter backs have at it.
But the reality is..and maybe our politicians are starting to realize, we
cannot keep pouring money into shelters. Shelters suck up money and , in spite
of the valiant efforts of so many shelter staff ( although some are jerks) ,
are dehumanizing.