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Tag: homelessness

The No Housing Game

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Let’s play a game.

  • We start first thing Monday morning with everyone moving out of their home, then set all house prices at $4-million dollars. Only those that can afford a $4-million dollar home can get one.
    How many people are homeless on Monday night?
  • Tuesday morning, we set the remaining house prices at $2-million, but only those that didn’t get a home on Monday, and can afford a $2-million dollar home, can get one.
    How many people are homeless on Tuesday night? Of those that are homeless, how many do you think went to bed on Monday, expecting to be homeless Tuesday night?
  • Wednesday morning, the remaining house prices are set to $1-million, and again only those without a home, and can afford a $1-million dollar home, can get one.
    How many homeless do we have on Wednesday night? How many people’s ability to get a home is being impacted as they continue to be homeless?
  • Thursday morning, the remaining house prices are set to $500,000 and again only those without a home, and can afford a $500,000 dollar home, can get one.
    How many homeless do we have on Thursday night? How many of the homeless people are facing loosing their jobs because they are homeless?
  • Friday morning, the remaining house prices are set to $250,000 and again only those without a home, and can afford a $250,000 dollar home, can get one.
    How many homeless do we have on Friday night? How many new people have lost their jobs due to homelessness?
  • The game continues Saturday, Sunday and ends on Monday morning, as prices have fallen to $62,500 but the remaining people without homes, can’t afford them at any cost.

This game illustrates part of the reason for the increasing number of homelessness everyone is seeing in their cities and towns. People do not become homeless by choice, they become homeless because they have no choice. Increasing house costs, increasing rent costs, renovictions, foreign investment, immigration, whatever you want to blame for the lack of affordable housing, the lack of affordable housing options is what is contributing to homelessness today. It even illustrates how the price of housing, directly affects the number of homeless.

  • Let’s extend the game for another week, but let’s flip the switch and make the remaining homes free for 6-months, for those that are without a home.
    How many people remain homeless? How many people look to get their jobs back, or look for any source of income to enable them to remain housed?

Nobody wants to be homeless, unless they have been homeless so long, it has become a lifestyle.

  • Let’s stop creating more homeless, by developing a plan that includes affordable housing options, that stops new people from becoming homeless.
  • Lets make a plan that moves people along a path of acquiring stable, affordable housing, in a community environment that supports them.
  • Let’s not see homelessness as a burden on society, that we try to fix for the lowest possible cost.
  • Without a plan to address the problem, issue will compound as will the burden on society.
  • Let’s acknowledge that we are responsible for the increasing number of homeless, and create a plan that addresses the issue.

We need a step-by-step program that gets and keeps people housed, affordably.

 

Help me get the house out!

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After the launch of the Tiny Town Association, several suppliers donated the contents of a tiny home for an Ontario city tour, then to help someone in housing need. After a sponsor pulled out, and COVID hit, my garage turned into a component warehouse! Please help me get the house out of my garage with a Tiny Home Build Series subscription ($5/month) on https://24pillars.com so we can begin our building plan for the homeless.

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Welcome 2019

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​The new year always seems to provide an opportunity to review one’s plans in a new light. Maybe it’s the weather with winter taking away the distractions of many outdoor activities, or simply the realization that another year has gone, that I find I’m looking at what I want to do from a perspective of what I have done. I continue to tweak my plans to include new insights because I know I will never get it wrong and I will never get it done. I am on the journey of life.

Mid 2018, the Association had prepared a proposal for the National Housing Strategy (NHS) Demonstration Initiative managed by CMHC to promote tiny homes as an affordable housing option. We wanted to bring a tiny home to select northern Ontario cities to give people an opportunity to tour one first hand and decide if they made sense as a housing option.

Our funding proposal was aimed to demonstrate that tiny homes can meet the needs of many of the NHS target groups, at a fraction of the cost of any other form of housing. We had contacted each city government, and all were eagerly looking forward to our arrival. Unfortunately, our proposal was not funded so we had to cancel the tour to the disappointment of the city mayors and staff.

We eagerly look forward to what other innovative Demonstration Initiatives were funded instead of ours. While we would like to imagine the funding went to something even more progressive that would address affordable housing and homelessness on a larger scale, we have our doubts. We expect that other traditional methods will continue to be funded, even though they have proven to be ineffective in the past.

The Tiny Town Association believes that new forms of housing are needed to help singles, couples and single-parent families afford a home of their own and tiny homes fit this need better than any other type of housing. Join the Association and help us make a place for tiny homes.

Austin’s Fix for Homelessness: Tiny Houses, and Lots of Neighbors

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Community First! Village’s model for ending homelessness emphasizes the stabilizing power of social connections.

by MEGAN KIMBLE

There are a lot of things that Richard Devore likes about the 250-square-foot tiny home he’s lived since early last year. He loves the wood cabinets in his house, the sprawling oak trees providing shade outside, the goats roaming in the pasture nearby. But most of all, he loves “the fact that I’m supposed to be here,” says Devore, who was homeless for the 13 years before he moved in. “I can relax and belong here.”

Devore lives at Community First! Village, a 27-acre master-planned community just outside Austin, Texas, where more than 200 people who were once chronically homeless live in tiny homes and RVs. Everyone who lives at Community First! pays rent, ranging from $225 to $430 per month; many residents are employed on-site…

Hamilton moves ahead with plan to offer tiny homes for the homeless

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The city is investigating the feasibility of putting tiny homes down laneways

The city is pushing ahead with a plan to build tiny houses for the homeless or nearly so, and to put those houses down some of its lower city laneways.

Hamilton city council’s planning committee voted Tuesday to investigate building homes no larger than 425 square feet — about the size of three parking spaces — to ease the city’s affordable housing crisis.

Such programs have worked in other cities, said Matthew Green, councillor for Ward 3 in the lower city. In Detroit and upstate New York, for example, tiny houses have proven a cost-effective way to house people.

They won’t solve the problem, Green said. But this will “allow us to explore them as part of the housing mix” at a time when tiny houses and downsizing are growing trends.

National Housing Strategy

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Message from the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

It is my great honour and pleasure to present Canada’s first ever National Housing Strategy (NHS), an ambitious $40-billion plan to help ensure that Canadians have access to housing that meets their needs and that they can afford.

Bringing this Strategy to life has been a priority for the Government of Canada for the past 18 months. We are making historic investments in housing – and planning for transformational change – because we understand the value of home. Safe, affordable housing is a launch-pad for better socio-economic outcomes for our citizens, a more inclusive society where everyone has the opportunity to be well and to succeed, a stronger economy and a cleaner environment.

But for too many Canadian families, a decent home is simply not affordable. Across Canada, 1.7 million people are in housing need, living in homes that are inadequate or unaffordable. Another 25,000 Canadians are chronically homeless. This needs to change.

Building on investments announced in Budgets 2016 and 2017, the NHS signals a meaningful re-engagement by the federal government in housing. It is a key element of our Government’s plan to help strengthen the middle class, promote growth for everyone, and lift more Canadians out of poverty.

Important learnings emerged from last year’s Let’s Talk Housing consultations, and our Strategy is stronger for it. Now the work of implementing these ideas begins.

To be successful, the NHS requires the collaboration and commitment of more partners than ever before, in a coherent, integrated and whole-of-government approach. The provinces and territories will, of course, be primary partners in the Strategy, but we will also work more closely with municipalities, the private and non-profit sectors, and others who share our goal of creating a new generation of housing in Canada.

We have set clear goals for the NHS, including removing 530,000 Canadian families from housing need and reducing chronic homelessness by half over the next decade. We will track and report on our success, and adapt our approach as needed as the Strategy unfolds. Our primary focus will be on meeting the needs of vulnerable populations, such as women and children fleeing family violence, seniors, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, those dealing with mental health and addiction issues, veterans and young adults.

The release of the NHS marks the beginning of a new era for housing in Canada. We have a Strategy that all Canadians can be proud of and support. I encourage you to become part of this nation-wide effort to ensure that all Canadians have the safe and affordable housing they need and deserve.

The Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos

taken from the National Housing Strategy https://www.placetocallhome.ca