Sarah Cloutier’s idea came from a dream.

From it, the 27-year-old

student knew what she would do for her yearlong, senior project: “I woke up with this idea for modular housing, constructed by the people who lived in it that would work for people who had inadequate housing.”

And so began her quest to create what she calls Bootstrap Homes — trailers just big enough to fit one person lying down and provide shelter and storage for those facing homelessness.

Cloutier is building her second trailer and hopes to draw the attention of businesses and nonprofits to help fund the construction of more.

Before building the first, Cloutier did extensive research on Portland’s homeless population and the city’s rules about trailers. She talked to people living on the streets to find out what they would want for amenities in such a home.

And, according to her research, the trailers are legal if she gives them away and if they are located in spaces where vehicles can park.

“It actually just falls through the cracks between the sit-lie ordinances and what an actual trailer is considered,” Cloutier said.

She plans to present the trailer model to the City Council to verify its legality: “I want to let them know what’s going on, and just make them aware that this is an option in case they want to put some money toward it, or in case they want to raise objections.”

But she went forward with construction anyway, spending four weeks gathering the materials and hardware to put one together. With a background in carpentry and metal work, Cloutier built the entire home by herself in two weeks for about $400.

The finished product is a small home on wheels that has amenities like a small stove that heats slowly, a sink made from plastic food-storage containers, windows and a locking system that keeps it secure. Cloutier said it’s also possible to take sponge baths inside the home.

“I don’t think we’ll ever end homelessness,” she said. “But this addresses problems that shelters and the stuff available right now just doesn’t address. People need a place to stay and bathe and cook when they’re trying to get into an apartment and trying to get a job.”

The first Boostrap Home is being used by her fellow PNCA student Avery Gilbert, who was facing housing trouble. He sometimes needs extra blankets to stay warm inside the mobile home, but without it, Gilbert said, he doesn’t know where he would be living.

“I would be couch-surfing; I’m in school full-time,” he said. “I mainly just sleep in it. I feel totally safe in it.”

Gilbert said he’s using the trailer as transitional housing, and he plans to find an apartment soon. Cloutier hopes that when people like Gilbert transition out of her mobile homes that they will pass them on to others in need.

Her second mobile home has been promised to a local homeless man.

“They’re something that people can build for themselves; they’re something that would be easy to pick up as a kit in a hardware store,” she said. “People really haven’t approached it this way before.”

Her professors have reacted enthusiastically, Cloutier said, and have encouraged her to bring the design before the college’s leadership boards, the City Council and to Open Engagement, a conference in Portland that focuses on the connection of art and social issues.

After she graduates in May, Cloutier said she’d like to continue building Bootstrap Homes if she can obtain grants to fund the construction. She said advertisements can be painted on the homes’ tops for businesses interested in sponsoring one.

“It makes long-term homelessness palatable and less of a problem for the city,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to move your stuff when it’s in a little house rather than in three cardboard boxes and two tarps.”

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