An Oakland city councilman is living in a tiny house for the rest of the week to bring awareness to the homelessness crisis in the city and for students.

The tiny house was built by Laney College students and will soon be lived in by students who attend the school who do not have a place that they call home.

Councilman Abel Guillen moved in on Tuesday.

City councilors secured an $80,000 grant to help fund the tiny home project for Laney College, and now, they hope to build more tiny houses throughout the City of Oakland to help with the homeless.

On Willow Street in Oakland, the West Side Missionary Baptist Church now has two tiny homes in their parking lot.

The little bungalows will soon house three homeless Laney College students

“It used to be you could worship, work, and live in the same community, and now, we see that this is very difficult and hard,” Church Pastor Ken Chambers said.

The City of Oakland has a lot of homeless, but many don’t realize that some of the people living on the street are in school.

Laney College students built the home to help house some of their peers, and now, councilman Abel Guillen is moving in for a few days to test it out and bring awareness to the issue in the city.

“I just want to make sure my pillow is the right way, and I want to make sure I can take a shower in here,” Guillen said.

It’s tiny, but it has a bed, a kitchen, a toilet, and a shower on the first floor.

And it has a second bed upstairs.

“I think this is the type of approach we need to seriously look at across our city and across other jurisdictions,” Guillen said.

The grant is funding a tiny home program that promotes a new form of housing–the tiny home way of living.

Along with Oakland’s Tuff Shed Program, Guillen is hoping the city will see more of these tiny homes for the homeless in the future.

“We know this isn’t going to solve homelessness right away, but I think it lays down a model of making sure we can work with faith-based communities, with non-profits.”

The students move in on Saturday.

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