The tiny houses costing only $5,000 that are playing their small part to help solve homelessness

Occupy Madison Build hoping to create cluster of tiny houses for homeless

Many of the homes built with donated materials and volunteer labour



Sites of tiny houses have already been built in Washington and Oregon

They have traditionally attracted those planning on downsizing or looking to simplify their lives for financial or environmental reasons.

But there is now another group of people benefiting from the growing small-dwelling movement - the homeless.

Efforts to construct the compact buildings are growing across the U.S. because they are cheaper than a traditional large-scale shelter, help the recipients socially because they are built in communal settings and are environmentally friendly due to their size.

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Occupy Madison Build are hoping to create a cluster of tiny houses to help the homeless

Many have been built with donated materials and volunteer labour, sometimes from the people who will live in them

Most require residents to behave appropriately, avoid drugs and alcohol and help maintain the properties

Betty Ybarra, 48, stands outside a tiny house she and her boyfriend live in, in Madison, Wisconsin. It is the first house built by OM Build, which wants to build nine houses in Madison for the homeless

'You're out of the elements, you've got your own bed, you've got your own place to call your own,' said Harold 'Hap' Morgan, who is without a permanent home in Madison. 'It gives you a little bit of self-pride: This is my own house.'

Mr Morgan is in line for a 99-square-foot house built through the non-profit Occupy Madison Build, or OM Build, run by former organizers with the Occupy movement. The group, in Wisconsin, hopes to create a cluster of tiny houses like those in Olympia, Washington, and Eugene and Portland, Oregon.

Many have been built with donated materials and volunteer labour, sometimes from the people who will live in them. Most require residents to behave appropriately, avoid drugs and alcohol and help maintain the properties.

Still, sometimes neighbours have not been receptive. Linda Brown, who can see the proposed site for Madison's tiny houses from her living room window, said she worries about noise and what her neighbours would be like.

'There have been people who have always been associated with people who are homeless that are unsavoury types of people,' she said.

Organizer Brenda Konkel hopes to allay neighbours' concerns by the time the City Council votes in May on the group's application to rezone the site of a former auto body shop to place the houses there. Plans include gardens, a chicken coup and possibly bee hives and showers and bathrooms in the main building.

Organizer Brenda Konkel said: 'I think there is some ways we can be a real asset to the neighbourhood'

The interior of a tiny house built by OM Build in Madison. The group wants to build nine altogether and allow the homeless to live in them

The City Council will be voting in May on the group's application to rezone the site of a former auto body shop to place the houses there

Plans for the site include gardens, a chicken coup and possibly bee hives and showers and bathrooms in the main building

'I think a lot of them we can work through. I think there is some ways we can be a real asset to the neighborhood,' she said.

The group has already built one house that is occupied by a couple and parked on the street. A volunteer moves it every 24 or 48 hours as required by city ordinances.

The house, which cost about $5,000, fits a double bed with overhead storage, a small table and a small room with a compostable toilet. There's no plumbing or electricity, but the home is insulated and has a propane heater to get the residents through the harsh Wisconsin winters.

Eventually, organizers want to add solar panels.

Harold 'Hap' Morgan works in the OM Build workshop in Madison, Wisconsin. He is in line to get one of the nine houses planned to be built by the group to help those without permanent homes

The group has already built one house that's occupied by a couple and parked on the street

The industrial park workshop where tiny houses for the homeless are being constructed in Madison, Wisconsin

Construction on the first two houses started last summer, and the first residents moved in on Christmas Eve, according to the Wisconsin State Journal

Mr Morgan, who has struggled with a spinal cord surgery, alcohol addiction and unemployment, lives in a trailer provided by OM Build. He hopes to work as a cook again.

'My goal is to go back to that and get my own place, but it's really nice to have this to fall back on,' he said.

The tiny house effort in Eugene sprung up after the city shut down an Occupy encampment that turned into a tent city for the homeless. Andrew Heben and others worked with the city, which provided them land for the project.

Opportunity Village Eugene opened in September with little resistance, said Heben, 26, who is on the board of directors. Most of the nine huts, which are 60 square feet, and 21 bungalows, which are 64 square feet and 80 square feet, are already built.





The small structures have a roof, insulated walls, toilet and sink and are intended to provide basic shelter against the elements

The tiny house effort in Eugene sprung up after the city shut down an Occupy encampment that turned into a tent city for the homeless. Pictured is the workshop for Occupy Madison Build

The group has already built a house which cost about $5,000, fits a double bed with overhead storage, a small table and a small room with a compostable toilet

The current home has no plumbing or electricity, but is insulated and has a propane heater to get the residents through the harsh Wisconsin winters

Thirty people are living in them now, and he expects 40 to 45 to ultimately be there. The houses don't have electricity, water, bathrooms, showers or kitchens, but separate shared buildings do.

They have done it all for less than $100,000, which is about half the median home price in Eugene, all from private donors with no taxpayer money. He said the story has changed from how tent cities were a problem in America to how the community is banding together.

'It's an American success story... Now we see in different cities people coming up with citizen driven solutions,' Heben said.

Most of the sites require residents to behave appropriately, avoid drugs and alcohol and help maintain the properties

Ministries in Texas and New York also are developing communities with clusters of small houses.

Mobile Loaves and Fishes plans 135 small homes and 100 recreational vehicles on 27 acres near Austin, Texas.

The Christian ministry that started 15 years ago bringing food and clothing to the homeless hopes to raise $7 million to build the homes, streets, utilities, sewers, a farming operation, medical facility and sanctuary, President and CEO Alan Graham said.

Residents would pay rent that ranges from $90 a month for a 150-square-foot home to $375 for 400 square feet.

'The goal is to reach everybody where they are economically,' Graham said.

He expects a staff of 15 will run the village, with residents having the option to get paid to help with upkeep.

Community Faith Partnership near Ithaca, New York, has built six of up to 18 planned 320-square-foot houses as transitional living for homeless men, said Jim Crawford, the group's executive director.

The men will pay rent on a sliding scale that looks at their situation and whether they receive government aid.

The heart of the operation will be a community centre where people who aren't social can learn to relate to others in a safe environment, Crawford said.