Tiny-home-homeless.jpg

Tiny homes were built to shelter homeless veterans in Syracuse, N.Y. (Provided photo)

Tiny homes, a living-with less trend, has gone from hip to humanitarian. Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union) now wants to pilot it in New Jersey, with a very different purpose: Reducing chronic homelessness.



Giving homes to the homeless. Imagine that. Salt Lake City, Utah, tried it, and managed to reduce its chronic homeless count by 72 percent since 2005. The cost was about $12,000 per person housed -- far less than the $20,000 a year taxpayers were footing out for each person living on the street, in emergency room visits, EMT runs and jail time, officials there estimate.



Along with Sen. Brian Stack (D-Hudson), Lesniak has introduced a bill that hopes to create tiny house projects in three regions of New Jersey. It incentivizes towns to change their zoning to allow these houses of less than 300 square feet, by giving them a bonus credit toward their affordable housing obligations for each one built.

First tiny house for combat veterans could be ready by the fall



They would be available to the very low income, and sure beat tent cities. You could throw a tiny house up inexpensively and quickly in a suburban town like Toms River, and it would work for many lower income people and seniors.



It's just one small part of the solution to a much larger problem, of course, which is a lack of affordable homes in New Jersey. A tiny house won't work for a family of four. They also need a safe, inexpensive place to live, but Gov. Christie has basically given up on the effort. He's been raiding between $50 and $100 million in state funds annually meant to create affordable homes, and using it to pay for other housing programs previously funded through the budget. A classic shell game.



This small, tiny house pilot aims to spend a total of $5 million in federal or other funds over a three-year pilot period. Lesniak isn't ruling out state money: "It's better than using $300 million for reconstructing the statehouse." But a previous version that did died in the state Legislature.



This is a voluntary program, so it's hard to see why Christie wouldn't sign the bill, if it doesn't use state funds. The bigger issue is local opposition. Tuckerton recently rejected a development of 24 tiny homes, including 10 for homeless veterans, because residents objected.



But this is still worth a try. At least these senators want to be part of the solution.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.