Housing/TinyHouseTeachIn

This event took place on March 2, 2015 at Impact Hub Oakland, hosted by the Sustainable Economies Law Center

Dignity Village - Portland

• Dignity Village in Portland - founded in 2000, started this movement
  • Styled as 'innovative design and sustainability' (ps it's for homeless people)
  • TEDx talk - Badass Democracy - Reclaiming the Public Commons

Opportunity Village - Eugene

• Opportunity Village in Eugene - about a year and a half old
  • Houses 42 people, about 30 houses, 8x8 or 8x10 and small huts
  • Andrew Heben
  • 1 acre plot in an industrial part of town, donated by the city as a pilot project
  • Scary town meetings when attempt was made in more public parts of town
  • Shared toilets and showers, sign up for a shower
  • Kitchen trailer, front desk, community yurt
  • Village council makes decisions
  • City planner wrote a biz plan, then they built a structure and travelled around getting local stakeholders and the city interested
  • No existing zoning for the units - often considered trailers. No real precedent, city tends to approve
  • Playing the game, of 'transitional housing' toward transitioning back into society

O.M. Village - Madison

• O.M. Village in Madison
  • Well-insulated, have heaters in each residence
  • Currently 3 structures, 9 planned
  • 1/3 of an acre, purchased for ~150K
  • Build out of the old gas station garage
  • Want to train people to build them
  • Residents also help build, sweat equity involved
  • Build and sell furniture made from recycled pallets
  • One of the activist-organizers a former city councilwoman
  • Movement toward zoning/coding regulations for tiny homes
  • Brenda Konkel
  • Also on the outskirts of town

Discussion

• Trying to start one in Santa Cruz
• Some more in Seattle, Fresno, Ventura, Chico
• Right to Dream 2 - tent city in downtown Portland - supported by a private individual
  • 15 people living there, ~70 folks who can come in to sleep for the night
  • Portapotties for the public
  • Large tents - mens and womens - and residents tents in back
  • Part of the deal for living there is 20hrs/wk of shifts and some involvement in activism
  • Food Not Bombs makes food in the communal kitchen once a week, otherwise donations
• Group creating a tiny house development - one structure has all the things. But camps/RV parks etc have lots of restrictions
  • Postworks in West Oakland
• No stated minimum dwelling size in original International Building Code; worked out ~220 sq feet. Removed req. for a 10x12 room in the IBC on Jan. 1,

so now is 126 sqft

• Costs: Opportunity Village - $100K + donated land for 1yr + materials
• Community Land Trust - you own improvements to the land, but not the land
• Governance - committees to decide admission; Village Council elected by the residents

Questions:

• Where to house released prisoners?
• How do we hack the city?
• Partner with Habitat for Humanity & Timebank
• What counts as an official 'dwelling'?
  • No plumbing and heat
  • Dwelling includes food prep *and* bathing

Other projects mentioned:

• Tiny Home Village Project - becoming a 501c3 - want to provide support for groups that want to form a village
• Transition Albany
• Dancing Rabbit in Missouri
• Atchinson Village in Richmond for workers in shipyards - now a successful cooperative with 40-60 homes. Houses date back to early '40s

1930s - housing villages supported by the federal govt, created as cooperative worker housing. Part of the public housing policy in the US until 1981

• • --> true still in some public housing in SF, working to reclaim them as cooperatives
• Emerald Village in Eugene is in planning
• Quixote Village in Olympia

Works Cited

• Youtube: 'Exploring the Sanctuary Camp Concept'
• Tent City Urbanism

Meetup tomorrow!

• Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage @ East Bay Media Center, details @ EBCOHO website