Posted on 12/10/2020 6:31:59 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
As the sun began its afternoon fade, Willie Lyons stepped inside his new Conestoga-style hut, pounded a nail into a beam and hung a coat inside the tiny shelter made by volunteers that will protect him from the elements this winter.
Lyons, who is deaf, spent much of Saturday methodically moving his belongings from boxes and bags to become the first homeless person to move into a community of what will be 28 tiny huts that nonprofit Occupy Madison is building and placing at the former Wiggie’s Bar property at 1901 Aberg Ave. on the East Side.
As Lyons continued his move — laying bedding atop a raised wooden frame, setting up a light, table, and heater, storing clothing and food, and placing a small plastic chair on his tiny porch — volunteers used a jack and group muscle to set huts into spots near electrical hookups or did other tasks.
The Wiggie’s building, plastic still covering the bar, tables and chairs, is already an oasis and being renovated to offer restrooms, showers, washers and dryers, kitchen and dining area. Residents will decide future uses, such as a craft workshop and store, and/or a coffee or ice cream shop to make money to cover operating costs.
Meanwhile Saturday, 3 miles away, inside a building at 931 E. Main St., Barret Elward led a team of volunteers making parts for another 60-square-foot tiny hut, essentially wooden platforms covered by insulated fabric stretched over hoops recalling a covered wagon. The space, rented to Occupy Madison by nonprofit Common Wealth Development for $1 a month through December, hosts a rotating group of volunteers building huts seven days a week.
The construction space is near McPike Park, where Lyons, an Oklahoma City native who came to Madison in 2005 and has been homeless for five years, had been living in a tent in the city’s largest homeless encampment. Most people relocating to Occupy Madison’s tiny hut village will come from the McPike Park tent encampment. Others are sleeping in cars, shelters or the streets.
“It’s a miracle,” Occupy Madison co-president Brenda Konkel said. “This project has moved at lightning speed because over 1,000 people in the community have come together to volunteer to build houses, donate and help the project in so many ways. The city, county, and community members have worked in unprecedented ways to make this amazing thing happen in just three months.” Welcomed and supported
The effort is a more ambitious echo of Occupy Madison’s original tiny house village on a small parcel that once held an auto repair shop at 304 N. Third St. on the East Side.
The original village has five, 98-square-foot, permanent tiny houses costing $7,000 apiece, with privacy fence, landscaping, and the repair shop converted to a common area with restrooms, showers, makeshift kitchen, workshop and a store selling hand-crafted items made by residents. There is a greenhouse and large, raised-bed gardens.
Now, Occupy Madison is using emergency permission from the city to place the 28 smaller huts costing $2,000 apiece at the Wiggie’s site.
To get a house or hut, residents must put in sweat equity completing them, help run the village store or complete other activities, and follow rules. More than 50 people have expressed interest in a hut and many have attended orientation and become members of Occupy Madison, Konkel said.
“Its imperative that we get people in a place where they can be safe and warm for the winter, where they will be welcomed and supported by the community, where they can have basics like running water, heat, a place to go to the bathroom,” she said.
Eventually, the nonprofit hopes to relocate the huts to another spot and gain city approval to place 15 to 20 of the larger, more substantial, tiny homes at the Wiggie’s property next year. Building a community
Occupy Madison built its first tiny hut at the original tiny house village property, but moved indoors to the space at 931 E. Main St. in late October. On Saturday, Barret and three volunteers were completing bases — large wooden frames stuffed with insulation topped with plastic and flooring. The pieces are assembled in a loading dock area and the huts hauled to the village.
The Wiggie’s site is now screened by a 6-foot-tall privacy fence, and behind it, huts are being neatly placed along the fence in the parking lot in a semi-circle around the former bar building.
Doghouses.
What happens when BLM burns them down?
Awwwwww isn’t this so special?
Just like the zoo! See! We really DO Care!
I’d rather see this kind of thing than a lot of other ways to deal with the problem. Set up the shop and train the homeless people to make them for others. Being productive and self-sufficient is the best way to move them out of poverty and dependency.
That thing in purple couldn’t get through the door
Let alone turn around
They look like Key West rentals
“You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack.”
“And you may ask yourself”
“How did I get here?”
What happens when someone stabs their neighbor?
“To get a house or hut, residents must put in sweat equity completing them, help run the village store or complete other activities, and follow rules. More than 50 people have expressed interest in a hut and many have attended orientation and become members of Occupy Madison, Konkel said.”
For some, this COULD work...but the “Occupy Madison” seems a problem to me...are they supposed to riot on demand?
Agree..we need these for homeless Vets.
Nice idea, nicely made, but...
....sorry to be cynical, but it’ll fall apart.
Exactly. Are they the very same ilk as OWS?
The Tree of Liberty is fertilized?
Same as it ever was...
Looks like the tiny storage shacks the Germans have for the gardens.
Yes indeed.
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