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Posted on 05/24/2026 1:24:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A tiny home project in Watsonville is giving people experiencing homelessness both housing and hope for a better future.
For Rosie Lopez, Hope Village, as it’s called, saved her life.
“Because I had just lost my brother, you know, and I was contemplating suicide and I've been homeless for almost five years, and I was really at my worst,” Lopez said.
Hope Village is a navigation center for people experiencing homelessness on both sides of the Pajaro River. The 34-bed center celebrated its grand opening this week.
“Most folks, they're not looking for a handout. They really want an opportunity — an opportunity to get a home, an opportunity to get a job and get back on their feet and find a way to make their lives move forward,” said Mike Kittredge of Hope Village.
The village of tiny homes does that by providing supportive housing and wraparound services that include housing navigation, health care, counseling and job referrals, with each resident being provided a case manager who advocates for their success.
“We've had three folks who have been housed, we have four folks who are in queue to get housing, and we have had three individuals gain employment since they've been residents here,” Kittredge said.
Soon, Rosie Lopez may be part of that group — someone who was about to give it all up but now has hope ahead of her.
“I'm happy, you know, I have my dog with me and this place does good for everybody here. You know, the staff, they all help, they care, you know, and anything, anything is within our reach,” Lopez said.
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But in “tiny houses” someone like Stacey Abrams or JD Pritzker would bring to life the Statesboro Blues line*:
She’s long and she’s tall.
When her feets is in the kitchen
her head still out in the hall.
* Taj Mahal version.
Homelessness is not a problem of lack of housing.
It is primarily a lack of motivation. Most homeless people chose the life style because of alcoholism, drug use, and the desire to be free of regulation.
Very, very few homeless are women. Even fewer are children.
One real reason for a few homeless is that cheap housing, such as used to be available in boarding houses, has been zoned out of existence.
You used to be able to rent a room without bath or cooking facilities for very little. Those are not allowed in the vast majority of cities.
Housing....
Don’t go mistaking paradise
for that home across the road.
——The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest—Bob Dylan.
As the FEDs caught off the welfare money going to California, there will be less compassion in California to build tiny homes for the homeless druggies.
Domestically challenged.
What happened to our vagrancy laws?
What happened to our vagrancy laws?
The ACLU, that’s what happened.
Exactly the central point of Spencer Pratt’s debate point and internet ads.
Giving homeless who are 90% homeless because they are addicts and spend
Their money on fentanyl, meth, street heroin laced with the same- is NOT
helping them, it just gives them a “home” to shoot yo
in and to allow others to pile in and join them. Particularly their drug
dealing suppliers. Mis- applied feels good expensive waste of
revenue propping up the drug trade who gives pols CASH!
MORE Free cellphones with free service are really needed, dear TAXPAYERS.
RE: Very, very few homeless are women. Even fewer are children.
One real reason for a few homeless is that cheap housing, such as used to be available in boarding houses, has been zoned out of existence.
You used to be able to rent a room without bath or cooking facilities for very little. Those are not allowed in the vast majority of cities.
The excellent noir film Pickup on South Street has the Richard Widmark character living secretly in an unfurnished and unpainted old city dockside building, keeping beer and food cold lowering it into the cool river water and still wearing a suit and tie. He accidentally pickpocketed government secrets on a commuter train. Thelma Ritter lives in a one room place with hot plate and little else. She holds out against the traitors who want the US military secrets on microfilm to sell to the Communists. She is cruelly killed.
As film critics said, a single light in a room in each setting slowly reveals secrets and keeps menace going.
Apart from the homeless aspect of this, I’ve had a long-time interest in small/tiny homes and think they should be pursued as a partial solution to the high cost of single-family homes. As a hobby, I’ve drawn floor plans for various small homes, that could be built at a fraction of the cost of the typical single-family home. Especially for seniors, they allow you the advantage of a compact-but-pleasant (and private) environment with a patio and small garden area.
You used to be able to rent a room without bath or cooking facilities for very little. Those are not allowed in the vast majority of cities.
Elwood Blues at the Plymouth Hotel.
For low-price homes to work, you have to have a high-trust society.
We ain’t a high-trust society.
THEY ALREADY REFUSE TO GO TO THE SHELTERS:
CANNOT USE DRUGS THERE
CANNOT HAVE THEIR DOG
REFUSE TO TAKE MEDS TO HELP THEMSELVES
....or Asian.
It’s privately funded and probably the best model to get people out of homelessness.
In a similar community that I have volunteered and donated, the residents cannot drink or do drug and if they cause any problems they are evicted.
The residents keep the property clean, probably cleaner than most neighborhoods.
Seem’s to me the monies spent on 30 beds and all individual units might have been better spent on an existing building in which they could be monitored and treated more easily. I’d bet a 1000 bucks that the profit made by developing this hotel touched many connected people and the cost per person/individual helped would be in the ten’s of thousands.....bring back the POOR house and if you fail that you get incarcerated for a set amount of time and then re-enter the program. Insane amounts of money are made by people capitalizing off of the misery and addiction of these lost souls. I’m referring to the upper management not the one’s who deal daily with the homeless.
The Homelessness Experience, an interactive pop-up exhibition coming to a city near you.
People who find themselves homeless and are not addicted and/or insane do not stay homeless long.
“””It’s privately funded and probably the best model to get people out of homelessness.””””
Do you have a link stating this place was privately funded?
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