I would bet these are not in compliance with zoning requirements and building codes.
Imagine the fun you would have with the zoning board and building inspector if you tried to build something like that for human habitation in most cities.
Being homeless is a choice.
There are some small number of people who have hit upon desperate times that you’ll occasionally find living on the streets, but by far and away, they’re mentally ill, have major substance abuse problems and often both, and cannot maintain shelter for themselves, they’re that dysfunctional. Some seem to actually prefer it. Homeless shelters fill up when the weather is bad. When it’s not, they don’t.
December 24, 2013 8:50 am • By Dan Simmons | Wisconsin State Journal
Last spring, Betty Ybarra occupied a tent in a county park and with her tentmates dug
moats to discourage oncoming floodwaters.
Starting Christmas Eve, she and a tentmate will upgrade to a brand new “tiny home” they
helped build with aid from a variety of helpers including local colleges. It has a
roof, insulated walls, a toilet and a sink. Christmas lights hang outside it.....
The houses currently must be trailered around the neighborhood a couple of
times a week. City ordinance allows them to be parked on the street as long as
they’re moved every 48 hours.
The transient life will eventually end for the houses as it does for their occupants, Wallbaum said.
All have a sink and a composting toilet, and are heated using propane and solar panels.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I predict fires, solar panel failure, and sanitary issues.
I would bet these are not in compliance with zoning requirements and building codes.
Imagine the fun you would have with the zoning board and building inspector if you tried to build something like that for human habitation in most cities.
This is Wisconsin? How did they survive even one winter living in the streets?
The description of the tiny house mentions a bed, table and microwave oven but it doesn’t mention a bathroom (flush toilet/shower)?
Why settle for a tiny house...if you can scrounge four tiny houses, you can get a tiny hotel.
I’m surprised that there haven’t been protests demanding that the “we wish you a Merry Christmas” sign be removed.
I’ve never been homeless but I lived out of my van for almost a year when I was in my teens. It gets old in a hurry.
Imagine ice fishing. FOREVER.
Are they free for the homeless? That would make them stay-free mini-pads.
Hypothermia killed woman at Heritage Park
Deceased homeless woman devoted herself to others' care before her own illness overcame herby Sue Dremann
Palo Alto Weekly
December 24, 2013The Palo Alto woman who died in Heritage Park on Saturday, Dec. 21, succumbed to complications from hypothermia, the Santa Clara County Coroner's Office said today.
Gloria Bush, 72, had spent her life helping persons with mental illness before being overtaken by her own, her family said.
Bush was the latest in a series of homeless people who have died from the frigid weather in Santa Clara County this month. Four others previously died in San Jose and other south county cities, according to the coroner.
Ironically, before she died, Bush had spent much of her life helping persons with mental illness and developmental disabilities.
She was very artistic. She liked to draw and enjoyed many crafts. She loved dogs, particularly dachshunds. And she was beautiful, her daughter stated in an email.
Bush was found dead in the shadow of St. Thomas Aquinas Church, lying next to the bench she frequented every day. The low temperature was 34 degrees at 6:47 a.m. that morning.
Bush's story tells the tale of the link between mental illness and homelessness. It illustrates how even a loving family sometimes cannot stop the downward spiral of a once vibrant, fully functioning member of society. And it raises questions for her family about the limits current policy places on a family's ability to help a loved one, her daughter told the Weekly.
Bush had once been a daughter and wife. She was a mother, a sociologist and a Head Start program teacher. She married at 18, partly to escape an abusive mother. She put herself through college after she and her husband divorced. She was in her early 30s, and she graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in sociology, her daughter said.
She was the first person in her family receive a degree. When she graduated, she held several positions working with mentally ill and developmentally disabled people. She also became a hospice volunteer and a home-health nursing aide.
Shirk had offered several times to call Bush's daughter to let her know that her mother was OK. "But she wouldn't let me. Like many others, I repeatedly encouraged her to take advantage of the services at the Opportunity Center. But she had a streak of paranoia and a distrust of authority, and wouldn't go there.
"Over the last month, she seemed to age right before our eyes. She just seemed really tired. She was walking more slowly, and a deep gash on her forehead from a fall off a bench didn't seem to be healing well. (She had taped it shut.) I asked her for the umpteenth time if she wouldn't like to get herself on a list for housing, and she said, as she always did, 'No, I'm alright,'" Shirk said.
Gloria Bush in the 1970s. Photo courtesy of Bush's family.
How the Mortgage Crisis Forced Thousands of Americans to Live in Their Vans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3OFWYb4GWk
There was some new-agey lawyer in the college town where I live who put a half-dozen tool sheds in her back yard and rented them out to people. All was well until one of them carbon monoxized himself and the city suddenly discovered she had a for-profit homeless camp in her back yard. Never heard much more about it. Since she’s a Lefty I’m sure all was forgiven.
This thing, which, at 10’ x 10’, is the size of a tent one could buy for about $200, contains a sink and a composting toilet. “Composting toilet” is essentially the PC euphemism for an outhouse, with all the horrors using an outhouse entails. I know because, a while back, a relative of mine considered installing one, researched it, and discovered what high maintenance monstrosities they are. Each one of these monstrosities is actually a horribly unsanitary, high maintenance 10’ x 10’ one holer with the hole in one end. A whole community of them, occupied by the homeless, who are well known for their unsanitary habits and laziness, will quickly become a giant open air cess pool. Of course, that’s typical of Occupy communities.
This seems like more symbolism over substance.
Per the article Madison, WI has under 4000 homeless people, they can’t find/make some kind of housing for that small a number of people?
Secondly, does this house even have running water? They say it holds a microwave and a “composting” toilet (whatever that is) but no talk of a sink or shower.
