Pennsylvania Amish build a dozen homes for hurricane victims in just two days, outpacing Newsom’s promise from almost two years ago

A stark difference between the public and private sectors:

In March of 2023 Gavin Newsom promised to deliver 1200 tiny homes at a cost of 625,000 taxpayer dollars apiece. To date, not a single tiny home has been delivered.

By comparison, the Amish just built 12 tiny homes in less than 48 hours at a cost of $25,000 apiece.
pic.twitter.com/KAWvPASbdi — Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) December 31, 2024

As the tweet’s author Kevin Dalton writes, Gavin Newsom announced a “tiny home” project in March of 2023, which was to be completed in a matter of “months” and not “years” — but as you also read, not a single home has actually been built. In May of this year, which was over a year past the initial announcement, we received an update:

Plans change on Newsom’s tiny home promise
In March 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom told a crowd assembled at CalExpo in Sacramento that the state would help local governments address the homelessness crisis. He announced that the California National Guard would deliver 1,200 tiny homes to four jurisdictions: Sacramento would receive 350 homes, Los Angeles would get 500, San Jose would receive 200 and San Diego County would get 150.
[snip]
Then … crickets. In October, the city announced it had identified a site for half of the tiny homes in Sacramento, an empty lot next to a never-occupied strip mall on Stockton Boulevard in South Sacramento.

Construction crews broke ground on the Sacramento location in March of 2024, and the homes were then projected to be completed in the fall of 2024… but today is the first day of 2025—like Dalton said, “not a single home” has been delivered. Where did all that money go? Back into the bureaucratic and political ether I’m sure.

Last year I was on a chainsaw disaster relief team in Oklahoma. One of the towns I was in was Claremont. The oldest home in town, a two story brick home, was wrecked by the tornado. Much of the upper floor was gone. Mature trees all around it and the home next door were laid down, all with root balls torn out of the ground.

We marveled at how the home next door looked untouched, compared to the destroyed historic home and the trees down all around it. As we worked on the trees, the owner of the "pristine" home showed up. He was a homebuilder. Told us with a laugh, "Actually, this home completely lost its roof." The tornado had hit around 5 PM in the evening. As soon as he learned of the damage, he arranged to have supplies delivered and a roofing crew on the site first thing the next morning. Within 24 hours of the tornado, the roof had been completely replaced.

Meanwhile, it's anyone's guess how long people would have to wait for a lousy tarp to cover a hole in their roof if it's FEMA they have to wait on.

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