Tiny Homes Arrive for Isla Vista Homeless Community

It was an interesting article! The more apt comparison though would seemingly be Riverside, which did it the same way as IV...but the total project cost just 500k for 30 of them (17k each).

LA did a pallet homes project, summarized in the Sunday Times, and each unit cost them $132,000. So be grateful that the LA people are not in charge of this project.

These little structures can be easily taken apart and stored compactly. They have operable, locking windows with screens, and locking doors. They can be ordered with electrical outlets (requiring a hookup, of course), heaters (and even air conditioners). They meet some high standard for hurricane safety. Et cetera. I think it’s a good product. Whether they are the right thing for this situation is another discussion. They seem ideal for refugee camps.

8:31 you forgot to call me out for forgetting the word “let.” Guess you aren’t that great at proofreading.

They're

Homelessness is a big business these days, No way the cities are looking to fix this problem.

Your definition of “win-win” is a bit scary. I mean what’s your end game here? Upsize the project to 1000 people/tiny houses (so 9 million per month) and be covered... because that would solve the problem and no new homeless would come and we’d be covered/safe?

Take a gander by the IV tent city... you’ll be astounded with how many seemingly able bodied 25 to 50 year old man are just hanging out.

This isn’t a solution... it’s a money pit that is going to make the problem worse.

It’s not okay. But what is the solution?

RUBAIYAT, They come anyway, they come for the weather. Building these tiny homes (and only 20 of them at that) will NOT bring in more homeless people, but it might just help a few get back on their feet.

Great START???? Yikes!!!! If this is a great start, what are you hoping for next??? Where do we go after this “great start”?????

Right... 900k to house 20 people for 5 months!!! What a crazy crazy Project!!!! I guess it will employ a few more gov employees to “oversee it”...

LADY: The frustration being voiced stems from the fact that many people work hard, sometimes more than one job, to support themselves and their families. These hard working people often sacrifice luxuries and forgo vices so they can provide, often scraping by on less than $3,000/month and no one is helping them despite all their hard work. Then you have this other group of people, many of them young, able-bodied and completely uninterested in being responsible members of society. I’m not talking about mentally ill, as they should be cared for in hospitals. Are severely addicted people suffering from mental illness and should they be hospitalized? I’m not sure. Nevertheless, there are more-or-less healthy individuals who choose to live outside of societal norms and that’s the majority of the vagrants I see. They are lawless, often fighting with each other and stealing, though they know it to be wrong. They simply do not care. Now they’re going to receive upwards of $9,000/month because they choose not to behave??? Yes, the little prefab boxes don’t cost that much, and much of the money goes to supporting this project. Effectively the additional costs go to pay for cooks, clean up services, assistants, etc. I’ll bet families that work hard, obey the law, and scrape by on $3,000/month would love a personal chef, maid and concierge.

I agree with Duke. The math on this is crazy. The cost of the Pallet shelter themselves (while lower than some competitors) is questionable to begin with. Look at similar sheds on Home Depot - you can get them for half the price, or less. But a $9,000 per person / per month rent or cost for this is crazy. We could rent them all luxurious AirBnBs for that price. We are evaporating taxpayer money. If it costs $9,000 a month to house an unsheltered person in a shed, what kinds of costs are we being primed to tolerate for putting these people in actual housing? Los Angeles has made it clear they cannot build a unit of housing for a homeless person in need for less than I think the figure was somewhere around $550,000. Google it if you don't believe me. I think it's time to look into larger, more long-term prefabricated structures for the unsheltered and to place them on land that is neither coastal high-cost, nor in demand. We have a huge state and most of our population is in very small corridors. I guarantee you 75%+ of the unsheltered people who need homes are not from this area. And what they really need is addiction and mental illness treatment. But that is darn near impossible given the Lanterman Petris Short Act. And moving these people around given the 9th circuit ruling that we must offer them alternate suitable accommodation or else you can't kick them off public property makes it additionally impossible to do anything about this growing problem.

Umm... no... 9k per month to house someone in a $4900 tiny house is crazy! They are using IV rec Dep land. We are already paying Marburg for quite a few porta potties in the tent village next door. Communication expenses??? What kind of communications are they setting Up? They already have free internet set up there?

No, this is classic government waste. I guess it justifies (and perhaps even creates!) a couple more 120k county/IV special district jobs. We aren’t solving any problems here... we’re making an existing problem bigger ...

You could put twice the amount of people up for a year in a hotel at that cost. A place with electricity and restrooms. This tiny shed is a crock of outhouse waste...

Nope, your math is spot on. To put it in perspective, that's $45,000/person for 6 months. How would you like to get $90,000/year to live on, just for doing absolutely nothing? Not too bad.

BIGUGLY, I didn't come here. I was born here. And so we're my parents. I think I am a native, apart from not being Chumash. I'm aware of the draw to come here, the weather and benefits of the homeless lifestyle for all it entails, and that's exactly my point. There has to be a limit to free handouts that have zero incentive to improve oneself and get a job, rent a house, etc. The give-away programs are an absolute black hole.

Thanks Ugly

BASICINFO805 They come anyway. They come for the weather. No one wants to be homeless in the snow. Are YOU a native? Why did YOU come here?

And more show up every day.

They are already here and have been for some time.

GENERALTREE, I agree wholeheartedly... and at Christmas time too, a bunch of Ebinezer Scrooges. SHAME. Some of us are only a paycheck away from homelessness... it's scary.

Just listen to Rand Paul or Ron Paul for a minute or two, and you'll get a great introduction to scattershot crazy.

12:29 PM - It sounds vanilla, but doesn't match what they say and do.

"Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, emphasizing free association, freedom of choice, individualism and voluntary association. Libertarians share a skepticism of authority and state power, but some of them diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing economic and political systems." - Wikipedia. Is this not correct?

Big Mack: So you recommend, it seems, that we stop feeding the starving (in Africa only?) as a humanitarian gesture!!?? Next thing you will be suggesting that they eat their babies to avoid starvation. Sick stuff.

I agree they actually would rather they would not exist at all..

Because if you keep giving, giving, giving the problem of homelessness does the opposite of what it is intended to do . Homelessness will icrease so now instead of 5 tent houses soon you'll be needing ten, then 20 and before you know it you'll be building 100 . It's like feeding the starving in Africa ....you start by feeding a hundred then it's a thousand so you don't solve homelessness, you increase it .