Alternative Housing Policies: Tiny House Communities

In thinking about public policy as cultural value statements, my quest to learn more about homelessness and housing policies continues. Nothing speaks louder about the way our culture feels about human life than the way we take care of those who are struggling deeply.

I perused  the incredible resource file that Julie assembled for our group, and sort of excitedly noted that at least on a surface level – the brainstorming, researching, and planning process of the folks at city hall wasn’t dramatically different than that of my peers! My forever skeptic mind, and pervasive: “can we actually do this kind of work?”  thoughts took another step back, as I began to see the feasibility of the work. Thank you, Julie for providing us with an inside look into city planning ☺.

In addition to reading the city of Worcester’s, “triage plan” for homeless reduction, I began doing some side research to learn about what other cities have done well, in the spirit of “housing first.” I was struck by the tiny house model that originated in Portland, Oregon (known as Dignity Village).

Dignity Village  is a community of “temporary” Tiny Houses, created to serve the pervasive homeless population of Portland. Despite the transitional nature of the homes, folks seem to show no interest in leaving –  the structures have turned into an established community. There are self identified ground rules: anti theft laws, mutual respect, and horizontal giving among residents (Heben, 2014).

An MIT student, Catharine Mingoya,  completed a comparative case study of Dignity Village and a similar Tiny House village in Madison Wisconsin, acknowledging some of the benefits and drawbacks of such models (2015).

Based on her study of the communities, Mingoya uncovered that some of the greatest challenges faced include ongoing financing of the projects, sanitation, oversight and governance in the communities, and building quality/longevity (2015). These issues are especially relevant when applying this model to Portland, ME as our weather can be quite extreme leading to wear and tear on homes.

While creating Tiny House communities may only be a temporary and partial solution to the plight of homelessness, a structure of one’s own grants dignity and autonomy that simply doesn’t exist in the current shelter system.

Understanding the trials and tribulations of other cities in terms of homelessness is helpful in advocating for alterations to housing policies in Portland, ME. Tiny House communities, at least on the surface level, could be a short term, community-fostering alternative to the institutionalized, humiliating shelter system as it currently sits.

References:

Gearty, T. (2015). Tiny houses could help mitigate a big problem: homelessness. Retrieved from: http://news.mit.edu/2015/tiny-houses-could-mitigate-homelessness-0723

Heben, A. (2014). Portland’s dignity village: Thirteen years later. Retrieved from: http://www.tentcityurbanism.com/2014/08/dignity-village-thirteen-years-later.html.

Mingoya, C. (2015). Building together. Tiny house villages for the homeless: A comparative case study. Retrieved from:https://dusp.mit.edu/sites/dusp.mit.edu.

Participatory Policy: Harnessing the Voice of the Homeless

In light of our first Public Policy Class, I have been glued to coverage of the current housing crisis in Portland. The fresh evacuation of Pine Street Tent City (officially yesterday, I believe) has filled the Portland Press Herald with the latest news and case studies of the 24+ individuals who were forced out of their makeshift homes and relocated god only knows where.

I have a loving appreciation for the Portland Press Herald, and their dedication to covering the day to day occurrences in tent city; however, the language used in reference to the residents was really disappointing.

Descriptions, photo captions, and police comments were a far cry from “people first” language. Note the caption for the image below. Instead of, “Tent City inhabitants play board games during final days of residency,” the descriptor is reduced to, “Homeless people play a board game Monday under a turnpike overpass where they have set up tents and hope to remain.”  

Tangent-ing slightly, something similar occurred during the spring of 2016 when the series of assaults against women occurred in Portland’s west end. Instead of electing to describe the crimes against women in non-specific terms, the author’s purposefully inserted the identifier of “homeless” (“a 29-year-old homeless woman”) to somehow make distinct this particular victim from her female peers, and possibly discredit.

Insensitive labeling of the homeless isn’t confined to the newspaper; but, it is one indicator of the way in which we caste homeless people as “other,” and less credible in some way, to peers. 

During our first class meeting, when Jon Jennings posed the question to our group of how to improve the city’s shelter system/ways to address the homeless crisis, my mind immediately jumped to the value of the voice of the city’s homeless population on this matter. Sure, as social workers with working relationships with those experiencing homeless in the city, our perspective is absolutely valuable from a policy standpoint. However, our word is only worth so much, given our privilege, and the fact that every night we go home – however meager the dwellings. 

In lieu of our community practice projects, my brain immediately jumped to the notion of how we can gather the voices of those utilizing shelter services (and just as important -  those utilizing public spaces instead of the shelter) to hear from the service users what possible solutions to the current debacle exist.  

As we discussed in class , policy inevitably feels like an imposition for those who are not adamantly supporting a given initiative. However, the conversation leaned toward the sentiments of those who are housed. This is a great place to start, however, we really need the inside voice, too before we can feel confidence that this issue is in any way being re-solved. 

I recognize though, that this is our policy course… the time for artistically gathering narratives and beliefs may have come and gone with our multicultural/community practice classes. However, I’m not totally certain how the city can move forward without at least hearing the voice of some of those who are directly impacted by decisions made in this realm. 

I’m curious if my classmates have thought similarly about this, and if this sort of data gathering would be of any use to the city and/or could be integrated into our portion of this community work. 

References:

Bouchard, S. (2016, September 1). Portland police issue warning to lone remaining homeless camper. The Portland Press Herald. Retrieved from: http://www.portlandpressherald.com. 

Byrne, M. (2016, June 1). Police looking for suspect in three assaults on women. The Portland Press Herald. Retrieved from: http://www.portlandpressherald.com.