HOME FOR THE HOMELESS

Homeless population in Portland Oregon increases every day. Authorities say that about 4000 people sleep on the streets or in shelters every night. Portland officials try to solve this problem in their city. They have shelters and add beds to them every year but they are not enough. There are also people with children and the shelters are not a solution for them. Marc Jolin from Homeless Services says “This project is very important. Maybe more important than the work we are doing on shelters. There are too many families with children living in our shelters, and we want to move them to permanent housing as quickly as possible.”

A new organisation called A Place For You aims to help solve this problem. Together with volunteer students from Portland State University, they decided to build houses for the homeless people in tiny pods in the backyards of homeowners. By doing that they want to solve the problem in the city. The programme started in the summer of 2017. Volunteer homeowners joined the programme. Local government built tiny homes in their backyards. Each house costs $75000. These houses are about 19 square meters. There is a bed (some have bunk beds), shelves, a toilet, and a desk. They’ll all come with heat and plumbing. The houses are big enough for one adult and two children. All families sign a contract. On the contract it says that they will not disturb the homeowners.

Many people accept to have these tiny houses in their gardens. After five years these tiny houses will become homeowners. Then they can use or rent them to other people. As of March 2017, hundreds of homeowners told that they want to be a part of the programme. The Love family is one of them. Becca Love says that people need to help the homeless. “Just because you don’t have housing, it doesn’t make you a bad person or more a bad tenant. In fact, you can be a better tenant because you know how important it is to have a place to live in,” said Becca Love.