************
The ones built here in Texas are stand alone units with any amenities you desire.
Posted on 05/10/2014 11:12:32 AM PDT by PoloSec
After surviving two long, cold Wisconsin winters on the streets, Betty Ybarra traded freezing park benches and tents for a tiny house made of recycled wood she helped build herself.
Her 99-square-foot home, which boasts flower window boxes, was built by volunteers of the Occupy Madison group, as part of about a half dozen similar projects around the United States, including in New York and Texas, to shelter the homeless.
-SNIP-
"The village will bring dignity. We will have a fence and we will have community," organizer Trina Clemente said.
For Ybarra a tiny house means much-needed normalcy after many nights sleeping on cardboard.
"It's cozy," she added.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Imagine ice fishing. FOREVER.
And charity provides a handout, it is better if it is sub optimal. This provides motivation to move on to something better. Charitable help should not be a long-term solution. It dehumanizes people.
http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/tiny_houses2.html
The zoning and building codes do not apply to houses on wheels, hence RVs.
I have decided that I want one...... Mr Ditter is less than thrilled. :)
Let’s just say he doesn’t do the cleaning and cooking is my guess? Think of the savings in heat, a/c, and there would be lots of eating out, right?....lol
A helpful reminder...
You can zoom IN/OUT while in any browser by using CTRL and + (zoom in). Repeat until large enough.
CTRL and - to zoom out. CTRL and 0 to reset to default.
************
The ones built here in Texas are stand alone units with any amenities you desire.
Easy to write from the comfort of one's home; With unemployment and underemployment what it is, millions of people are struggling. According to the Census Bureau, between 2007 and 2010, mainly the Obama years, the number of shared households (think roommates or parents' basements) increased by 2.25 million, an 11.4% increase while households only increased by 1.3%. "Between 2007 and 2010, the number of adult children who resided in their parents’ households increased by 1.2 million." Meanwhile, the US military has been cut, which probably cuts more of the marginal young people from poor and lower middle class families from opportunities to be independent.
Factor in drug abuse, mental illness and homelessness is a huge problem.
People who start living in small campers for retirement travel, often find them cozy and comfortable.
99 sqft off of the ground is better than the 20 or so sqft before. If it is volunteer, recycled, and the person helps, more power to them.
Are they free for the homeless? That would make them stay-free mini-pads.
Oh I agree, I just want to see heh.
So that means they still have family and friends to fall back on, and they aren't in the streets.
In short order, the solar panels will be stripped off and sold to provide money for booze and/or drugs.
Disease will spread.
No doubt. These poor people simply cannot take care of themselves.
Don’t know why anyone would go to the trouble of actually building one. Heck you can order tuff sheds or similar anywhere. Catch em on sale and they are relatively cheap.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
