2 ms·

Obviously, for the three individual people who live in these, this is great. But surely a single, government-run homeless shelter is far more cost-effective th

Obviously, for the three individual people who live in these, this is great. But surely a single, government-run homeless shelter is far more cost-effective than building a bunch of individual tiny mobile homes? Plus it allows centralized access to services (medical, social, etc.), since the long-term goal is to get them into a job (if possible) and their own place. It's hard for me to see how tiny mobile homes are helping in the long-term.

weitendorf 2y ago
IMO these are more comparable to transitional housing or maybe even a lower quality version of section 8 than to a shelter. If you compare the costs of these to something like an SRO or cheap hotel (common transitional housing in SF) I'm betting these come out ahead. The going rate for SROs here, which I'm assuming isn't far off from any major city in a developed country, comes out to just about $10k/year, and it probably costs cities far more to put homeless people in cheap hotels. Of course, these tiny homes don't just cost $10k upfront because you have to put them somewhere, but as long as they last at least 1-2 years they seem just as cost effective as SROs. Also, homeless shelters are only cost effective for people who put up with them. A lot of homeless people would rather sleep in a tent or a car than a shelter and I honestly can't blame them, I'd probably do the same. Since shelters are less preferable to literally living outside to so many people (even in the absence of drug addiction) they are IMO not cost effective at actually addressing homelessness.
qingcharles 2y ago
Having been homeless, the reason you see people sleeping rough and not in shelters is out of choice. Firstly, there are lots of restrictions for entering shelters (many won't allow you to stay without ID), and then there are enormous amounts of rules for staying there which makes it akin to prison for the residents (most of whom are fresh out of the joint). The other issue is that if you are recovering from an addiction, then shelters are awful. Literally every person there is trying to sell you some kind of substance, and when they're not doing that they are trying to figure out some other form of crime that you can help them with to get money for their addictions. Homeless people just often want to be left to their own devices, so I can see these tiny homes helping there.

weitendorf 2y ago

IMO these are more comparable to transitional housing or maybe even a lower quality version of section 8 than to a shelter. If you compare the costs of these to something like an SRO or cheap hotel (common transitional housing in SF) I'm betting these come out ahead. The going rate for SROs here, which I'm assuming isn't far off from any major city in a developed country, comes out to just about $10k/year, and it probably costs cities far more to put homeless people in cheap hotels. Of course, these tiny homes don't just cost $10k upfront because you have to put them somewhere, but as long as they last at least 1-2 years they seem just as cost effective as SROs. Also, homeless shelters are only cost effective for people who put up with them. A lot of homeless people would rather sleep in a tent or a car than a shelter and I honestly can't blame them, I'd probably do the same. Since shelters are less preferable to literally living outside to so many people (even in the absence of drug addiction) they are IMO not cost effective at actually addressing homelessness.

qingcharles 2y ago

Having been homeless, the reason you see people sleeping rough and not in shelters is out of choice. Firstly, there are lots of restrictions for entering shelters (many won't allow you to stay without ID), and then there are enormous amounts of rules for staying there which makes it akin to prison for the residents (most of whom are fresh out of the joint). The other issue is that if you are recovering from an addiction, then shelters are awful. Literally every person there is trying to sell you some kind of substance, and when they're not doing that they are trying to figure out some other form of crime that you can help them with to get money for their addictions. Homeless people just often want to be left to their own devices, so I can see these tiny homes helping there.