An abandoned office park in Sacramento will be the site of the first group of 1,200 tiny homes to be built in four cities to address California’s homelessness crisis, the governor’s office announced Wednesday after being criticized for the project experiencing multiple delays.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is under pressure to make good on his promise to show he’s tackling the issue. In March, the Democratic governor announced a plan to gift several California cities hundreds of tiny homes by the fall to create space to help clear homeless encampments that have sprung up across the state’s major cities. The $30 million project would create homes, some as small as 120 square feet (11 square meters), that can be assembled in 90 minutes and cost a fraction of what it takes to build permanent housing.

More than 171,000 homeless people live in California, making up about 30% of the nation’s homeless population. The state has spent roughly $30 billion in the last few years to help them, with mixed results.

  • @Num10ck
    link
    English
    31 year ago

    in tons of instances theres simply lacking the infrastructure like electricity water and sewer and traffic etc to handle such densities in a reasonable timeframe, nor the labor or materials or finances to bring them up. i’d love to see a long term plan along with a short term stopgap like this.

    • @grue
      link
      English
      41 year ago

      It’s called “impact fees.” The developers pay for the infrastructure costs to support the development.