California will spend $30 million to build 1,200 tiny homes to combat the state's homelessness crisis — here's what they could look like

On March 16, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state will spend $30 million building 1,200 tiny homes this year as part of California's effort to decrease its unhoused population by 15% by 2025.

Source: Associated Press, Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom

"The crisis of homelessness will never be solved without first solving the crisis of housing – the two issues are inextricably linked," Newsom said. "We are tackling this issue at the root of the problem by addressing the need to create more housing, faster in California."

Source: Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom

These 1,200 tiny homes will be distributed across four communities — Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Jose, and San Diego County — and beds will be prioritized for people who currently reside in encampments.

Los Angeles will receive the most at 500 units while San Diego will be dealt the least with 150 tiny homes.

At this time, it's unclear who will be building these tiny shelters or where exactly they'll go …

… although it has been reported that the units could be as small as 120 square-feet, Adam Beam reported for the Associated Press.

Source: Associated Press

But in the meantime, we could turn to Los Angeles as an example of what this collection of tiny homes might look like.

The city is no stranger to spending millions of dollars on these unique shelters.

The 200 beds at one of its latest villages, Alexandria Park Tiny Home Village, each cost about $43,000, bringing the cost of the village to $8.6 million.

Source: Insider

This site is being operated by Hope of the Valley, a faith-based nonprofit that has been deploying prefab tiny homes made by Washington-based Pallet to create these "tiny home villages" throughout Los Angeles.

It all started in February 2021 with its first Chandler Street Tiny Home Village, a colorful collection of tiny homes tucked in a previously "forgotten" corner of North Hollywood.

This "test case" for the city as Rowan Vansleve, CFO of the nonprofit, called it, then became a success.

And shortly after it opened, the village began accumulating a waitlist for its beds.

Source: Insider

Now two years out, Hope of the Valley has opened six tiny home villages in the county, providing 908 beds to unhoused Angelenos.

Source: Hope of the Valley

When you think of homeless shelters, you probably think of congregate shelters, not these unconventional colorful villages.

However, there are drawbacks to these traditional shelters, such as the cost and time it takes to construct them.

The open and shared spaces can also be triggering or traumatizing to people who've been living on the streets, which could stop people from seeking help, Amy King, Pallet's CEO, told Insider in 2022.

Pallet builds the tiny homes used in Hope of the Valley's tiny home villages.

Source: Insider

Pallet's most popular 64-square-foot Shelter 64 costs $7,500 and takes about an hour to assemble on-site.

Source: Insider

An entire village can then be built in a little over a week, according to the company.

Hope of the Valley's villages are outfitted with these colorful Shelter 64s, which are all located in an enclosed community surrounded by a fence.

For some unhoused people, these tiny homes are certainly better than a congregate shelter.

But inside, the units are far from a plush apartment. They provide the bare minimum …

… which includes one or two beds, an air conditioner and heater, a desk, lights, outlets, and maybe most importantly, a lockable door.

"For people who've experienced trauma, having a locking door can sometimes become the difference between accepting help getting off the street and making a step towards permanent supportive housing," Vansleve told Insider in 2021.

Source: Insider

The small homes don't have enough space for bathrooms and showers. Instead, there are separate on-site laundry and bathroom facilities.

Residents also have access to communal dining facilities and three meals a day.

The goal of these non-congregate shelters isn't just to provide a temporary bed for those who need it the most. It's for residents to find permanent housing.

To help expedite this process, the villages all have on-site security and caseworkers to aid in services like mental health treatment and job searches.

Drugs, alcohol, and weapons are not allowed inside the villages.

Source: Insider

There are, of course, difficulties with running these communities.

At a similar 40-unit tiny home village in Everett, Washington, many of the residents are experiencing trauma, behavioral difficulties, and substance use, John Hull, director of strategic initiatives with Everett Gospel Mission, told Insider in 2022.

Source: Insider 

This substance abuse keeps residents in the Washington village — located near Pallet's manufacturing site — for longer than six months.

To compare, the sites in Los Angeles want their residents to find permanent housing within half a year.

Source: Insider

And it's not always guaranteed success: A handful of Everett Gospel Mission's original residents have moved back onto the streets.

Source: Insider

"The difficulty is if Pallet doesn't work for them, there's not a whole lot of other options in our community," Hull said at the time. "We're not necessarily equipped to handle pretty severe mental health or psychosis."

But for those who do find success in the program, residents stay for an average of three to six months before transitioning to permanent housing, Amy King, Pallet's CEO, told Insider.

Source: Insider 

"We're just people who were trying to help these participants better their life," Priscilla Rodriguez, a case manager at the Chandler Street Tiny Home Village, told Insider in 2021. "They're not trying to harm the community in any way, they're trying to get themselves back into the community."