Los Angeles Addresses Homelessness With Tiny Home Village Project
As a direct response to the city’s fast growing homeless population, Los Angeles opened the doors to its first pilot interim housing project last week, the Chandler Boulevard Bridge Home Village. The village features 40 tiny prefab homes with 75 beds total, social services, and shared outdoor spaces. From 2019 to 2020, the number of residents lacking shelter surged by 16%, according to LA’s Homeless Services Authority 2020 Homeless Count. The village has already reached capacity, Dwell reports. Each prefab unit cost $7,500 total, including labor and materials, and were assembled in less than an hour.
Though this is L.A.’s first tiny home village, Pallet has helped set up tiny home communities for the homeless across the nation, from Waimanalo, Hawaii, to Riverside, California.
To give the community a sense of identity and vibrancy, Lehrer Architects painted the homes and communal facilities with bold and bright colors. This low-cost technique has become one of the firm’s favorite tools in its decades-long experience in working on housing solutions for the homeless across Los Angeles.