The first tiny home village was built in Portland, Oregon in 2001. Dignity Village, originally the site of a tent city for the homeless, was assembled by volunteers, non-profit groups with cooperation from the Portland City Council. Similar to Seattle, residents share bathroom and kitchen facilities.
Tiny home villages have sprung up in Fresno, CA; River Haven in Ventura, CA; Eugene, Oregon; Olympia, Washington, and now in Seattle.
Victoria (British Columbia) City Council has studied these housing options for the homeless with a $25,000 grant to the Micro-housing Victoria committee. The committee was leery of a solution that separates potential occupants from the rest of the community. Additionally, tiny home villages are supposed to be stop-gap until residents achieve more stable housing, but if affordable housing does not become available, the tine homes remain.
With this in mind, theVictoria committee designed a six unit modular home with six private bedrooms, two baths, two sinks and a full kitchen with seating for six.
Victoria City Councillor Marianne Alto said, “The city is involved with the region to create a huge amount of permanent housing available within a very short time. That’s still a couple of years away. And so the question becomes, what do you do in the meantime? And so microhousing becomes an important part of that solution.”
With a goal of five sites and ten houses by this summer, the city of Victoria has offered assistance with zoning and utilities. ##
(Image credit: oregonlive/techdwell the builder–tiny home)
