South Florida cities are planning ‘tiny homes' for homeless

Last year, Florida approved a law to prohibit people from sleeping on streets, sidewalks and parks. And starting on January 1^st, the public can sue local governments if they don’t think enough is being done to get the unsheltered off the streets.

So now, local cities across South Florida have been scrambling to find solutions to give people a home.

And some municipalities are considering the option of tiny homes.

“The best way to take care of them is to not throw more money at them, the best way to take care of them is housing first,” said Maria Sachs, a County Commissioner in Palm Beach.

She is behind a potential solution to get more than 1,500 people off the street. And her big idea starts with tiny homes.

“The houses are built off site, they are transported in 24 to 48 hours, and as fast as we can in the county hook up electrical and other services, could take up to two weeks and then the support services will be there depending on their issues,” she said.

The idea originated on a model from the National Alliance to end homelessness called Housing First, which claims to prioritize ‘providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness, thus ending their homelessness and serving as a platform from which they can pursue personal goals and improve their quality of life.’

“What it resolves is the greatest fear of a homeless person, the fear of being attacked or accosted,” said Sachs. “The most important thing is the key to the front door, it gives them a sense of security.”

So where do things stand in Palm Beach?

Commissioner Sachs says they have already talked with different manufacturers but want to make sure they meet Miami’s building code, which is one of the strictest.

They are even considering tiny homes you could purchase right off Amazon.

Ideally, Commissioner Sachs would like to see no more than 10 cottages in an area, preferably one that’s industrial or commercially zoned.

“Different areas of the county have distressed areas that can be purchased from private entities, so the most important thing is that no one will be in a big shanti town or big community of 100 cottages. But everyone will have the dignity of a roof over their head, a key to the door and a private bathroom,” she explained.

Federal grants are available to help purchase land and cottages, but Sachs wants all of the local mayors approvals before moving forward.

“We are ready to go in terms of finding a distressed property, we have a whole list of manufacturers who are waiting for the say so to go ahead and put these together. Some have already done it, we have pictures of what it would look like. And it depends on the mayor and that city as to what type of mini cottages that mayor would like for their city.”

BROWARD AND MIAMI-DADE

In Broward County, Mayor Nan Rich has been championing for tiny homes, and past discussions have been to create a community of 100 of them in Dania Beach or build fiberglass shelters.

But so far, none of those ideas have come to pass.

In Miami-Dade, the Homeless Trust is hoping to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

“These are two unit, whole bath, living room, kitchen. They are about 465 square feet,” said Ron Book, Chairman of the Board of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, that for three years have been looking for the perfect tiny home product.

He believes they have found a winner in a company called Plad homes out of Dania Beach.

Book hopes that once they meet Florida Building Code Standards and Miami’s Building Code, by mid-February they can get the products approvals and begin construction potentially in early summer.

The plan would be to start with 75 homes, later buying 75 more, to house roughly 300 people.

“Tiny homes provide a less costly alternative to constructing from the ground up. I think the challenge with tiny homes is finding real estate that you can use that can accommodate more than a single home. Simply doing one here, one there is not good enough. That’s why our goal with the first group is putting that 50-75 in one place and then growing from there,” said Book.

While Book believes tiny homes are a solution, it’s only a piece to the puzzle. With close to 1,000 still unsheltered, the county has also been buying buildings in Overtown, North Miami, and more recently transforming the former La Quinta Inn in Cutler Bay.