The First Tiny Home for Homeless In Akron Has Been Built

This weekend represents a major milestone in the human rights movement of the homeless of Akron Ohio.
A group by the name of People 4 Homeless run by Dave Murray built this home.
The floor and all 4 sides are insulated. The slightly sloping roof is covered in a single piece of dense plastic that could be easily replaced if it gets holes.
There is a lock on the front door.
The entire back wall opens up to form a patio ceiling so you can relax under cover on nicer days.
This home took 5 days to build. And took about 1 hour to assemble on location.
It cost about $1000 in supplies.
Dave feels that costs could decrease to between $500 and $800. And he thinks he could get to the point where he could build 1 a day.
Here is a video of this amazing tiny home:

Let’s just stop and think about that for a minute.
You could house 100 of the most destitute homeless for $80,000.
This is the efficiency of innovation. Bureaucracy only looks at problems. Innovators only see solutions.
We have so much land in Akron that there should be almost no cost to get land from the Summit County Land Bank. There are currently 139 pieces of vacant land available right now in the Summit County Land Bank list.
There is only one excuse for not taking care of the homeless in Akron: FEAR.
The city has never faced its homeless crisis and therefore thinks it is a near impossibility to get a handle on it.
So let me lay it out for them:
Step 1: Stop the hemorrhaging. Give the homeless a place to exist. A tent. A tiny house. A vacant house. A vacant building. I don’t care. Give them a place where they are safe from the fear of being caught and thrown out. The administration is BY FAR the most dangerous threat to these people. Cold, violence, starvation, disease. All of these are secondary threats to the homeless.
Step 2: Have existing service providers go to these known locations to work with these people. Get them involved in mental health programs, addiction programs. Get them identifications. Get them food cards. Get them on the list for housing. Step 2 is incredibly easy. All of this currently exists.
Step 3: Work on affordable housing. There is no reason why we can’t build $20,000 homes in Akron. We have the talent and land to make this happen immediately.
Step 4: Assess the system and evolve with changing needs.
Step 1 and Step 4 will be the hardest for the administration to deal with. Changing and innovating are not their strong suits. So it is very likely we will constantly need to hold city officials accountable. I suspect a human rights law for the homeless will likely need to be created.
I honestly sometimes feel like I’m with the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars trying to restore freedom and justice for the homeless.
Everything we’re doing with the homeless is being met with suspicion and distrust from the administration.
According to them, we are jeopardizing the lives of the homeless. If we give them tents we are threatening them with hypothermia and death. If we let them sleep in our building we’re threatening them with fire and death.
Meanwhile, the actual homeless are living in the worst possible conditions imaginable because the administration doesn’t know what to do with them. The administration’s lack of action is the true and real threat to the homeless.
So, it is with a certain amount of trepidation that I tell you that the very first tiny home for the homeless has been built and put up in Akron Ohio.
To be VERY CLEAR it is NOT located in Second Chance Village.
We have built it in a secret camp in an undisclosed location.
It is our belief that the building department will not allow tiny homes to exist in Akron if they are not connected to utilities and meet all the building codes.
People living in infested, disease ridden illegal hidden camps are fine (until one person calls to complain about them). But trying to do something to make their lives slightly better is overtly illegal and must either comply or shut down.
So, until we get written confirmation that the city of Akron will allow homeless to live in tiny homes we will build them covertly and secretly.
But ultimately this is a great day for the homeless of Akron. The people of Akron are taking the lead in helping the homeless of Akron.
America was built on the foundation of “by the people, for the people.” This is how we will solve the homeless disease of America. The people will solve it.