After selling his software business for millions, Marcel Lebrun decided to pour his time and money into an affordable housing project in Fredericton. CBC’s Harry Forestell takes a closer look at the 12 Neighbours community and its impact on the people who live there.
why are they tiny and not regular
I’ll play devil’s advocate here …
First is many homeless need an address to start receiving any monetary help at all (CPP, social assistance, disability, etc). This starts the process.
Second is many don’t have jobs so wouldn’t be able to afford the maintenance costs of a full-size house.
Third is this could be a starter home for some, where they could get a job and start saving for a down-payment on a home or a larger rental unit.
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Honestly, like 200 sq ft. You don’t share walls with your neighbours. No stomping on the ceiling.
For free? Yeah, I could make it work and I’m not even homeless ffs.
It’s not free. You pay 30% of your income (source is the video).
but presumably you’re getting social assistance, no? it’s sort of like a Basic Income
Only with an address. If you have no address you can’t register.
That said there are a rare few agencies that allow people to use the agency address to start the process, but that’s the exception rather than the rule.
I’ve always paid >50% of my income when I rented. Sounds good!
I think it’s a decent solution for some. A small private space. I’ll note though that it is rather inefficient in land use. Many of the residents will need a car as well as they get back on their feet. Building these is closer to suburban sprawl in the form of a mini-mobile home park, which is not terrible, as I said it will be a decent solution for some.
I’d be curious as to the construction costs and land use for 99 of these tiny homes vs. building apartment blocks/condos closer into transit and work. Granted I was curious and a quick Google show $800,000 for 880 ft^2 1 bed, 1 bath condo in Vancouver.
Yeah, people saying he should have built an apartment have never paid rent in Vancouver LOL. People paying huge rent for half a living room with a sheet hung from the ceiling for privacy. at least with these you have youe own kitchen, toilet, shower, and personal privacy
I don’t think you understand the term “Devil’s Advocate” as everything you’re (rightly) stating is positive to the person doing this.
To play the Devil’s Advocate, the person doing this is a Millionaire. I guarantee they are getting tax breaks out the ears for doing this and their accountants will ensure that this ends up being a money making venture for them. Pessimistically speaking, there’s no such thing as altruism.
He is able to build one a week (with kitchen, toilet, shower) so it gets the people in fast. Building a regular home needs foundation and has lots of wasted space like hallways, etc. And not your own space if you have multiple tennants in a 4 bedroom , who want to be sel sufficient individuals
You need to know your place. You are still bottom class, we are just letting you survive.
eat the rich
At least they aren’t communist lemmy posters who spend all their days shitting on good deeds.
Seriously. This whole comment section is disgusting.
On the other hand, at least something is better than nothing
Because we can’t let poor people have dignity. A large part of our system is designed to punish poor people for being poor, and to make sure that they know it.
I don’t think people realize how important hierarchy and order are to the wealthy. As a class, they’re so far above basic needs (food, shelter, security) that all that really matters is their station in the world. When you understand that, you’ll also understand why the wealthy are almost viscerally, psychotically opposed to anything the “flattens” society: public education, healthcare, social services. They’re quite happy to, eg, donate a hospital wing because it’s a grand gesture of their magnanimity, but if you ask them to pay the same in taxes they’ll kick and scream.
If you just let poor people lead a life of quiet dignity… (shudder)
Ngl that being said, I would live in one, it’s a pretty nice studio imo.
I had to downsize to a bedroom last April and miss having my own kitchen and more space. I’d live in one of these in a heartbeat.
This gives them immediate dignity. Address, wash and toilet facilities, a kitchen, and a safe place to sleep amd keep belongings. Just because a 200sqft house doesn’t look like a detached 2 story don’t take away their chance at living like a human. Heck non vulnerable people in Vanvouver pay huge rent for 200sq ft bicycle sheds.
Dudes a millionaire, not billionaire. /S
Larger homes cost more to build for obvious reasons, so with any given amount of money, you have to balance the amount of individual units you can build with the size of the units.
Which is to say that you can provide homes for more people if you make them tiny and not regular
Most of the cost of a home comes from the land sale itself, unless if you’re building somewhere nobody wants the land (in which case there’s nothing nearby to earn a living by as well). Considering that, building larger will only marginally increase the price. Doubly so if the larger building is for more than one resident.
A pair of townhouses can be built for almost the same cost of a single typical single family house, yet house two families on the same plot of land. A condo or apartment can house dozens for the cost of less than 10 normal houses.
Not to mention the reduced cost of plumbing and heating if you build one large building for a community rather than having dozens of separate systems for individual shacks.
This is true, yeah. I didn’t know they were standalone units, which would be counterproductive with regards to saving money.
Maybe there’s some zoning issue at hand, though.
Zoning is generally the #1 problem in regards to housing, though mostly as a result. It’s the NIMBY movement as a root cause and the reason why such strict zoning is even a thing.
What’s the mix of singles and families in the group needing shelter?
What funds are available? Is it better to build 99 tiny houses or 50 regular but small houses or 25 moderately sized homes?
What land and services are available? Are there differences in permitting?
Are there differences in the construction process? Is it better to jumpstart a project returning nearly immediate results with a bunch of quick and easy to build tiny houses or to take much longer to build out?
What I’d like to see is the long term plan. Is this the beginning of something grand or just a bandaid. It’s not that we don’t sometimes need bandaids, but it would be nicer to see a longer term plan.
As a first step? Maybe it will prove to be a misstep, but at least someone is doing, not just talking. Learn as we go.
This project looks like a jump up from Seattle’s various tiny homes villages (Nickelsville, Othello, etc), which are around 120sq.ft each and don’t have running water, if I recall. Those are considered temporary housing, but this is a like a next step up.
Curious how these ones interact with building codes, etc, being more permanent.
Either way, people who haven’t frozen to death, been stabbed, or OD’d have more options for recovery and moving forward.
Yeah, these ones don’t look far removed from the ones I’ve seen on YouTube that people with plenty of options choose to live in.