This is a Good Idea… but the city’s response is a Bad Idea!
In Toronto, a young carpenter is building ‘tiny shelters’ for the homeless. The city isn’t happy. April 23, 2021
Toronto residents have been advised to shelter in place, under restrictions that rise and fall according to the pandemic, since March 2020, when the coronavirus first reached North America. That long-term lockdown was hard enough on people with means and a roof over their heads. For people without housing, however, the idea of “sheltering in place” meant accepting a prolonged lockdown and an escalating risk of exposure to the virus in city shelters that were more overcrowded than usual in 2020.
When some of those people without housing opted to sleep outside in tents rather than accept the heightened risk at the shelters, 28-year-old carpenter Khaleel Seivwright came up with a creative solution to help them. He began designing and constructing wooden “tiny shelters”—insulated structures of 2 by 6 feet outfitted with door locks and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors—and began offering them for free to people in need.
Read the article in America: The Jesuit Review here.
Editorial | When property comes before people, a crisis boils over in Southern Oregon
Realtors’ efforts paved the way for the dire lack of housing solutions in Josephine County
Grants Pass, the hub of Southern Oregon’s Josephine County, just saw its plan for a short-term homeless shelter collapse under the pressure of community opposition. Had it materialized, it would have been the only low-barrier shelter in the county.
Street Roots has been covering the homeless and housing situation in Josephine County as part of our rural housing initiative, and as we previously reported, this 40-room shelter would have provided respite for dozens of families, couples and individuals. In 2018, there were 650 unhoused people in the county, and a statewide shelter study found that 91% of them were unsheltered. The county’s severe lack of affordable housing is in part why the homeless population has more than doubled….
Read the Street Roots article here.
