Anyways, here is Becky's letter, as the link to the Tribune above does not always work:
Becky Jorgeson, founder of Hope's Village of SLO, was showing off this cabin at Home Depot in San Luis Obispo on Tuesday. She hopes to build villages of these tiny homes around SLO County.
I just want to thank Cynthia Lambert for her great article on Wednesday (“Nonprofit seeks land for a village”), and whoever wrote that wonderful bouquet to us in a recent paper!
Thanks to you, Hope’s Village of SLO is closer than ever to getting 50 more homeless folks off the streets and out of the bushes. We’ll serve those people living on the streets of San Luis Obispo who are ineligible for other services because of a million different reasons. If you know anyone in the world with a tiny plot of rural-type land (3 to 5 acres) outside San Luis Obispo city limits that they’d like a great tax write off on, or someone who would give us a longterm inexpensive lease, please advise.
Once we get the first village up and running, we can duplicate in North County; hence the name (Hope’s Village of Paso Robles, or Hope’s Village of Arroyo Grande, or Hope’s Village of Morro Bay). Time to get more proactive. We can reduce homelessness in our town, in our time!
*****Original Post - 3/28/2015: I am a huge supporter of Hope's Village of SLO. They were recently featured in the Tribune newspaper of San Luis Obispo on March 25, 2015 on page A3. You can read that article in the Tribune by Clicking Here. The reason for my support is that I support all options for affordable housing on the Central Coast - and so should you. Some excerpts from the Tribune article below (in blue):
A village of 30 small, solar-powered dwellings could house about 50 adults in a drug-and-alcohol free space with a “common house” where residents could cook, shower and wash their clothes. The village would have private security and a council of residents who would meet regularly, Jorgeson said.
What the group needs ... is land ... around San Luis Obispo for about 5 acres on which to cluster the tiny homes, the common house and additional space for a garden and a workshop where residents could start small businesses such as refurbishing furniture.
Hope’s Village has constructed one model home; a 7-by-11-foot cabin that cost about $3,900 to build... In the meantime, the organization’s other project, RVs for Veterans, is still going strong. The organization, which passes on donated recreational vehicles to homeless veterans, just received its 37th donation.
Article by Cynthia Lambert - (805) 781-7929.
In addition, I support Hope's Village's other program: RV for Veterans, which receives donated RVs, makes minor repairs to them, and donates them to our homeless vets.
Other forms of affordable housing possibilities (besides Tiny Home Villages such as Hope's Village) include (in no particular order):
• Co-operative housing
• Building Codes in Municipalities which allow Affordable Green Micro-Housing to be built
• Expansion of "granny units" within existing residential
• Legalizing "HomeShare" to allow people to share existing housing
• Converting the sizable portion of unoccupied housing into rental housing
• Tent cities: Empty land with legal tents for the homeless, with basic services on site
• Permanent Tiny Home Villages that do not require them to be on a Trailer
• RV and Modular Home Parks, including Trailer Parks
• Allowing living units to be built on top of retail units on the ground floor
Most or all of the above affordable housing options are not being created in SLO county at this time, to my knowledge.
The reality is that existing so-called Affordable Housing activities by all levels of government do not produce actually produce affordable housing in volumes that make a dent in the problem. For evidence of that, all you have to do is look around - how much "affordable housing" can you find? Answer: pretty much none. I define Affordable Housing as 30% of total income going to housing and utilities. For a person earning $10 per hour ($18,200 per year), that is about $450 per month.
Note that Affordable Housing is in demand in order to house the unhoused, as well as to allow low income adults to spend a smaller percentage of their total income for housing. Typically, most low income families in SLO pay 50 to 70% of their income towards housing and utilities, leaving little for the rest of life's essentials.
You can contact Becky Jorgeson, President of Hope's Village at 805/234-5478 for more information, or email her at beckyrjorgeson@yahoo.com. As with all local non-profits, donations are always needed, especially once Hope's Village procure a site for their Village.
Below is a conversation from Facebook on this article about Hope's Village. I only show the first names of all the folks participating, while leaving my name "Tim Waag" complete.
Click Here to go back to "Tim Waag Blog" Home Page!
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