Tiny Homes Coming to Portland Backyards

PORTLAND, OR – A first-of-its-kind project will soon put Portland’s unsheltered citizens into homes –– in the backyards of other homes.

According to a report first seen in Willamette Week, and later reported by the Associated Press and the Oregonian, government-constructed modular units will be made available to four homeless families in the Portland area as part of the “A Place for You” project, a pilot program beginning summer 2017.

Gillian Flaccus for the Associated Press explained the project, called A Place for You, is believed to be the first in the nation to recruit stable residents to address a homeless crisis that's gotten so bad the city last year declared a state of emergency and made it legal to sleep on the street.

Portland has an affordable rental shortage of 24,000 units and nearly 4,000 people sleep on the street, in a shelter or in transitional housing each night, Flaccus wrote. The city successfully passed a $260 million housing bond with residents' approval, but it will still be two years before the new units are ready.

Starting with just four families, probably, officials behind A Place For You hope to expand the program if it shows signs of success.

For more on this project, read the AP story here.