Tiny Home Communities: Alternative Solutions to Addressing Homelessness

Abstract

Homelessness is decreasing nationally, but populations experiencing homelessness in certain states and unsheltered homelessness both increasing. Also, chronic homelessness still makes up large part of populations experiencing homelessness. There are significant health issues individual and costs to local and state governments associated with unsheltered and/or chronic homelessness. While decreasing national homelessness shows the effectiveness of existing programs, increasing unsheltered homelessness and prevalent chronic homelessness shows there are still issues to be addressed and ways to supplement or fix current housing programs. One way to do this would be through increased local, state, and government funded tiny home communities, especially in areas facing the most severe increasing in unsheltered homelessness or chronic homelessness. This increased funding could assist in decreasing populations experiencing chronic homelessness and could help states or cities experiencing high populations of unsheltered homeless better assist residents.