"I'm angry! I'm hurt! Mad. It's sad. The whole damn thing is just sad. You take us from something and put us back. It's just sad." Those were the words of a woman named Angela after North Las Vegas code enforcement officials carried out the demolition of a community of tiny homes built to house the homeless in the famous southern Nevada city.
This isn’t the first time that the authorities have demolished the homes built by the non-profit New Leaf Building Community. In November of 2020, the city did the same to a couple dozen tiny homes serving the same purpose, although that was on public land. The homes destroyed this time were on private property owned by the non-profit itself. While tiny homes have been implemented in other American cities including Reno, Nevada, Las Vegas has freshly rejected them in this case.
New Leaf’s tiny home shelters were deemed “uninhabitable,” “unsanitary,” and “creating a fire hazard” according to official housing and safety codes in addition to zoning standards. It took one swoop by government authorities to wipe out what amounted to
five months of effort and resources by volunteers whose vision was to provide basic shelter for people struggling with homelessness.
Housing and homelessness have grown into major issues in America during the last decades. The pandemic and economic conditions of the past handful of years have made the problems even worse. A trend in recent years has been the tiny home movement where one way out of housing difficulty is to live in simplified constructions with minimum dimensions. While some choose to live in these homes for their lower costs or simplified living spaces, the benefit that tiny homes can bring to a homeless person is dramatic.
It comes down to the simple comforts of a roof over one’s head, a locking door, and the sense of security that is so often taken for granted that would go a long way in helping a homeless individual break out of that situation. Instead of focusing on immediate needs like taking care of belongings and getting a full night of rest, the homeless who have basic shelter can begin thinking a few more steps ahead and plan to improve their situations.
Tiny homes can be seen as a creative solution to homelessness that has sprung out of the local community. It grows out of the relationships and bonds between people who need help and those who want to lend a hand. Even if these tiny homes do not stack up to the quality of more permanent and traditional housing arrangements like apartments and multi-room houses, the homeless individuals speak for themselves when they voice their preference to stay in a tiny home rather than on the streets.
Taking away these tiny homes pulls the rug out from under those who had just begun getting back on their feet. Here, state regulation becomes an obstacle to free individuals who are taking action to find innovative and effective remedies to this growing problem in their community.
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