LA builds village of tiny homes to tackle homelessness

City spent $8.6m on 103 new homes to help take people off the streets

Los Angeles has built a village of tiny homes to help tackle homelessness in the city.

Officials spent $8.6m constructing the 103 homes, which each measure 64 square-feet, in an unusable city park space.

Each tiny home in the North Hollywood village has air conditioning, heating and storage space, and residents will be provided with bathrooms, showers and three meals a day.

“This is a life changing moment to go from living in a tent on a sidewalk to living in your own private, secure, hygienic, space like this,” said councilman Paul Krekorian.

It is the second tiny home village to be built in the city, which is struggling to deal with the chronic problem and which now sees encampments of tents on streets across Los Angeles.

Authorities say that in 2020 there were more than 41,000 homeless people in Los Angeles, but the 2021 count was cancelled because of the pandemic.

Last week a federal judge in the city ordered the city and county to offer every homeless person living on the notorious Skid Row shelter by October. 

Judge David Carter also ordered the city council and mayor Eric Garcetti to put $1bn in an escrow account to deal with homelessness.

Mr Garcetti has announced an annual budget of $955m to deal with homelessness, up from $10m when he took office in 2013.

The first tiny home village opened earlier this year and is full.

Officials at the The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority said in February that while 207 people a day were rehoused in the city, 227 became homeless.