Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier and other Republicans in county government to build a 20-acre, $50 million microhome village that would provide residence to roughly 200 to 300 people experiencing chronic homelessness in our community.
Draws its inspiration from a development outside of Austin, Texas. There, the Community First! village has been in operation since 2015 and houses more than 300 residents in small dwellings similar to mobile homes. Designed as traditional neighborhoods, there are health clinics, addiction-recovery services and employment opportunities, among other resources, on site. Essentially, it’s a new take on what’s often referred to as permanent supportive housing, specifically designed for people who are often hardest to serve and most difficult to get off of the street.
Using $22 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding and relying on philanthropic and other sources to cover the rest of the estimated $50 million price tag, Dammeier and company would like to construct a local version of the Austin experiment in unincorporated Pierce County.
Encouraging news. Amazing work by Mr. Dammeier. It’s a great idea and I want to see more of it.
How can we repeat this elsewhere? Is this just a fluke on the west coast, or is this plan palatable in other areas?
Mississippi pretty much solved their homeless problem believe it or not. Of course they solved it by just giving people places to live without conditions. So don’t act surprised when cons work on the issue. Also have to remember like forty percent of homeless are veterans.
This equates to $167,000.00 to $250,000.00 per person. Financially…again…it’s way too expensive and in the long run, will not work IMO.
Locally, I donate to a place that houses the homeless for the evening, feeds them breakfast in the morning and then they’re on their own until that evening. Again…I don’t know that a problem has been fixed but it’s been helped and done so in an affordable way for the long run.
We could print them tiny houses for a fraction of that, they have done pilot ones, fully furnished for under 10k a piece. Add another 10k for solar and no energy bills.
How much for housing? But yes, the services also cost money, the trick is to get better results for less money then homelessness costs and it does cost. People steer clear of businesses when there are a lot of homeless in the vicinity.
