There are still a few hours left into this Giving Tuesday—how about investing in a locally-founded project that hopes to give Tucson’s thousands of homeless residents a place to sleep and store their things.
Community Supported Shelters Tucson came to be in the summer of 2013 thanks to a group of advocates, which includes long-time homeless activist Michele Ream, who work with homeless people in trying to find housing, shelter, re-issue IDs, etc. It began as a movement to “engage the community in addressing the critical need for basic shelter and security” for our community members experiencing homelessness, and who are ineligible for a shelter bed, for instance, because they do not have an ID, and who aren’t allowed to sit on a sidewalk or park to rest.
From those issues came the idea of building huts that could be placed at churches, private residences, and so on, where people could sit, sleep and temporarily live.
From the project’s Go Fund Me page:
Much as we suspected, we have found the “hut” model works exceptionally well, especially for those that do not have options within the current limited framework of shelter and housing services in our community. Huts are able to meet their needs in a super cost effective and humane manner. They can bring basic shelter, security and stability to our community members who have no other options. Most importantly this is what the homeless folks I work with are saying they want and need. Community Supported Shelters Tucson is being modeled after already successful programs in cities such as Eugene, Oregon and Madison, Wisconsin.
Your donation will help the nonprofit (the project got its nonprofit status back in January):
– Design and build a standardized prototype that can be used to educate the community about the concept of Homeless Huts, which is approaching completion.
– Design and build a custom Hut out of alternative materials to serve as a model and residence for a currently homeless individual
– Purchase several power tools (table saw, compound miter saw, drill) to facilitate building
– Purchase promo items (stickers and t-shirts) to help get the word out about what we are doing
The organization plans to host an open house in December so that people can check out what’s been developed thus far.
To donate, visit the project’s Go Fund Me page.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2015.
Where are these homeless huts going to be places? Public or private property?
Only churches or private residences?
Can Michele Ream guarantee that these huts will not end up in washes or the property of individuals who do not want squatters?
I don’t think our native population is growing enough, we need more Syrian refugees, especially Muslims to enter the workforce (with limited to no skills of course).
Can anyone see the logical disconnect of a certain group of peoples ideology?
Take care of America first.
These people ARE Americans, dipshit.
Successful programs in Eugene Oregon and Madison Wisconsin? When you look up stupid liberal cities, those two are tied for first. They instituted the free bicycle program, condoms for kids and needles for junkies.
Problems solved?
What about getting these guys into RV’s and start a program with agricultural regions to create a domestic seasonal picking work force. There is a huge demand for work within the agricultural sector but it is very seasonal and transitory. These are also good jobs! Apple pickers can make up to $250 a day (NPR), strawberry pickers can make up to $150 every 5 hours (LATimes)! Right now these agricultural picking jobs are predominantly held by Mexican immigrants. This won’t last forever! Recent trends show that more Mexicans are returning to Mexico than are coming here now, a negative immigration rate. This means that the Agricultural sector is going be needing even more workers in the future on top of the shortages we already have. Jobs, Homes and a significant role in our national economy? I think it would have to be some sort of national program but it could really work, like the public works projects of years past.
In the mean time, we need to get these people off of the streets, out of the washes and into safe, sanitary living conditions!
This concept of building small huts, aggregating them on empty lots, at churches and other spots around town in conjunction with showers and toilets deserves some serious studying! Where would these “hut towns” be located? Is this permanent housing or is it intended to be transitional? What support system or programs are they setting up to make sure that these don’t just become permanent residences, or is that the goal? Is their cooperation with the City/ County to ensure code compliance and building safety?
These questions are not meant to quell the project but to spur serious discussion about a very serious issue effecting millions around the nation. The only way it can work is by being well planned out and supported by the community. The project in Eugene, OR was built on land donated by the city, with all of the construction costs and materials coming from donors. I have no doubt our community can do the same!
This GoFundMe seems like it could be a great proof of concept and an awesome first step in the process towards something bigger. Finding a good location to plan, develop and built a community of 200+ huts could be huge for our community. How many of you have homeless people living in your neighborhoods right now? Your alleys? Washes? In cars on your streets? I guarantee you they are already there…
Interesting concepts but you are wrong about Mexicans leaving. Unless you think yesterday’s BP report was about OTM, which is Other Than Mexicans. They are reporting massive surges of illegals into the country, yet again.
The homeless population is made up mostly of Americans, many are hard working and fell victim to the poor decisions of bankers, with some Katrina leftovers, then we have the mental illness crowed, the older group with alltimers and dementia, we have the baby boomer house wives now widows or just left behind when ex husbands traded in for younger. We have the people who paid their debt to society but society is not ready to forgive, we have the unprotected community who we tolerate discrimination and so they are left behind to work the back page , And we have the strung out who are falling off daily, addiction is a mental illness but it’s a bitch, and they end up as propaganda for local politicians to pander over, .. Cleaning up the streets. The homeless population is as varied as the UN – but it’s not illegals living off tax payers- it’s not lazy and it’s not black or brown or white, it’s not one color and it’s not one religion- the common ground is how we treat them it is what we expect of them .
“These people ARE Americans, dipshit”.
Posted by Old_Crow
I didn’t say they weren’t.
Why aren’t we assisting American homeless instead of imaginary refugees, who are really just foreigners that don’t want to fight for their own land?
Understand that? Or do I need to call you a name to drive that altruistic dichotomy home?
You’re still very much a dipshit, dipshit.
Poor decisions made by bankers? We always need somebody else to blame? How miserable an existence when you can’t assume responsibility for your own decisions.
” how miserable an existence when you can’t assume responsibility for your your own decisions “.
There is a big difference between not accepting responsibility for voluntary choices and being a victim of fraud or a con. What happened to the investors of Enron, the Bernie scam, and the victims of the bad mortgages that have left people broke, some homeless and some living on government assistance and these are not people who made bad decisions.
These people were conned, this not about people gambling their money away and complaining- if you want to remove yourself that’s fine, but don’t blame the victim to make yourself feel justified in doing nothing.