Tim Ybarra, 62, flips through an assembly book for a geodesic dome. It will ultimately become a kitchen, providing one meal a day for residents of Union Point on the Rise, a pilot project where unhoused people in the US city of Oakland will co-govern their community.

Surrounding Ybarra are 16 white, prefabricated tiny homes, purchased by the city for about $8,000 each. After living without a house for 15 years, and most recently in a tent, Ybarra is now moving into his new temporary home with a bed, electricity, heat, carbon monoxide monitor, fire alarm, fire extinguisher, and lock and key. He also has access to drinking water and a shower.

The pilot project came about after the city earlier this year ordered the closure of an encampment at Union Point Park, where Ybarra and others had been living. But residents held their ground, and with the assistance of housing activists and lawyers, they negotiated an agreement with the city to live in a space they could manage themselves, in conjunction with a local housing nonprofit.

North American cities have seen unhoused populations increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, amid rising unemployment and speculative housing markets. Feeling unsafe in shelters and hotels, people have spilled into parks, making the issue more visible.

In Oakland, tiny home villages are springing up to meet the rapidly growing demand among unhoused people, with some sanctioned by the city and others built without municipal permissions by volunteers.

But such projects provide only temporary relief – and the number of units is nowhere close to meeting the overwhelming need. In 2019, there were 4,071 unhoused people in Oakland, up from 2,761 two years prior, according to a report produced for Alameda County. Of the 2019 figure, 79 percent were unsheltered

Read the full article about temporary homes for unhoused people by Hilary Beaumont at Aljazeera.