A $1.7 million prefab tiny home community was designed to help solve homelessness in an expensive Southern California city. A year later, half of its residents have found homes.

Sat, 09/02/2023 - 07:08

Inside a tiny home at DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location — Of the 66 people who have stayed at DignityMoves' Santa Barbara prefab tiny home community, 36 have gone on to find permanent housing.
DignityMoves

One year ago, DignityMoves opened a prefab tiny home community to house Santa Barbara, California's unsheltered residents.
Of the 66 people who have stayed at the community, 36 have gone on to find permanent housing.
Take a look around the tiny home community.

It's been one year since a prefabricated tiny home community designed to temporarily shelter the unhoused residents of Santa Barbara, California has opened. More than half of its residents have gone on to find permanent housing.

Santa Barbara is a slice of oceanside paradise in Southern California, about a two-hour drive north of Los Angeles. As you might expect, it's as picturesque as any coastal and expensive Southern California city.

But what most pictures of quaint Santa Barbara might not show you is that its county is also on track to becoming a safe haven for people who are unsheltered, so long as nonprofit DignityMoves has its way.

Let's rewind one year to July 2021.

People walking through the entrance into DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location. — Image Courtesy of Alex Siegel, My Mosaic

At the time, DignityMoves had just completed its new tiny home community in downtown Santa Barbara.

In a former parking lot flanked by palm trees, blue skies, and views of the mountains, 1016 Santa Barbara stood — and still stands — as a secure community for unhoused folks in the downtown area.

The exterior of DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location — DignityMoves

The tiny home community, located about 1.5 miles from the coastline, cost $1.7 million to build in 2022. Santa Barbara County provided $700,000 to help finance the build while companies like Ikea donated furniture.

The community was designed to serve as interim housing, a way for previously unsheltered people to transition into the next phase of their life — permanent housing.

Before moving into the 34-home village, residents were previously sleeping on the streets in the immediate neighborhood.

And over the course of one year, the sunny collection of tiny homes has blossomed into a success story for the nonprofit and its residents.

People standing near open prefab tiny homes at DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location. — Image Courtesy of Alex Siegel, My Mosaic

The community has housed 66 people since its opening. Of those, about 36 people have moved into permanent housing, a spokesperson told Insider in an email. And there's still plenty of work left to do: The nonprofit estimates there are about 3,500 people who are unhoused in Santa Barbara county.

The property's tiny homes were built by Los Angeles-based Boss Tiny House. About 20% of them are occupied by couples.

A woman standing outside a prefab tiny home at DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location. — Image Courtesy of Alex Siegel, My Mosaic

All of these green-accented homes are topped with terracotta-colored roofs, giving them a tiny accessory dwelling unit flair.

Inside, the units have the same comforts as a college dorm.

A bed, wall decor, and nightstand in a tiny home at DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location — DignityMoves

They all have a bed, a window, a desk with a chair, and an air conditioner and heater.

And most importantly, there are locks on every door.

A bed and nightstand in a tiny home at DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location — DignityMoves

This locking door is what sets prefab tiny home communities like this Santa Barbara location apart from any congregate shelter.

"We take for granted what it feels like to be able to be alone," Elizabeth Funk, the founder and CEO of the nonprofit, told Insider.

Giving residents the ability to lock their own doors provides them a sense of safety while creating an environment where people are more likely to use the additional supportive services, Funk said.

These interim residents also have access to several community-oriented spaces.

The exterior of some tiny homes at DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location — DignityMoves

This includes on-site case workers, a dining hall, a computer lab, gardens, and spaces for pets.

And the on-site restrooms, showers, and laundry facilities help keep its residents clean and healthy.

A laundry facility at DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location. — Image Courtesy of Alex Siegel, My Mosaic

These units were built out of shipping containers.

It costs the DignityMoves about $35,000 a year per person to run this location.

The entry door of DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location — DignityMoves

Besides the resources provided to the residents, this cost also includes additional services like property maintenance.

According to Funk, only a small percentage of people who end up unsheltered start with existing mental or behavioral issues that stop them from being "self-sufficient."

But the more time these folks spend on the streets in survival mode, the more this percentage "goes skyrocketing fast." So by the time they've been unhoused for five or six years — which Funk says is about the average in Santa Barbara — the number of them who have "serious behavioral health issues" becomes much higher.

DignityMoves has needed to relocate about 16 of its residents to other facilities like treatment programs or psychiatric care.

Rows of prefab tiny homes at at Dignitymoves' Santa Barbara tiny home village. — DignityMoves

But for the most part, Funk has seen "shocking transformations."

Besides this downtown Santa Barbara community, the nonprofit operates additional locations in Sonoma County and the Bay Area, including San Francisco.

But we could see plenty more in the future, especially around Santa Barbara.

This location has been such a success story, Funk says DignityMoves is now trying to build an additional roughly 400 beds across Santa Barbara County with help from the local government, a roughly $20 million project.

The door into of DignityMoves' Santa Barbara location — DignityMoves

"One of the big resistance points is the NIMBYs," Funk said. "If we do this right, we can have those NIMBYs be the ones begging to have a shelter in their neighborhood because they can see the difference."

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A $1.7 million prefab tiny home community was designed to help solve homelessne…