
California Allocates $80 MILLION FOR TINY HOMES in $1 Billion Homelessness Effort, But None Are Occupied
In March of last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom offered 1,200 tiny homes to temporarily accommodate homeless individuals, particularly those who already live in encampments, in four main regions across the Golden State.
However, the concept behind the dwellings goes far beyond simply providing a place to sleep. According to the governor’s plan, the dwellings will serve as a tiny home community, complete with kitchens, dining and living rooms, common areas, and counseling cabins, to assist persons experiencing homelessness in finding stability.
Yet, a year after the governor’s declaration, the tiny homes have not housed a single tenant, and the state and localities have only acquired roughly 150 of them. The stalemate is due to changing state parameters, as well as other bureaucratic delays.
The plan, part of a $1 billion initiative, is intended to cover the costs of contracting, delivering, and installing tiny homes from six state-approved vendors, as well as provide much-needed relief for the state’s homelessness crisis, as California has the highest percentage of homeless people living without shelter in the country, according to a 2023 federal report.
According to the state, the California National Guard was supposed to help prepare and deliver the homes “free of charge and ready for occupancy,” but that changed last winter, when the state stated it would delegate responsibility for purchasing and placing homes to each city and county. Some districts are now unable to fund all of the promised homes, while others are bogged down in protracted board decisions about where to locate them—all while the homeless remain unhoused.

William Sinclair is a seasoned journalist with four years of experience covering crime, safety, and urban issues. He has a keen eye for data analysis and in-depth reporting. William's work focuses on shedding light on critical societal challenges to inform and empower communities.