They say, it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to build a community.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, a small patch of land is dotted by colorful small houses made of freight containers. They lined the edges of the lot and surrounded a bigger structure that became the core of this tiny house community.
This is Albuquerque’s push against the growing housing epidemic in the United States.
These small houses are envisioned to cultivate a sense of community, the importance of routine, and pride in one’s surroundings to those who are transitioning from homelessness.
The project was spearheaded by Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley.
She envisioned a place where people can gain control of their lives.
Thinking of better ways to help one’s self is difficult if you’re always anxious about where you’ll lay your head for the night. The streets are fraught with dangers and exposed to different weather conditions.
But through this initiative, the residents can focus on getting a stable job and improving their skills since they don’t need to think about where they’ll sleep.
It might not be a two-story house, but it will give them a renewed sense of dignity and individual agency.
While the tiny house village is poised to accept its new residents, O’Malley shared that it also experienced its fair share of challenges. One of them is location. Fortunately, the Albuquerque Indian Center offered to lease their land to the county to realize this amazing project.
The village offers 30 120 square-foot tiny houses that are furnished.
They come with individual porches and some of them are wheelchair accessible. They also have a shared bathroom where they can clean themselves. The central area houses a communal village area that includes a high-quality kitchen, dining and recreational spaces, full laundry facilities, a library with a computer pod, and individual storage spaces.
The aesthetics of the place was also taken into consideration so that future tenants would be encouraged to maintain and protect the place.
The site is fully fenced and landscaped with garden spaces and open-air living areas.
O’Malley explained to KRQE that the project is mostly behavior-based. It accepts people who are devoted to changing their lives for the better. For one, it only accepts residents if they are clean and sober for 10 days. The whole village is also self-governed so individual choices and motivations will play an important role in maintaining the property.
She also clarified that the project is not a long-term solution to the growing housing problem.
The tiny house village offers residency of up to 2 years, or at least until the resident establishes a sustainable lifestyle that can let them afford permanent housing.
O’Malley hopes that with this project, they could inspire other communities to create tiny-house villages of their own.
“I hope that people see this story and they see what’s happening, and they say we can support something like this in our community,” said O’Malley to KRQE.
While the houses are not big, they will serve as a new lease on life for the people who need it the most. And hopefully, once they go out into the world, the village can help new people to get back on their feet.
Watch how this tiny house village tackles a Goliath-sized problem, one resident at a time.
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