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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Tiny homes for the homeless proposed for Coeur d’Alene, but some officials skeptical

More than the cold, it’s the wet of winter that gets to the homeless men and women who sleep outside in North Idaho.

“People don’t realize you don’t have to be in 32 degrees to freeze to death,” said a homeless man in Coeur d’Alene who gave only his first name, Eric.

A place to escape the weather and feel secure would mean “everything,” he said.

Gar Mickelson believes he has a way to get people out of their sleeping bags and tents and under the cover of real shelter. Real small, to be sure, but warm, dry and safe.

Mickelson, the homeless outreach coordinator for the nonprofit Heritage Health, wants to build a village of tiny houses to serve as temporary crisis shelter for people who don’t want to be homeless but struggle to find housing options, he said. That might include seniors, military veterans and single moms.

“If we can do something like this, maybe in two years there’s no need for it anymore. I hope and pray that there won’t be a need for it anymore,” Mickelson said. “But for now, there’s dozens and dozens of people who are forced to be outside.”

Modeled after similar projects in Seattle and other cities, the proposed Pathfinder program would provide safe and sanitary living conditions and allow for onsite health care and counseling services as well as faith-based resources, said Mickelson, who also directs a faith-based homeless outreach program called Kaleidoscope Community Services and an associated downtown gathering spot, 2nd Street Commons.

The village would be a place “where folks can have their private space that’s secure, so they can get sleep and not worry about things they worry about when sleeping rough,” he said.

To get started, volunteers recently built a model cabin, measuring just 96 square feet, in the parking lot of Skate Plaza at U.S. Highway 95 and Dalton Avenue. It remains on display there.

“We hope that this cabin is going to be a discussion starter,” Mickelson said.

As he showed the cabin recently, a woman stopped by and poked her head inside, remarking on how small it is. Mickelson smiled and replied, “Our homeless friends, they come into a place like this and go, ‘This is the Taj Mahal.’”

Some question the approach

Several churches, businesses and public agencies in Kootenai County support the concept of tiny houses for the homeless. Blue Dog RV pledged $50,000 to help build the cabins.

But some in Coeur d’Alene have reservations about the village approach.

“I’ve always just believed that there’s a dignity in this, that people deserve better than a toolshed,” said Jeff Conroy, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho, which operates emergency shelters, warming centers and other housing programs.

“I think everyone deserves a place to live that has a flushing toilet and electricity and a place they can call home,” Conroy said.

He said he’s not opposed to the tiny house concept, but he’d rather see the money and energy go toward renovating older homes to expand the community’s inventory of low-income housing.

“St. Vincent’s has money that we can help pay their rent on permanent housing, as opposed to just a temporary stop,” Conroy said.

The organization also operates two warming centers in the winter, each with room for 45 people. Last winter, one of the centers never had more than 36 people at a time, Conroy said.

“Some people don’t want to be told what to do, so they’ll stay out in the elements,” he said.

Depending how it’s managed, a homeless village could create some public safety concerns, Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said.

“I am highly skeptical,” the chief said, adding, “We have our fair share of problems with that population.”

Since the start of the year, the police department served 112 warrants on transients for drug violations, property crimes, sex offenses and one for second-degree murder, White said. Officers also issued 157 citations for drugs, theft, trespass, open containers of alcohol and other violations, he said.

“Without a huge amount of oversight, then this is ripe for some problems,” he said about the Pathfinder proposal.

Chronically homeless people who regularly drink and use drugs are a big drain on the department’s resources, White said.

He also wonders if the housing would draw more homeless people to the area. “Are we asking for more problems to be imported?”

Mickelson said he wants to help people escape the elements and get on track to find permanent housing, and those who are causing problems for the police aren’t good candidates for that.

“This is definitely a model for people who want the help,” he said. “Not everybody wants the help.”

Using Seattle as a model

In a perfect world, the homeless would have a way to go straight into affordable housing, “but we don’t have that in our community right now.” Mickelson said. “So this is more of a stabilizing step, and hopefully in two or three years … we don’t have a need for this.”

He sees it as a two-year experiment. “If this isn’t working after two years, this goes away.”

The five counties in North Idaho had about 450 homeless people, with 57 percent of them categorized as unsheltered, according to the state’s annual January count. Of those sleeping outdoors, 74 were children under age 18, a report from the Idaho Housing and Finance Association said.

“That’s a startling number for those of us who work with this population,” Mickelson said.

Randy Rogers, a former cook who has been homeless about nine months, and Eric, a former landscaper who has been on the streets the past couple of years, helped build the model cabin. They both know what it’s like to sleep outside through cold, wet weather, and occasionally get rousted from their camps by the police.

“When it’s 3 o’clock in the morning and you have to leave, it’s not fun,” Eric said. “You’re freezing to death and they tell you to get on your bike and find a new spot.”

Both men said they’d prefer to share one of the small cabins. It would give them “a place to put our stuff that’s secure, where we don’t have to worry about someone walking off with it when we’re not around,” Rogers said.

They also said they aren’t the type to cause problems. “A lot of people think that all we do is panhandle, drink, take drugs,” Eric said. “It’s just not true.”

The Pathfinder proposal is modeled on three tiny-house villages with a total of 45 cabins in Seattle. Each site has clean drinking water, wash stations, portable toilets, a kitchen tent and a food pantry, as well as around-the-clock security. Drugs and alcohol are prohibited, and the camps are run by the residents.

“Since we opened these encampments, we have housed over 85 individuals and families into transitional and permanent housing,” said John Jay Syverson, facilities manager with Seattle’s Low Income Housing Institute. “Over 55 people … have obtained full-time or part-time employment.”

Mickelson said he is looking for a good spot in Coeur d’Alene or Kootenai County where neighbors will support a tiny house village.

“We want to do this right and make sure that everybody’s okay with this,” he said. “The wrong thing to do would just be to put up a village rogue and just do it. That’s been done in the country before, with horrible results.”

He said he has made 30 presentations on the proposal in last few months, “and I haven’t gotten any negative comments or feedback.”

Mickelson is talking with city and county officials and plans to hold a couple of community meetings on the proposal.

It’s unclear how the city of Coeur d’Alene would accommodate a tiny house village, said Hilary Anderson, the city’s planning director.

“We don’t have a category right now where it fits,” Anderson said. “Tiny homes in general, it’s a challenge for jurisdictions because it doesn’t really meet building code or zoning code.”

A special-use permit may allow for it, but ultimately the City Council would need to decide if it wants to support the project, she said.

Mickelson is forging ahead with plans to build more cabins this fall and winter with donations from other businesses and volunteer commitments.

“It’s going to happen,” he said. “We’re going to do this thing.”