L.A. Is Taking On Homelessness With a New, Brightly Colored Tiny Home Village

Comprised of 40 prefabs, shared outdoor spaces, and in-house social services, the newly open community is the first of its kind for the city.

Feb 9, 2021 - 21:51

L.A. Is Taking On Homelessness With a New, Brightly Colored Tiny Home Village

Comprised of 40 prefabs, shared outdoor spaces, and in-house social services, the newly open community is the first of its kind for the city.

To live here, residents had to be homeless, 18 years and older and living within a three-mile radius.

Last week, North Hollywood welcomed its first residents to the Chandler Boulevard Bridge Home Village, a pilot interim housing project for people in L.A. who lack shelter. The community, designed by Lehrer Architects and the Bureau of Engineering, is comprised of 4o cheerfully colored prefabs with a total of 75 beds.

The City of Los Angeles developed and funded the project as part of an emergency response to the ongoing homelessness crisis that has been further exacerbated by the pandemic. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s 2020 Homeless Count, the number of people lacking shelter in the city has increased by more than 16 percent from the previous year.

Located across the street from North Hollywood Park, this 40-unit tiny prefab village is the first of its kind in Los Angeles and has already reached full capacity. — Located across the street from North Hollywood Park, the 40-unit prefab tiny home village is the first of its kind in Los Angeles. The village has already reached full capacity after opening last week.

Courtesy of Lehrer Architects

For an efficient and affordable solution, the city turned to prefabrication. Pallet Shelter, a prefab builder out of Everett, Washington, shipped the Lehrer-designed units as panels atop wooden pallets that arrived on site ready for assembly. Each unit cost $7,500 including labor and materials, and each was put together in less than an hour.

Though this is L.A.’s first tiny home village, Pallet has helped set up tiny home communities for the homeless across the nation, from Waimanalo, Hawaii, to Riverside, California.