Whether an existing mobile home park or a tiny home community is better suited for housing the homeless depends on various factors, including:
Existing Mobile Home Parks:
Advantages:
*Established Infrastructure:** Parks typically have existing infrastructure (water, sewer, electrical) in place.
This is huge without it you can go through all the red tape get approved from the town. Only to be denied from department of health due to sewage issues.
*Community Amenities:** Parks may offer shared amenities such as laundry facilities, playgrounds, and community centers.
*Zoning Compliance:** Parks are already zoned for residential use, eliminating potential zoning hurdles.
You can buy a Mobile home park that has mostly non owner occupied Mobile homes. As the Mobil homes become vacant you can place homeless in them. One at a time. Doing it this way you will have no protesting from the local community.
Disadvantages:
*Condition of Units:** Existing units may require significant rehabilitation, increasing costs.
Condition of infrastructure**are side walks in good condition? You need an engineer to also check the parks plumbing, do you have sewars or cesspools? How old is the piping? Is the electricity up to recent codes? Each unit has its own electrical meter be sure they are all in good working order. You need to check the street drainage. Be sure it's doing its job and keeping the streets from flooding.
How is the streets asphalt? Will it survive being plowed after a snow storm. When was the last time it was redone?
Tiny Home Communities:
Advantages:
*Affordability:** Tiny homes are generally less expensive to build and maintain than traditional housing.
*Customization:** Communities can be designed specifically for the needs of homeless individuals, including accessibility features and support services.
*Portability:** Tiny homes can be easily moved or expanded as needed.
Disadvantages:
*Infrastructure:** Establishing new infrastructure (water, sewer, electrical) can be costly and time-consuming. If you develop a laundry room with multiple washing machines. The department of health has very strict rules of filtering the water and reusing it to wash clothes. This is very costly and takes a long time to get approved. You will need to put in streets, Side walks, street lighting.
*Zoning Regulations:** Tiny home communities may face zoning restrictions or resistance from neighbors, especially if it's for the homeless.
*Limited Space:** Tiny homes offer limited living space, which may not be suitable for all individuals or families. In Suffolk county townships to find the right raw land and get approved for tiny homes for the homeless will be a uphill battle.
Hybrid Solution
Ultimately, the best choice depends on local circumstances and resources. A hybrid approach, combining elements of both mobile home parks and tiny home communities, may also be feasible.
Another solution is when a lot to your Mobile home park becomes vacant. Instead of buying and moving another Mobile home to the empty lot. Build a tiny home in its place.
Helping the homeless get off the streets.
Whichever way you go you need staff and security in place to help the homeless adapt to the new community. Which includes 24 hour security, and counciling service, along with on site management and a handyman. The handyman and manager can be offered a unit to live in for free in lieu of and with salary.
Security
Another suggestion is to ask the local police if you were to give them a unit or offer a police officer a unit to live in. You will have police presence on the property, these measures will ultimately reduce the drug activity and the overdoses on the property to a minimum.
It is also recommended that all homeless are properly vetted before you give them a home. Some may need long term drug rehabilitation after detoxing.
Let's face it someone who has been homeless for a very long time will surely have trouble adapting to a home especially if it's a small home.
MTA
A good amount of homeless that qualify for a program like this do not drive. It is highly sunggested that which ever way you go make sure there is a bus route with a bus stop close to the community.
Pets allowed.
Finally a solution for the homeless with pets. Pets allowed. You can have a section of your community reserved for pet owners.
Unit inspections
It is highly recommended that all units be inspected monthly. For many reasons the two most important being the gealth of the residence, and to make sure there keeping the place clean and they are not a hoarder.
The art of the deal.
Probably the hardest part of all the above on Long Island is finding the land with the proper zoning to build a Tiny home community, or finding a Mobile home park for sale, at a time when builders are buying up all large sized lots to build apartment buildings to accommodate the baby boomers that are now in their 60's -70's.
To learn more about tiny homes for the homeless and if you want to become a part of solutions to battle homelessness in Suffolk county Long Island NewYork visit www.hiscoalitionforthehomeless.org
God bless
Chaplain Steven Crawford
(631) 260-1363
From one of our readers.
blueeyedconcrete :
Mobile homes are problematic. The people who live in them own them, and are responsible for their upkeep. But they rarely own the property they're parked on. So they often end up paying a mortgage, rent, AND maintenance. And there's a lot of maintenance on a mobile home, even new ones. They're cheaply built. They're very susceptible to water damage because they're made with manufactured wood that swells and breaks apart when it gets wet. They're very susceptible to pest infestations because they're not on permanent foundations and have weak material protecting the insulation and plumbing underneath, so it's easy for pests to get in somewhere warm and wet.
Tiny houses on the other hand are expensive to build. They aren't as spacious. But that's because they're made with real wood and (usually) built to last. But they're a lifestyle choice, and people have the right to not want that lifestyle. They might prefer a doublewide mobile home.
It's a nuanced and complicated question.
Everyone deserves a home, and I think the most logical solution is subsidized apartments/condos.
I would be thrilled if every homeless person was offered a free, new mobile home with no rent or severely reduced rent. But those things are trash.
The above comment is accurate, however some mobile home parks have a higher then normal park owned mobile homes that are rented. These are the ones we target to buy. Which makes the purchase price lower.
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