Pallet’s Tiny Home Villages Build a Bridge to Permanent Housing

Units contain two beds (one can be removed for single occupancy), built in shelving, a small heater, and an air conditioner. An entire village can go up in a day or two, says Amy King, Pallet’s co-owner. For facilities who need them, the company also produces structures for dining, restrooms, offices, and laundry. (All have robust fire, wind, and snow load ratings, says King.)

Before launching Pallet, King and her husband Brady owned a contracting business called Square Peg Construction, which employed several formerly unhoused people in various trades. After talking with some of these employees, they were inspired to create spaces for the unhoused that they considered more humane and dignified. “We asked them, ‘what’s missing’?” says King. “They told us, ‘people want help, they just don’t want to be in a congregant shelter.’”

Individual shelters, explains King, have existed for a long time. But they became a necessity during the COVID-19 lockdown, and have kept gaining in popularity since. They provide, she says, more respite, safety, and privacy than congregant shelters or encampments, while still supplying a community setting. They also have more residents advancing to permanent shelter. (She and others add that tiny homes are not for everyone. Some prefer the more regular interaction and support of congregant settings.)

And unlike some congregant shelters, King adds, tiny home villages can go up anywhere— like in parking lots, vacant lots, or parks. Many of Pallet’s in-house engineers and builders are formerly unhoused, and still provide expert feedback on what’s needed.

The company, says King, keeps making improvements. The newest line, called Series 2, features improved insulation and energy efficiency, larger size, smoother walls, quicker deployment, and tamper proof electrical panels. Some units come with ensuite bathrooms. In Reseda, which can bake in the summer, the village’s units, from one of Pallet’s older lines, could definitely use more insulation. In March, units’ air conditioning units were already whirring around the property. (The parking lot location is lacking in shade trees, too.)

Kevin Stanley, a resident who has been here for a week and a half, is just grateful that the facility exists. His friend, with whom he is rooming (units can house one or two people, although most house one) recommended it to him. “I’m just trying to get my life back on track. I’m comfortable here. I’m blessed to be here.” He has two more reptilian roommates—his pet turtles Missy and Timmy—who are currently walking on one of the site’s two green expanses.

Most residents have customized their units to some degree, even though they’re technically not supposed to. (Staff generally look the other way as long as the units are not damaged.) Some have colorful curtains. Others put up wallpaper or put down hardwood flooring or rubber matting. At other sites, operators, occupants, or local artists, says King, have painted designs on shelters, created colorful wraps, or enlivened sites with street murals.

But no matter how comfortable residents feel, the key is to ensure they are not too comfortable. “We need to remind people this is not a permanent home. They need to get back on their own.” Adds Carr: “The end game is your own permanent housing that you are able to sustain.” Residents are supposed to only stay for 90 days at a time while they find permanent housing. Most get extensions, she notes.

Meanwhile the demand, for better or worse, keeps growing, along with the nationwide homeless population. King says the company now makes 15 shelters a day and has begun conversations to provide Pallets overseas, particularly for refugees in locations like Ukraine. In California, Governor Newsom’s $ 1 billion homeless funding program includes delivering 1,200 small homes to the state’s largest cities, including Los Angeles.

Communities, though, will inevitably put up a fight. King says that while neighbors fear increases in crime and vandalism, the villages generally provide their settings a decrease in both. One key: security is tight to get in and out, which protects the unhoused, who are more likely to be the victim of crimes than the perpetrators.

“Most of the predatory behavior is not in the unhoused population itself,” stressed King. “It’s a vulnerable population.”

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• Residential

• Affordability
• California
• Homeless
• modular housing
• Prefab
• Prefabrication and Automation
• Refugees
• Sam Lubell