Tiny Houses Creator Fights Los Angeles For City’s Homeless
When Elvis Summers decided to start his tiny houses project, he said it is just to provide immediate shelter to L.A.’s homeless, while they get housing or rehabilitation.
In 2014, the Inquisitr reported on a growing trend of small housing that many people are taking advantage of, where each house can average out to $5,000 to build.
This is a halfway point for an idea that Elvis Summers has taken and ran with, to make it even more possible — and affordable — for the homeless on the streets of Los Angeles to take advantage of.
In this Inside Edition video from earlier this year, Summers talks about his project and you can see the work that goes into it.
Recently the Los Angeles Times reported that some of the small houses that had been confiscated are now being returned by the city.
The article says that while the city mayor, Eric Carcetti, appreciates the creative ways that people like Elvis are trying to help the homeless, he does not endorse the project.
Summers has used online crowd-funding campaigns and taken in a reportedly $100,000 to build and distribute 37 tiny homes so far.
In the video below, the creator of the Tiny Houses project explains how he’s using it to help the the city’s homeless and the battle between him and the Los Angeles authorities.
The same media source provides more details on the battle and, in one article, says that the councilman for Harbor where Summers is putting a lot of these homes, Joe Buscaino, expressed his views during a council meeting last August.
“These wooden shacks are not the real estate I’m looking for in my district.”
Initially it was city councilman Curren Price who had sanitation workers start confiscating these tiny houses, saying that they were a risk to neighbors and blocking public areas.
Last year, the city passed two laws that dwindle down the amount of items homeless people can have, as well as a law that puts restrictions on large objects on sidewalks, parks, and in public places.
Given that the tiny houses Elvis Summers builds are easily, under those laws, considered violations, he’s promised to continue building more and take the fight to the city.
“They’re stupid if they think I’ll file a lawsuit of my own.”
The article on the debate, which was published last year, reveals that Senior Assistant City Attorney Valerie Flores made an argument that the wooden homes are not considered personal belongings and so rather than be held for 90 days until claimed, they can be disposed of immediately.
Even though the city is also in the process of returning the homes, they will still not allow Summers to put them in public places, so he has thus far agreed to move them to a church lot for the interim.
Currently, the city is looking at a plan for a tax increase to put into the homeless programs in time for next year.
Elvis Summers’ bio on some of his social media accounts point out that he is a man of all things: a creator, entrepreneur, artist, and even encourages people to do what they want to do.
Given that it’s been over a year now since he started helping the homeless with his tiny houses, and that he’s gotten the attention from the city, there’s a chance that his project, which already has a lot of support and helping hands, will only get bigger.
[Image by Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock.com]
