'Tiny Home Village' Fires Raise Doubts About Their Sustainability

A recent fire in a 'tiny home village' for unhoused people in Oakland is prompting questions about the safety and sustainability of these projects as a temporary stopgap in California's homelessness crisis, writes Alissa Walker in Curbed. "The structures, made by a Seattle-area company called Pallet, are currently being used as shelter for formerly unhoused residents in at least 70 villages in the U.S., according to a representative for the company."

The Oakland incident adds to a list of other fires in Pallet-built developments: "In October 2020, four Pallet shelters burned down and two were badly damaged in the Los Guilicos Village in Santa Rosa, California, when a wildfire encroached on the 60-shelter property. In December 2020, 20 Pallet shelters burned down in the Ramsey Street Village in Banning, California, displacing 40 people." The company later made changes in the materials it uses, though it denied that the changes were related to fire protection. 

"Pallet’s shelters are equipped with smoke detectors, CO monitors, fire extinguishers, and an emergency exit panel, the company’s spokesperson Brandon Bills says." But according to fire marshall Lauren Andrade, the small size of the units (which, in some cases, house two residents each) is a major concern. "If it’s packed to the top, that will put out a lot of BTUs and spread quicker," says Andrade in the article.

Walker notes that "In California, where cities are doubling down on the criminalization of homelessness without creating enough permanent units for the unhoused, the tiny-home fix is hardly sustainable." The dubious safety and long-term viability of tiny home villages highlights the need for other, more long-term options for supportive housing.