Mini Homes For The Homeless
In winter, the cold is uncomfortable for many of us – it can be life-threatening for the homeless. The Little Home association has set itself the task of helping them: it is giving away rolling mini-houses to people who live on the streets.
The small wooden living boxes are only 3.2 square meters with tiny roofs (https://www.tampabayroofs.com/roof-repair/). The house is equipped with the most necessary: Inside there is a shelf, a small work surface with a washing and cooking area, a camping toilet, a mattress, a fire extinguisher, and a first aid kit.
Homeless In Germany
The Little Homes are each built on four Euro pallets, thanks to castors on the floor they can be moved. The boxes are designed to give homeless people a home: a place where they are protected from the cold and wet and where they can store their belongings without the constant fear that they will be threatened or robbed – this is how Little Home describes the basic idea of the small houses.
Homes for over 30 homeless people
What originally started as a small one-man project has since grown considerably: To date, Little Home has been able to complete and give away mini houses in Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, Bonn, Frankfurt am Main, Hamm, Nuremberg and Bernau near Berlin. At the weekend, volunteers built the first house for Darmstadt. Little Home has so far built a total of 63 houses for the homeless. See more about this story in social media news.
Where can homeless people park their “Little Homes”?
So that they do not need a building permit, the houses must be able to be moved by at least 100 meters within 90 days – hence the roles on the living boxes. In principle, the mini-houses may only be on private property.
Anyone who gets a living box is strictly regulated: Little Home only tries to give the houses to homeless people who are not addicted to alcohol or drugs. Open criminal records are also an exclusion criterion.
The idea for the mini-houses came from founder Sven Lüdecke. He had seen a feature on television about an American architect who built small houses out of bulky waste for the homeless. Inspired by the concept, he himself started building the first living boxes.
Lüdecke paid for the materials for the first two houses out of his own pocket. The houses are now financed by donations. According to the association’s website, the cost per house is around 1050 euros. The association is also supported by volunteers who build living boxes or contribute materials such as mattresses.