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QUOTATION: People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing. - Walter H. Judd

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2004-07-03 - 1:01 p.m.

Tiny Houses May Be the Answer to a Big Problem

by Joan Callaway

An article in this morning�s Sacramento Bee, �Tiny houses seen as answer for homeless,� reminded me of a visit with my friends, Guillermo and Margarita Ballesteros, in Mexico back in 1973. I had taken my family for a vacation with them at their homes in Acapulco, Mexico City, and Lake Tequisquetango. We felt more than a little guilty as we luxuriated in their penthouse home atop a 12-story condominium in the center of the land facing Acapulco Bay right on the beach in extreme contrast to the many poor people who lived in make-shift housing on the hillside not far away.

As he left us at Lake Tequisquetango the following Sunday, Guillermo, an engineer and contractor said, �This is my only trouble � I have to leave you and go back to work.� He supervised 35,000 employees and had under construction at that time a road in Baja, a tunnel, three hotels and a convention center, and in just fifteen days he was starting another hotel and 10,000 little houses for the government.

Later when I visited in Mexico City, Guillermo took me to the site where these "little houses" -small concrete block 8�x8� rooms with a bath and concrete floors - were being built for $2,000. The units, smaller than the 10x10 ones being suggested for S.F. homeless, shared common walls and were for government employees - a simple solution for a complex problem.

Jim Reid, a building contractor in S. F. and someone who seems able to think outside the box, believes he�s come up with an idea to solve San Francisco�s homeless problem. He wants to build hundreds of 100 square foot homes in neighborhoods around San Francisco. The government, however, in a more narrow view mandates a minimum of 220 square feet of usable floor space for an �efficiency� unit.

I remember being appalled when I saw the units in Mexico � smaller than the smallest bedroom in our home. And sometimes families were living in one of these small units. But then when I saw people living on the hillside in Acapulco in cardboard huts and abandoned refrigerator cases with no bathroom facilities, these seemed like a big improvement.

The small 100-square foot cottages Reid suggests would come complete with innovative built-in loft bed over a table and chair, a small shelf for TV at end of bed, a small bathroom, and even a washer-dryer combination. All for as little as $6,000 if the materials and construction labor are donated. These would be an improvement over the ones I saw in Mexico City and certainly more adequate than sleeping in a car or in an unfurled sleeping bag in a doorway with a grocery cart full of belongings nearby.

I can hear the NIMBY arguments now, however, even if the legislature and Boards of Supervisors should approve such a non-complying plan. �Not in my back yard!�

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