NOTEBOOK: Tiny homes for the homeless video
CHRIS CONETZKEY May 23, 2016 | 8:18 pm
<1 min read time
0 wordsAll Latest News, Arts and Culture, The Insider NotebookYou might have heard about an effort that Central-Iowa based nonprofit Joppa Outreach, which serves Des Moines’ homeless population, is currently working on to build a village of roughly 50 tiny homes.
The tiny homes would each be about 100 square feet and provide transitional housing to the homeless. Despite some momentum at City Hall, the nonprofit’s plan for a village in the River Bend neighborhood drew criticism from residents and hit a bit of a roadblock.
I had the chance to sit in on the 2016 Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute project presentations on May 19. This year, GDLMI’s class broke into five groups of 10, and each selected a project from more than 20 applications.
One of the team’s projects was to raise awareness about Joppa’s plan for a tiny home village in Des Moines. For its project, the team traveled to Madison, Wis., to shoot a video about a successfully operating tiny home village.
The video was masterful. Truly.
A wide range of interviews with community stakeholders, police, elected officials and neighbors told a story about how despite initial concerns and pushback, the village has turned into a source of community pride. Although there were fears that crime would rise in the area, crime rates actually dropped.
Amy Hunold-Van Gundy, a Joppa volunteer and the representative from the organization that served as project lead for the GDLMI group, raved after the presentation about how the video is being used all over the country and even in Canada as a tool to help raise awareness about the issue.
You can check out the video below — it’s worth the watch. Those responsible for the video include Manny Toribio, Kyle Horn, Tonia Householder, Kristina Brown, Joe Feldmann, Brandon Foldes, Scott Hoekman, Natalie Koerber, Natalie Umsted, Kelsy Sinnwell, and group coaches Eric West and Beth Gibbons.
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