Tiny Pallet Homes To House Homeless Underway in Isla Vista

Work Crews Assembling 20 Homes at Isla Vista Community Center

Photo

The Los Angeles Conservation Corps works to build tiny homes in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

Los Angeles Conservation Corps Ricardo Padilla helps guide a roof onto a tiny home in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

The Los Angeles Conservation Corps works to build tiny homes in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

Los Angeles Conservation Corps Dan Eaves helps build a tiny home in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

The Los Angeles Conservation Corps works to build tiny homes in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

A small construction crew works to build tiny homes in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

The Los Angeles Conservation Corps works to build tiny homes in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

Los Angeles Conservation Corps Peter Avila helps build a tiny home in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

Los Angeles Conservation Corps Ricardo Padilla helps build tiny homes in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

Los Angeles Conservation Corps Timo Gapol helps build a tiny home in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

Los Angeles Conservation Corps Peter Avila helps build a tiny home in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

The Los Angeles Conservation Corps works to build tiny homes in the parking lot of the Isla Vista Community Center.

Photo: Daniel Dreifuss

Photo By Jean Yamamura
Wed Dec 09, 2020 | 10:31am

Work crews began assembling 20 tiny homes for the homeless in the Isla Vista Community Center parking lot this week.

Costing about $4,900 a piece, the 8×8-foot prefab structures made by Pallet, and the services that will come with them — including bathrooms and showers, and mental-health or other support through the Good Samaritan shelter operator — are underwritten by about $1 million in CARES Act emergency homeless financing to Santa Barbara County agencies.

The residents will be chosen from among the homeless people already living in Isla Vista, an element that Kimberlee Albers, the county’s homeless programs manager, affirmed would ensure that Isla Vista would not become “the place to go.” Outreach workers had counted about 44 homeless people in Isla Vista in June, a number that had grown to about 80 by November.

The Pallet homes will remain in place for six months.