A US city is building tiny homes in people’s back gardens

Like many cities in the United States, Portland, Oregon has a housing crisis. 

With thousands of people sleeping on the streets or in temporary housing each night, the city decided to get creative in solving the problem: it asked homeowners if they would be willing to house homeless families in their back gardens.

The Multnomah Idea Lab, a government agency tasked with finding innovative solutions in the county’s human services sector, came up with a pilot programme to house homeless families in tiny homes in the back gardens of willing homeowners.

When they opened the call to participants, more than 1,000 homeowners expressed interest, and now the first four families have moved into their new homes. 

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