LOS ANGELES (AP) — After Elvis Summers built a tiny house on wheels for a woman who had been sleeping on the streets, he launched a crowdfunding campaign to construct similar shelters for other homeless people in his South Los Angeles neighborhood.
He had no grand ambitions beyond lending a helping hand in a city with thousands of residents without roofs over their heads. “Honestly I thought I’d raise enough money to help a dozen people, call it a day, and then go back to stressing about my job,” said the 38-year-old, who runs an online apparel store.
Summers never thought more than 5.6 million people would watch a YouTube video of him constructing the 8-foot-long house for “Smokie,” a grandmother who’s been homeless for more than a decade. He estimates he spent less than $500 on plywood, shingles, a window and a door. The video ends with Smokie doing a little jig and hanging up a “Home Sweet Home” sign.
The GoFundMe campaign — called Tiny House, Huge Purpose — has brought in nearly $60,000 in less than a month. And Summers’ inbox is overflowing with offers for help from carpenters, homeless advocates, retirees and children as young as 6.
Now Summers, who sports a blue mohawk and wraparound shades, suddenly considers himself a man with a mission. He has started a nonprofit and reached out to Los Angeles officials to get the city involved in his plan to build more tiny homes for transients.
“People are calling it a movement,” he said Thursday. “I’m humbled. But now I can’t turn my back on it.” Builders said they would donate materials, contractors offered to help in the design of the small wheeled structures, and chefs said they would to bring food to the construction sites.
Summers said he wants to hire homeless people to help with the construction. Smokie said she would be the first person to sign up. “I’m ready to start building,” she said. “Give people a good night’s rest. Someplace warm.”
It is unclear if the city would enforce rules for these homes. Smokie said police have told her she won’t be bothered as long as she moves the home, which is small enough to fit in a parking space, every three days.
And the structure is so small that it wouldn’t require permits if built on private property, said Luke Zamperini, spokesman for the city Building and Safety department. “We do not consider it a dwelling or a building as it does not meet the definition of either,” Zamperini said.
It’s just a matter of time before all of these tiny houses are bulldozed. There will be some ordinance passed, if it doesn’t already exist, that brands these things “illegal domiciles” or something.
The official policy is to make life impossible for the homeless so they can die out of sight. If they have places to live they may have enough time to express their political opinions, and that, of course, must be prevented at all costs.
As a group, they represent desolation that’s not supposed to exist in our booming economy, and no one wants you to know that their desperation is what billionaires are made of.
It’s nice to see that people across the country can still respond to a kind act with more kind acts. I think it might be kind of hard for the authorities to screw this up when it is getting so much attention.
You’ve never dealt with LAPD, I take it.
I have.