Ashland, Ore.– “This property is 1.79 acres,” says Karen Logan as she walks the lot that could one day house dozens of people struggling with homelessness.
“I really felt that the need was so great,” she explains.
A long time real estate broker, Logan became aware of the affordable housing crisis sweeping not just the nation, but creeping into neighborhoods right here in southern Oregon.
“I have really been inspired in particular by women and children,” says Logan, “who are becoming homeless.”
That’s why Logan wants to turn land on Clear Creek Drive in Ashland into 30 tiny homes.
“I was married and then all of a sudden I wasn’t,” says Ashland resident Jeannie Martin. “I found myself homeless.”
Martin, a mother of three, has struggled with homelessness over the years. She’s staying with a roommate in an apartment right now, but her ultimate goal is to be independent.
“I would like to be on my own, I would like a small house,” Martin says.”
It’s stories like Martin’s that inspire Logan’s work to make a tiny house village in Ashland a reality, and she’s starting to garner the support she needs.
“We have a funder who is willing to purchase the land,” Logan says.
Now she needs city officials to designate the lot as a transitional housing accommodation and award her grant money upwards of $170,000.
It’s a big ask, but Logan is confident.
“We would really like to work hand in hand with the city to be able to make use of those funds. There is no guarantee those funds will be there next year and we have such a great need for affordable housing,” she says.
For more information on the Ashland Tiny House Village, follow this link.
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