DHOL Staff
If you were given $2,000, how would you use it? To get Denver folks excited about a tiny homes village for houseless people! That was what the Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL) Tiny Homes Working Group decided to do after being awarded a grant to participate in the Biennial of the Americas celebration in July. According to its website, the Biennial Festival - a city-wide event - aims to “bring the most inspiring artists, innovators, leaders and experts from the Denver metro area and from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean together around the most pressing issues of our time.”
The resulting “Struggle for Space” series of events that the DHOL group produced was a spectacular mix of events which left unhoused and housed neighbors eager to learn more about tiny homes.
The events began with the display on the 16th Street Mall of 'The Mesa House', a tiny home that a group of students from Mesa Middle School in Castle Rock had built in the last few months, with the help of DHOLers. Friends at Good Thieves Press helped produce the 60-page book, “The Struggle for Space: Homelessness and the Politics of Dys-appearance in American Cities,” which featured the essay, “Homelessness, Dys-Appearance andResistance," by University of Colorado Denver Associate Professor of Philosophy Chad Kautzer. The book also included a history of the use of public space in Denver, information supporting the use of tiny homes for houseless people, and art work by houseless community members who participate in the Reach Studio of RedLine art gallery. The booklet can be read at denverhomelessoutloud.org.
On July 18th the community was amazed to see a group of tiny homes enthusiasts construct a 12 foot x 7 foot Conestoga Hut in two hours at Eddie Maestas (formerly Triangle) Park (see story on page 3). This spectacle was followed by a tour of six different tiny homes. In the evening the group presented the event “The Struggle for Space” at the Platte Forum, which featured artwork, presentations by the writers and artists in the book, guests from Right 2 Dream Too/Right to Survive of Portland, Oregon, music by friends Laura Goldhammer and Bonifhyde, food catered by Same Cafe, and much more.
Other contributing partners to the events include The Denver Foundation, Mayday Experiment, and Michelle Christiance. The Little Denver Tiny Home Village Concept. Based on what we’ve heard people need and want, Denver Homeless Out Loud is proposing to partner with other organizations to build “Little Denver: A Tiny Home Village.” While the structure, governance and other aspects of the community will be established by those who choose to live there, here are some things we heard when we asked people in our community forums and outreach to say what they wanted in a tiny homes village:
"A place to be safe” -“A garden”- “A place for me and my partner” - “Workspace”- “A dog run”- “Bees”-“Community”- “Choices” -“A door”- “A place for couples”-“A farmer’s market”- “Community”- “A lounge area” - “A bathroom” - “A patio” - “A roof” - “A community kitchen” - “Gazebo” - “Meeting house” - “Chickens” - “A place for pets” - “A sink” - “Nothing much” - “A toothbrush, sink” - “Tiny ‘me’ space’” - “Underwear drawer”- “Natural light” - “A front porch” - “Privacy, respect and choices” -“Something to contribute to” - “To grow food” - “A tiny home I built” - “A bike rack” -“A co-operative business” - “Power to make decisions” - “To design the houses” - “Friends” - “A place to hold meetings and have a block party” - “Neighbors”
Chad Kautzer, Philosophy Professor at University of Colorado/Denver and author of the essay "Homelessness, Dys-Appearance and Resistance”:
“When your privilege is invisible to you, you attribute all of your successes to yourself. You don’t see how city resources have been marshaled for your projects...built around your projects, while excluding others. You don’t see how the city is an extension of your privilege... The simple answer is Housing First, housing for everyone... Why this doesn’t resonate with (people with power and privilege) is because they think people who have privilege earned it...that everyone that lost their home after the recent recession, it’s their fault...that being born into a wealthy family, being born white is somehow your individual accomplishment. We need to undermine that belief that people get what they deserve--they do not!”
Supporters of quality-of-life ordinances, which prohibit panhandling, sleeping, lying down, etc. in public places, view the survival activities of the unhoused as obstacles to their leisurely use of such spaces. The privileged associate public spaces such as public parks and squares with their recreational activities, because social conditions have enabled them to carry out necessary activities, such as sleeping, elsewhere…. When we switch our perspective from that of the privileged to that of the excluded, the unhoused, and the dys- appeared, we find that the current distributions and regulations of city spaces are obstructions to survival and human dignity….
When the suffering of others is merely moral—and most often a one-dimensional moral response of pity for an individual—the experience of the suffering calls for charity rather than social and urban transformation. Only organized resistance can transform physical, legal, and social conditions of exclusion to ensure that city spaces and resources enable everyone’s bodies and satisfy everyone’s needs.”
The resulting “Struggle for Space” series of events that the DHOL group produced was a spectacular mix of events which left unhoused and housed neighbors eager to learn more about tiny homes.
The events began with the display on the 16th Street Mall of 'The Mesa House', a tiny home that a group of students from Mesa Middle School in Castle Rock had built in the last few months, with the help of DHOLers. Friends at Good Thieves Press helped produce the 60-page book, “The Struggle for Space: Homelessness and the Politics of Dys-appearance in American Cities,” which featured the essay, “Homelessness, Dys-Appearance andResistance," by University of Colorado Denver Associate Professor of Philosophy Chad Kautzer. The book also included a history of the use of public space in Denver, information supporting the use of tiny homes for houseless people, and art work by houseless community members who participate in the Reach Studio of RedLine art gallery. The booklet can be read at denverhomelessoutloud.org.
On July 18th the community was amazed to see a group of tiny homes enthusiasts construct a 12 foot x 7 foot Conestoga Hut in two hours at Eddie Maestas (formerly Triangle) Park (see story on page 3). This spectacle was followed by a tour of six different tiny homes. In the evening the group presented the event “The Struggle for Space” at the Platte Forum, which featured artwork, presentations by the writers and artists in the book, guests from Right 2 Dream Too/Right to Survive of Portland, Oregon, music by friends Laura Goldhammer and Bonifhyde, food catered by Same Cafe, and much more.
Other contributing partners to the events include The Denver Foundation, Mayday Experiment, and Michelle Christiance. The Little Denver Tiny Home Village Concept. Based on what we’ve heard people need and want, Denver Homeless Out Loud is proposing to partner with other organizations to build “Little Denver: A Tiny Home Village.” While the structure, governance and other aspects of the community will be established by those who choose to live there, here are some things we heard when we asked people in our community forums and outreach to say what they wanted in a tiny homes village:
"A place to be safe” -“A garden”- “A place for me and my partner” - “Workspace”- “A dog run”- “Bees”-“Community”- “Choices” -“A door”- “A place for couples”-“A farmer’s market”- “Community”- “A lounge area” - “A bathroom” - “A patio” - “A roof” - “A community kitchen” - “Gazebo” - “Meeting house” - “Chickens” - “A place for pets” - “A sink” - “Nothing much” - “A toothbrush, sink” - “Tiny ‘me’ space’” - “Underwear drawer”- “Natural light” - “A front porch” - “Privacy, respect and choices” -“Something to contribute to” - “To grow food” - “A tiny home I built” - “A bike rack” -“A co-operative business” - “Power to make decisions” - “To design the houses” - “Friends” - “A place to hold meetings and have a block party” - “Neighbors”
Chad Kautzer, Philosophy Professor at University of Colorado/Denver and author of the essay "Homelessness, Dys-Appearance and Resistance”:
“When your privilege is invisible to you, you attribute all of your successes to yourself. You don’t see how city resources have been marshaled for your projects...built around your projects, while excluding others. You don’t see how the city is an extension of your privilege... The simple answer is Housing First, housing for everyone... Why this doesn’t resonate with (people with power and privilege) is because they think people who have privilege earned it...that everyone that lost their home after the recent recession, it’s their fault...that being born into a wealthy family, being born white is somehow your individual accomplishment. We need to undermine that belief that people get what they deserve--they do not!”
Supporters of quality-of-life ordinances, which prohibit panhandling, sleeping, lying down, etc. in public places, view the survival activities of the unhoused as obstacles to their leisurely use of such spaces. The privileged associate public spaces such as public parks and squares with their recreational activities, because social conditions have enabled them to carry out necessary activities, such as sleeping, elsewhere…. When we switch our perspective from that of the privileged to that of the excluded, the unhoused, and the dys- appeared, we find that the current distributions and regulations of city spaces are obstructions to survival and human dignity….
When the suffering of others is merely moral—and most often a one-dimensional moral response of pity for an individual—the experience of the suffering calls for charity rather than social and urban transformation. Only organized resistance can transform physical, legal, and social conditions of exclusion to ensure that city spaces and resources enable everyone’s bodies and satisfy everyone’s needs.”
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