He says each home will cost about $20,000.
A Los Angeles man believes he can fix the city’s homeless epidemic — with port-a-potties.
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T.K. Devine, 35, who hasn't had a house or apartment for four years, has intentionally been living out of his truck in Los Angeles in that time.
While he has been without a home, he has drawn inspiration from, of all things, a portable toilet. And that's how his idea was born.
Inside an L.A. warehouse, Devine has crafted a home out of a portable toilet that was once used for the disabled.
He created compartments and a fold-up twin bed that can fit his six-foot-one-inch frame, as well as a folding table. There is a strange amount of storage space inside the home and even features a mini-fridge.
To use the bathroom, there is a port-a-potty in the back of the house that also has a shower connected to it.
Devine wants to put the homes on a trailer and leave them on residential properties.
He plans to power the home with solar panels and have recycled water from the toilet filter nourish a garden above the home. He said that the only required equipment is a hose to hook up for running water.
"Folks who are living it rough and living on the streets and are trying to make a better life for themselves, they need consistency,” Devine told CBS Los Angeles. “They need a good night’s rest.”
He says each home will cost about $20,000 and he has started a GoFundMe page to help launch his creation.
"The homelessness housing crisis happening in our own backyard has a solution — in our own backyards," he wrote on his GoFundMe page. "L.A. has tons of available residential space. Backyards. Empty lots. Transitional plots. Traditional development makes housing the homeless in these areas unrealistic. But what if someone provided affordable, portable, temporary housing to occupy these plots? This campaign for Our Own Backyard Homes aims to do just that."
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On his website, he said he plans on touring his tiny toilet home around the city, moving from different backyards and will live in different areas of town to raise awareness about his project and homelessness.
He wrote: “My project hopes not only to ease the burden of the affordable housing crisis by filling a low-cost housing gap for those who can still afford it, but also to help those who've already lost their homes. Tiny homes. Big solutions.”
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