Tiny home village has been searching for a SLO County spot for years. It finally found one

After more than a decade of searching, a San Luis Obispo County nonprofit has found a potential location for its tiny home project that would house chronically homeless individuals.

Becky Jorgeson, a homeless advocate and board chair of Hope’s Village of SLO, said her organization has spent more than 12 years trying to find a plot of land to place its tiny home village concept, and has entered escrow on a plot of land around four miles northwest of San Luis Obispo near Cuesta College.

The 143-acre parcel of agricultural land consists of a large plot of hilly grazing area for the existing farm’s cattle, along with a flat, grassy area that Jorgeson hopes to develop into the village area.

Though Hope’s Village has made unsuccessful attempts to buy land for a village on two or three separate occasions, Jorgeson said she’s more optimistic about the nonprofit’s chances to complete the purchase of the new property.

“We have never had land like this — never,” Jorgeson told The Tribune. “They’re gonna see this and love it.”

That doesn’t mean the proposal is without its share of hurdles, foremost among them the property’s $1.7 million sale price.

Here’s what the site could look like — and what people can do to support it.

How does Hope’s Village aim to pay for the land?

Jorgeson said Hope’s Village entered escrow with the land’s current private owners on April 30, opening a 30-day window to raise the remaining funds. So far, the nonprofit has raised around $457,000 from private donors with the goal of eventually building a tiny home village.

The plan is for Hope’s Village to take over a $560,000 bank loan from the existing owners and then seek a loan of a similar size from the Housing Trust Fund, with existing and future donations to the nonprofit making up the remaining purchase cost, Jorgeson said.

Jorgeson estimated the organization would need an additional $300,000 in donations to have enough to complete the purchase and start to build out the property.

“Whatever floats your boat, no amount is too small — we need all the help we can get,” Jorgeson said.

Before anything else happens, however, Hope’s Village must close escrow and secure the loans.

The planned village would only occupy the flat, lower-elevation land on the north side of O’Connor Way and south of Cal Fire’s Toro Fire Center, Jorgeson said, leaving potentially more than 100 acres of the parcel for other uses.

One way to lower the loan would be to sell the extra land to a willing party such as the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo that could look after it as preserved open space, Jorgeson said.

She said she was surprised to find a property of this size at $1.7 million, which comes out to just under $12,000 per acre.

What would the tiny home village look like?

A purchase would only be the first step in bringing a tiny home project along for its potential homeless residents.

Jorgeson said the property has several advantages that may ease the financial burden of a purchase of this size, including existing water and power hookups for the village.

With the site purchased, the nonprofit would prepare the living space by adding septic tanks and laying out the pilings for foundations, Jorgeson said.

Jorgeson said she already has a builder for the tiny homes lined up, which could come in 8 by 15 feet or 10 by 12 feet dimensions and could be transported to the location via trucks.

“They’ll set them up, and then our villagers and our community residents who want to volunteer will come in and insulate, sheet rock, mud and paint them,” Jorgeson said.

The village’s timeline to completion is nebulous past the acquisition of the property, as there’s no telling exactly how long the permitting and building process might take, meaning it will be a few years before homes are seen on the property, Jorgeson said.

One of Jorgeson’s main motives for bringing a tiny home village to San Luis Obispo County is to fill a housing gap she said county initiatives have failed to address: permanent, low-cost housing for homeless people.

Jorgeson said in the past, her nonprofit has built tiny homes for as little as $3,900 each, and views it as a more effective model for getting a roof over unhoused people’s heads.

She said non-congregate interim shelters and converted motels that provide transitional housing don’t address the fact that there’s very little cost-effective housing in the county for people to transition to.

“Some will stay forever and some will move on to bigger and better things if they go out of town, but there’s just no truly affordable housing in San Luis,” Jorgeson said.

At Hope’s Village, residents would pay 30% of their income toward rent, with donations to Hope’s Village covering the rest of operating costs such as on-site staff, construction of more tiny homes and power.

If the purchase is successful and a village proposal is approved, Jorgeson said the village could start with around 10 homes and grow from there, housing chronically homeless San Luis Obispo residents.

The village has launched a GoFundMe to try to close the funding gap, and accepts donations at its website, hopesvillageofslo.com/donate.

Hope’s Village will also host a tiny home demonstration event at the San Luis Obispo Library on Friday, May 24 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.