Letters to the Editor: Why a ‘tiny home’ for $133,000 might actually be a bargain

To the editor: The Times Editorial Board pans the cost of the tiny home village in North Hollywood without providing needed context.

By my math, each unit cost $133,000. Although this is expensive, it’s far less than the roughly $500,000 per unit cost of apartments for homeless people that you have reported. I agree that we need solutions to house as many people as possible, but let’s not overlook the fact that $133,000 per unit is a huge reduction in cost from earlier options.

Editorials like these turn reasonable people away from tackling the homelessness issue by convincing them that government actions are inherently wasteful and ineffective, when lack of government actions only ensure the problem will get far more severe.

Thomas Mitchell, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: It cost $514,000 in Riverside to create a village of 30 units of tiny home homeless housing versus $5.2 million for 39 homes in Los Angeles. Your editorial’s explanations for the discrepancy are not satisfying.

There needs to be more investigation of this.

Eric Isken, Los Angeles