Modesto may spend $3M for tiny homes. Here’s what it needs to make this a reality

The City Council on Tuesday will consider setting aside $3 million for tiny homes for people who are homeless and directing Modesto officials to solicit partners in this project, which provides an alternative to a traditional shelter.

Council members also will consider providing the Modesto Gospel Mission with $100,000 to provide a place to sleep at night for 40 women and women with children for one year. The women and children also would receive meals, access to bathrooms and showers and case management.

A city report states the tiny homes range from 60 square feet for a single person to 120 square feet for a family. The city is looking to place these homes at multiple locations in Modesto.

Modesto estimates each home will cost $75,000. That includes the cost of the homes as well as temporary buildings for bathrooms, showers and offices for the case managers as well as connecting the structures to utilities. There also may be costs associated with preparing a site.

At an estimated cost of $75,000 per tiny home, the $3 million would provide 40 homes.

But Community and Economic Development Director Jessica Hill stressed that is an estimate and the actual costs and number of homes will vary based on the specifics of each site. For instance, she said, a potential site could already have much of the infrastructure in place, reducing the costs.

And city officials could ask the City Council for more funding beyond the $3 million to pay for more viable projects, according to the city report.

This bridge housing would serve as the first level of shelter for people who are homeless and serve as a transition to permanent housing. The report states the city will need partners to make this project a reality.

Those partners include companies that provide this type of manufactured housing, someone to manage each of the sites and someone to provide case management for the tiny home residents.

The city also will help in soliciting property owners willing to have these homes on their property. That could include vacant lots, churches, under-used commercial sites and even city property.

Tiny homes at multiple sites

The city would vet each potential site and project before bringing it to the City Council for approval.

The projects also would need to line up funding to operate, including providing case management and other services. The city report states Modesto would help potential projects access funding from such sources as the state and federal governments and Stanislaus County.

The report does not state what work Modesto already has made in lining up potential partners and funding, nor how soon any tiny home projects could come before the City Council for consideration.

But a crew from Pallet Shelter — a company based in Washington state — provided a demonstration in March 2021 in downtown Modesto of the company’s easily and quickly assembled tiny homes, which are composed of panels.

Modesto homeless advocate Frank Ploof had asked Pallet Shelter to come here to provide a demonstration of its bridge housing.

The $3 million for the tiny homes would come from Measure H, the 1% sales tax increase voters approved in November 2022. City officials have said the tax is expected to initially generate about $40 million a year.

The $100,000 for the Gospel Mission would come from the $45.9 million the city received from the American Rescue Plan Act, the $1.9 trillion federal pandemic relief effort that President Joe Biden signed into law in March 2021.

Gospel Mission CEO Jason Conway said in text messages that the money would provide the 40 women and children a safe place to stay at night in the mission’s chapel.

The mission already operates a 35-bed emergency shelter for women and children, but Conway said it is operating at full capacity. The mission also operates an 80-bed shelter for men, and Conway said “we are also full most nights.”

The story is the same for The Salvation Army and its Berberian Center, near downtown Modesto. The center has two shelters with about 360 beds between them, and army officials have said both are running at nearly 100% capacity.

The City Council meets at 5:30 p.m. in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, the city-county administration center, at 1010 10th St.