Chicago exploring pilot 'tiny houses' project to help homeless

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration may build "tiny homes" on vacant city lots to give homeless Chicagoans an "independent" alternative to "dangerous" shelters, aldermen were told Tuesday.

Anthony Simpkins, managing deputy commissioner of the Housing Bureau of the city's Department of Planning and Development, disclosed the feel-good pilot one day after tents set up by homeless residents were swept away from viaducts at Wilson and Lawrence avenues as the two crumbling Uptown structures are rebuilt.

Simpkins refused to say where or how many tiny homes would be built or who the builder and operator might be.

He would only say that the city has been "approached by a number of developers," including Catholic Charities, and is exploring the possibility of building "at least one, maybe two" projects on "vacant city land" after surveying similar projects in other cities.

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