Design & Build Tiny Homes for Students in Need

Affordable housing is scarce in Southern California. In addition, increasing tuition costs, overpriced textbooks, and loan payments contribute to a college student’s risk of becoming homeless (Wood, Harris III, and Delgado, 2016).

Community college students have limited housing options. When addressing student housing, institutions of higher education have to consider limited land, funding, liability, student safety, and anonymity. Affordable housings, student housing, safe parking lots, and tiny homes are strategies that could offer potential solutions to the housing insecurity crisis community college students are facing.

The purpose of this project is to research homelessness in higher education and investigate the experiences of community college students facing housing insecurity to develop creative design solutions. Tiny homes are portable, sustainable, small-scale, and affordable dwellings that could serve as a strategy to address student housing insecurity.

It is important to emphasize that Jag Village is a proposal to address students’ housing needs. The Architecture Program at Southwestern College is exploring affordable and sustainable housing solutions for students facing housing insecurity. By providing access to affordable and emergency housing to students, we are promoting student success. Teaching students how to design and build tiny homes to help their fellow students and the community in need offers them the workforce skills and understanding they will need to be successful in the fields of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction.

This can only be made possible with your support. Thank you!