Eagle Rock's Tiny Home Village: A challenging mission, some mixed reactions

Some residents arrived without identification, others with criminal records. Some work but don’t earn enough for rent.

The goal is to get them permanent housing. How long does that take? That, obviously, can vary.

“When clients come, we meet them where they are,” said Tyrone Friend, the chief programs officer at Union Station Homeless Services, which runs the Eagle Rock facility.

When a new resident first arrives, care coordinators develop goals with them - perhaps to get an ID, for example, according to Amber Follett, the director of interim housing. Every month, the resident and a coordinator revisit that plan, she said.

The village has 24-hour security, laundry service, access to restrooms and showers. There are case managers, mobile clinics, art therapy classes and other activities.

But what do the neighbors think?

 “Whenever any homeless service organization brings a site to a community, there’s a mixture,” Friend said. “There’s people who love it, there’s people who don’t love it.”

Every Friday, neighbors bring Burger King and McDonald's meals to the village. But there are also complaints about trash and tents in the park across the street. Emails from residents who asked not to be identified complain about threatening behavior outside the village fence.

When dealing with some of these issues, the staff at the Tiny Home Village has to use the same resources as the rest of us - for example, calling homeless services.

On a recent Tuesday, a homeless structure stood in the nearby park and garbage piled up farther down the road. Neither had been there the week before. The following Saturday, the garbage was gone. But some homeless structures remained.

The Village’s “time out” policy has also been an issue. Residents posing safety concerns are removed from the village until they are calm enough to return, Follett said. But where do they go?

“They might go to family if they’re close” Follett said. “It’s different for all our sites."

How was it before?

There had been homeless encampments on the lot and under the nearby 134 Freeway before the village was built, Friend said.

One person who frequently dropped off his daughter at the park said conditions had improved. But others who live nearby said bad behavior seems to have spread out, with drug use becoming more open.

“I think that was happening on a larger scale before we got there,” Friend said, “and I think the interim housing site has decreased it.”