Going micro for big impact

ACCORDING to Council to Homeless Persons (CHP), Geelong has one of the highest rates of people experiencing homelessness in a Victorian regional electorate. And as housing affordability skyrockets, many of those affected are pensioners.

Associate Professor Ursula de Jong, from Deakin University’s School of Architecture and Built Environment and a member of the university’s multi-disciplinary research network ‘HOME’, said that in order to help individuals at risk of homelessness, a housing model that was affordable, socially enriching and connected to the community was needed.

She hoped the HOME Research Hub’s two micro-village research projects in Geelong would relieve pressure on personal and community wellbeing, allowing low-income earners to live happy, connected lives.

“By providing small affordable homes in a low-cost, sustainable ‘tiny community’, the micro-village project steps in to empower those on low incomes, pensions or those who are experiencing financial instability to establish a home of their own. In this way it prevents homelessness happening for these people,” she said.

The two interdependent linked HOME research projects are, ‘ Exploring the viability of affordable small houses for those with limited funds and desire for modestly sized homes’, funded by the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Trust and, ‘ Homes for “Grey Nesters”: Social integration of a micro-village of small houses supporting community wellbeing in Geelong’, funded by the Geelong Community Foundation.

Prof de Jong said the goal of the research was the design, construction and evaluation of a place-based micro-village housing three to 12 residents in the Geelong region, demonstrating a comprehensive and harmonious integration of the village with the local community and neighbourhood environment and becoming a platform to assist multiple disadvantaged groups in the Geelong region.

Beginning with pensioners, it will eventually include students, young families, women, and single parent households, allowing the micro-village to develop into a “multigenerational village.”

According to Prof de Jong, the idea for the research emerged at a grass-roots level.

“In 2018, the community came to the research hub with a problem.

“The Bellarine Tiny Homes Group [now amalgamated with Geelong Sustainability] in working with the local Men’s Shed Group became aware of serious issues related to affordable housing,” she said.

“Age pensioners were needing to pay most of their pensions in rent, leaving them with little money for food and medical bills, and nothing for ‘entertainment’.”

If residents were required to see a specialist, buy expensive medications or even move between rentals, the line between renting and facing homelessness became difficult to walk.

“We were told that the needs of the pensioners were reasonable: they wanted a small secure home, where they could age in place,” Prof de Jong said.

“Universal and sustainable design was seen as key to wellbuilt lasting small homes, that would be cheaper to run and maintain over time.

“And so the Deakin HOME Research Hub came up with the idea of a micro-village.”

While Tiny Houses (a bespoke stand-alone dwelling of 37sq m or less) were also put forward as a solution, not all smaller living concepts fit under the same umbrella.

“Lack of integration and community consultation in the design and building of Tiny Houses has created a stigma around these housing models, resulting in reluctance of communities to support their construction,” Prof de Jong said.

“The micro-village concept is designed to address some of the issues with Tiny Houses. Its ethos is something deeper, more meaningful and peoplefocused.

“Micro-villages seek to establish a community hub for residents to keep that interconnected, neighbourly feeling and the ‘ can-I-borrow-a-cupof-sugar attitude?’ in an affordable way.

“Ageing in place is critical to the concept, so that people can put down roots, can belong to their micro-village, to the neighbourhood and the wider community,” she added.

“While the model has not yet been refined and decided upon, it is definitely not about small houses, but rather about small homes.”