New organization aims to address homelessness with tiny shelter community

A Belleville where everyone has a place to call home.

That’s the vision of grassroots group Tiny Shelters Alliance Belleville.

One of the group’s founders, Faren MacNeil, says that over the last several months, the organization has been working on a concept of a tiny shelter community to address the homelessness crisis.

“Our concept of tiny shelter community consists of a community hub building with washrooms, laundry, meeting rooms, a kitchen and an office. We’ve been kind of mulling about the number of units but it really will depend on the location of the community.”

Finding a location with a usable hub building would move the project along faster and likely cost much less.

The group has been working with some professionals in the community to design the concept.

The plan is similar to one pitched to city council last year by Not Alone Team Quinte that never got off the ground.

“So we decided to create a group that was just specifically dedicated to tiny shelters. This way we’re kind of able to focus on the very specific logistics and organization part of it. The fact that we’ve been kind of working on this behind the scenes for a while has given us the ability to organize ourselves pretty well to be able to take in volunteers so that we can hit the ground running.”

So far the board consists of four individuals but MacNeil says they are ready to take on more volunteers to move the plan forward.

“Fundraising, grant writing, outreach. Then there’s the whole side of construction, planning. Just different categories that we’re looking for people to  decide where they can make the best difference when looking at a tiny shelter community.”

The film’s subject, Kaleel Seivwright will also be a special guest.

Tickets to Saturday’s kickoff are free and can be accessed through Eventbrite.

To find out more about Tiny Shelters Alliance Belleville, visit their Facebook page.