LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Leon will have a sleepover Wednesday night with other public officials at the Arroyo Seco Tiny Home Village in Highland Park.
The now completed 6.8-acre site within Arroyo Seco Park is the largest tiny home village in the United States, providing 117 housing units and 224 non-congregate beds as transitional residences for people experiencing homelessness in the Highland Park community.
The village, operated by Hope of The Valley Rescue Mission, was funded and built by the city of Los Angeles.
“This is a part of Councilman De Leon’s commitment to do his part in developing 25,000 new homeless housing units by 2025,” the 14th District Office wrote in a statement issued Tuesday.
Each tiny home comes at an estimated cost of $65,000 per unit, making it the least expensive source of homeless housing available in Los Angeles County, and every home in the village has been hand-painted by renowned YouTube artist Zach Hsieh, alongside a crew of other artists he recruited to beautify the village.
Councilman de Leon — who is running for office to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti — will be sleeping at the tiny home village, he said, to prove that housing can be made comfortably and economically for the unhoused community.
To get a perspective on how individuals will be accommodated in the tiny homes, the councilman will have dinner, shower and sleep there just as future residents will do when they start moving into the now completed village within the next few days, he said.
The Arroyo Seco site at 5950 Arroyo Drive is the seventh village to open in the city and the sixth to be operated by Hope of The Valley.