Toronto non-profit building tiny homes for unhoused

Snow dusts the ground of St. James Park in Toronto; a cold day with temperatures well below zero.

Stationed next to each other in a corner of the greenspace are three tiny homes built to keep people experiencing homelessness warm and sheltered through the winter.

“Somebody is safe, somebody is warm, somebody is not sleeping outside,” said Tiny Tiny Homes Founder Ryan Donais.

Donais was sick of seeing people sleeping outside and decided to take action himself last spring.

With a background in construction, he began the non-profit ‘Tiny Tiny Homes’ to replace tent encampments with mobile units.

Each structure contains a bed, table and sink among the amenities — also featuring fire and carbon monoxide alarms, a fire extinguisher and a furnace for safety.

“This is not at all a solution for housing,” Donais said. “This is a temporary gap between tents and permanent housing so people aren’t living so rough.”

Building the units himself, Donais says each structure takes about 40 hours to put together and uses local products, materials and labour to help the community.

“It’s built by Toronto, for Toronto.”

He hopes to ramp up production with a facility and professional help, which would cut the time and cost of builds.

Staying in #1 is Hungarian refugee Nauel Samu.

He’s been living in one of the tiny homes for just over a week; an upgrade from his previous sleeping arrangement — spending nights on a pallet in a field with a sleeping bag.

“My food always in the morning is ice, so how can I eat?” he asks. “If I don’t focus well on which time I eat my food, it’s always frozen. So I just throw it away.”

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Samu has been in Canada for one year and eight months, experiencing difficulty landing a job — especially without a permanent address.

He says the tiny home that Donais provided him is comfortable, he sleeps well and is not frozen.

For him, a warm place to lay his head at night is a chance at a new start.

He spends this morning scraping ice off of the solar panels on the tiny home roofs, ensuring power will continue.

Keeping the area around the homes clean, he hopes area residents trust and accept him into the community.

“We like that people aren’t scared because we’re here,” he said. “We want to show the people that we are a good homeless person.”

Donais is looking to expand his production, hoping to get the City of Toronto on board.

He’s already teamed up with community organizations that vet clients for him and help with social work.

“The plan is also to get our parks back. So, what we want to do is get in cooperation with the city and move these units to a piece of land that is either waiting to be developed or a GreenP parking lot.”

Tiny Tiny Homes is chasing charity status, currently funding its work through GoFundMe donations.

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