Austin company offers to build 100 ‘MicroHomes’ to house asylum-seekers

Inherent L3C, an Austin-based modular home builder, is offering to build 100 “MicroHomes” to help house asylum-seekers bused into Chicago and homeless individuals – but it wants buy-in from the City of Chicago first.

Founder Tim Swanson saw the microhomes as a natural extension of the company’s mission to build environmentally sustainable, quick-to-assemble working-class homes in communities facing shortage of modern housing. Doing so, he said, also provides jobs for residents of the South and West sides. In an interview with Austin Weekly News, he explained that unlike their usual modular homes, they are not meant to be long-term housing. Rather, they mean to provide temporary shelter in “something a bit more dignified” than tents and cots on police stations’ floor, something that “looks like a home.” After the families find permanent housing, the homes would be turned over to another individual or family in need.

With philanthropic donations, Inherent was able to build one of his MicroHomes as a proof of concept. To show that he means business, Swanson had the house placed in the parking lot of West Loop’s Chicago Children’s Theater, near the corner of Racine Avenue and Monroe Street, and he stayed there with his 8-year-old daughter over the weekend of Nov. 17. He got support from support from several aldermen across the city, including vice mayor and long-time West Side alderman Walter Burnett (27^th). But negotiations with the city are in the early stages, and Swanson said it was too early to talk about any timetables.

Inherent operates out of a rented space at The Will Group’s K-Town Business Centre, a 60,000-square-foot warehouse on the 4647 W. Polk St. The building falls within the 15^th police district, those Madison Street station that has been a major destination for asylum-seekers from Central and South American countries who have been bused in from Texas.

The 80-square-foot-house, which Swanson said is a bit smaller on the inside because of the insulation, cost about $20,000 to build and install in the West Loop parking lot. He said if they were able to build 100 homes, that economy of scale would be able to bring the cost down to $17,000 to $18,000 per home. The total would range from $1.7 million to $1.8 million.

If the city agrees to finance the 100-home concept, Swanson said it would build “community hubs” with four bathrooms, four showers, two kitchens and a laundry facility. Each would be able to serve up to 20 homes. He said that he hopes that either the city itself or the social service agencies it works with would provide on-site support to migrants who need it.

In contrast, the city’s existing $29 million-contract with GardeWorld includes building a tent city, complete with showers, restrooms and laundry facilities to house migrants.

Swanson made it clear that microhomes are not meant to be full-fledged houses, comparing them to cabins and camping sites. The building has a water tank for a compostable toilet that can be refilled with tap water, but no running water – something that he said was done to make homes easier to install. While the homes have the power outlets to support a hotplate or a kettle, they don’t come with any built-in cooking amenities. They do come with a bunk bed with a space underneath that could house a desk or a second bed, a temperature-controlled space heater, a ceiling mounted light fixture, a fan installed in one of the walls and a fresh air circulation system. The home can be powered by solar panels or plugged into a power outlet.

Swanson described the homes as something that can shelter migrants “while they get their feet under them while they get acclimated to Chicago.”

“This is a step along the journey to more self-sufficiency,” Swanson said.

He and his daughter stayed in the microhome from the afternoon of Nov. 17 to the afternoon of Nov. 19. Swanson said that their stay was pleasant – to the point that when he woke up after the first night, he didn’t realize right away that he wasn’t home. He said that his daughter invited local kids to stop by and play, and he had conversations with elected officials and West Loop residents who stopped by. The only snag, he said, was that on the first night, they had to turn down the heat a little bit.

“I probably had over 200 conversations with ordinary Chicagoans – folks that were walking by, picking up children from school, high schoolers leaving Whitney Young, dogwalkers,” Swanson said, adding that he particularly enjoyed policy- and planning- related conversations with professors from University of Chicago and University of Illinois Chicago who stopped by.

“It was important for us that we lived in it for a weekend to make a statement about what that would looks like, and for me to be able to say authentically that I was able to live comfortably,” he said.

Swanson said that this month he had an “extensive conversation” with Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chief of staff about the proposal, and that he expects to have further conversations with the city later this week.

Swanson said he got suggestions that he should stay in the MicroHome until the city accepts his proposal – an idea that he rejected. Staying there for three days and two nights drove home how, for many other Chicagoans, going to a full-fledged home when they felt like it wasn’t an option. Swanson said he would rather turn over the demonstration home to a family in need.

“We’re putting back into the community, and we’re going to be working hard to put a family into it,” he said. “I had a dozen of Chicagoans reach out.”