Man who lived in Halifax tent encampment designs micro-homes with Dalhousie University

A man who spent last winter living with homeless people in downtown Halifax is teaming up with Dalhousie University to design unique micro-homes.

Stephen Wilsack spent several months at the Grand Parade trying to support people who were living rough in the cold.

With the help of Dalhousie's architecture department, he's now created a design for a unique micro-home he thinks will protect those without a place to stay better than a tent.

"It is a structure that has a feeling," Wilsack said. "Even though it's a small space, it's large inside."

The micro-homes are designed to be a four-season structure that can range from eight feet by 16 feet to eight feet by 20 feet, he said. He said they have a sleeping space, bathroom, kitchen and lounge area, and are designed to be portable so they can be moved to different locations.

Wilsack said the project started after James Forren, director of Dalhousie University's school of architecture, visited the Grand Parade tent encampment while he was living there last winter.

"He just walked in and said, 'I don't know what I can do, but is there anything that we can work on for you?'" Wilsack said.

That led to Forren sending out an email to faculty members, including sessional professor Eric Stotts.

Stotts, who teaches building technology, is also the principal of Stotts Architecture. He said he jumped at the opportunity to be involved in the project.

"I was like, this is a great opportunity not only to involve myself, I'm very interested in these issues, but to involve the students in meaningful work in their studies," Stotts said.

DIY aspect to homes

Architecture student Mya Staubitzer was integral in coming up with the design of the micro-homes, Stotts said.

Staubitzer, who is about to enter her final year in the program, said her approach to creating the design mostly involved listening to those with lived experience.

She said she wanted the structures to be able to empower the people using them. 

"The look and the shape and the feel was really driven by how could this thing be built quickly and by people who aren't necessarily trained and skilled labour," Staubitzer said.

While Wilsack lived at the Grand Parade, he said many people came by wanting to help but not knowing how. The do-it-yourself nature of the micro-homes would give those people an opportunity to be part of the solution, he said. 

"That's what the most important part about this is. It's not a structure. It's somebody's home. It's a starting point and it's changing somebody's life."

'A village creating another village'

Wilsack said he's speaking with municipalities, such as the Town of Wolfville, and community groups about funding the construction of the micro-homes.

That will require collaboration between the public and private sectors and community leaders, and it will take everyone thinking differently about homeless populations in their communities, he said.

Because the word encampment can have a negative connotation, Wilsack said, he refers to potential clusters of these micro-homes as neighbourhoods that could exist on government land, in empty warehouses or even in someone's backyard.

He'd like to see pods of six to a dozen micro-homes built in a semicircle to form mini communities. 

"A village creating another village and doing it on a scale that any community can do this and they will feel proud of it and it becomes something that they build into their community structure," he said.