Artist makes tiny homes on wheels for homeless

Gregory Kloehn can turn just about anything into a home.

The Oakland, Calif. artist spends his summers in Brooklyn, N.Y. living in a dumpster he outfitted with granite countertops, hardwood floors, a rooftop deck, plumbing and a barbecue grill.

But his proudest creations are cozier structures that he gives to homeless people in his neighborhood.

Kloehn's little homeless homes are about the size of a sofa, but they come with a pitched roof to keep out the rain and wheels so recipients can roll them around town.

So far Kloehn has built 10 of the tiny houses using mostly illegally dumped trash that piles up on the streets in a semi-industrial section of West Oakland. The foundation is usually discarded wood pallets to which Kloehn adds windows, a mirror and a cup holder. Several homes are insulated with discarded pizza delivery bags.

Wonder, a homeless woman Kloehn has known for several years, parked her new house on the sidewalk next to her old home, which was primarily of a tarp draped over a couch.

This is the best home I've had in five years, Wonder said as she opened the front door made from a discarded picnic table to reveal the pizza bag insulation. It gets real hot in here, she said.

Kloehn, a 43-year-old transplant from Denver, is a sculptor who got on a housing kick after building his five-unit live-work condominium complex from scratch.

Inspired by the small home environmental movement, Kloehn started making fully functioning houses out of shipping containers. He soon moved on to dumpsters. Then I just started grabbing garbage and making homes out of that, he said.

Kloehn's fascination with nontraditional homes helps support his wife and two children. While he gives away the homeless houses, he sells homes, bars and restaurants that he makes from shipping containers, many of which reside in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.

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Artist makes tiny homes on wheels for homeless