Public Invited to Experience MicroPADs—Small Homes for Homeless

If you’ve got a moment and you’re over on 9th and Mission Streets from October 31st to November 13th you may want to check out the MicroPAD prefabbed modular affordable house sitting outside the offices of Panoramic Interests. There’s a demo unit there for public walk-throughs—looking very lunar 2001 Space Odyssey on the outside and amazingly stylish and comfortable with a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living/work area on the inside.

PAD is a cleverly slangish acronym for Prefabricated Affordable Dwelling, the brainchild of Panoramic Interests. They’re built on a steel frame, take up 160 square feet along a long axis and are built at an offsite factory—a much more cost effective way to build low cost housing as opposed to onsite construction. They can be placed anywhere but are really designed for dense urban neighborhoods. Site preparation can be done at the same time the PADs are being built so the whole process of providing homes for the needy is sped up that much more.

There were currently 6,686 homeless individuals in San Francisco in 2015 and the city spent $241 million on homeless services—$112 million of that went to housing. Projections have the PADS making significant savings in housing development costs for the homeless.

Read the full story, and view multiple pictures here.