Monument tiny home ready for district staff
Published 12:00 pm Tuesday, August 22, 2023
- A side profile of the 720-square-foot tiny home in Monument on Wednesday, July 12, 2023. The home sits on school district property and was constructed in an effort to draw educators and staff to the rural Oregon community.
MONUMENT — A tiny home built by the Monument School District is all set to welcome its first residents.
The two-bedroom, 720 square foot home is the result of efforts by the district to recruit teachers in the midst of a housing shortage that has hit rural Oregon especially hard. The project was made possible by a partnership between the Monument School District and the Eastern Oregon Regional Educator Network, which provided a $100,000 grant that funded most of the construction costs of the new home.
The structure sits next to an existing home that was built for the same purpose.
Superintendent of Monument schools Laura Thomas said the lion’s share of construction was done in March or April with just small things needed to make the home truly finished and livable. The district already has a tenant lined up according to Thomas.
“Obviously it’s available to staff but our Ethos music member is going to be the one renting it this year,” she said.
Rent for the home is usually $500 a month but will be set at $400 a month for the ethos music member due to the individual working for AmeriCorps. ”It’s more of a service oriented position, kind of like the Peace Corps rather than a job,” Thomas said.
While the Ethos music teacher was with the Monument School District last year and had found his own accommodations during that time, Thomas said the completion of the tiny home will allow the district to attract teachers in the future.“We’ve had staff who are interested in a position but there is no housing so they have to decline it,” Thomas said.
The success of the tiny home may lead to the district erecting others in Monument in the future but Thomas is quick to point out that the tiny homes can’t get in the way of the district’s overall mission.
“The district definitely is not interested in getting into the rental business overall so there is always that balance of need…we don’t want all these houses that staff don’t need because we’re super lucky to have a lot of local staff,” she said.
The total cost of the home, with grants and the district’s financial obligation to the project was somewhere between $130,000 and $140,000, Thomas said.
