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Residents stand outside a Pallet Homes structure at Vancouver’s Stay Safe Community. The temporary residences include heating and air conditioning and lockable doors and storage for comfort and safety.

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Thinking small
February 17, 2023 1 a.m.

Thinking small

Kit home legislation could ease housing crunch, aid those facing homelessness

OLYMPIA — Everybody knows there’s a housing shortage, especially for very low-income people and solutions are hard to come by. State Sen. Jeff Wilson, D-Longview, thinks he may have the start of one, however. “A hundred years ago, people bought houses from the Sears catalog – they came in a boxcar, you found a local crew to build them or you did it yourself,” Wilson wrote in a press release announcing the introduction of Senate Bill 5657. “We see prewar kit bungalows standing proudly today in every community of the state. As prices of starter homes skyrocket, we ought to take another look at kit homes as a solution for today.”