A new tiny home project broke ground in Van Nuys in Los Angeles City Council District 2 on Thursday, adding 100 shelter beds in an area where officials said existing sites are near capacity.
Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, who represents the area, joined city engineers and nonprofit leaders for the groundbreaking ceremony next to the district’s existing A Bridge Home, a congregate shelter near the Metrolink station. District 2 includes neighborhoods such as North Hollywood, Studio City, Sun Valley, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village and Van Nuys.
The project, led by Pallet Shelter and the city’s Bureau of Engineering, is part of an ongoing push to expand interim housing options in the San Fernando Valley, officials said. The district’s two congregate shelters and three Tiny Home Villages are operating at or near capacity every night, according to the councilmember’s office.
“The honest response is that the need is so great—this is only one chapter in a novel,” Nazarian said during the event. “But if everyone takes this step and does this, we will very quickly be able to address the overarching issue … also coming up with the infrastructure necessary to not allow homelessness to constantly prevail.”
Construction of the 100-bed site is expected to be completed next spring, with Pallet Shelter planning to deliver the units in early October.
Unlike traditional congregate shelters, each resident or pair will have their own private space, with wraparound care and case management available 24/7, said Amy King, CEO of Pallet Shelter. The village will also allow pets, a feature that officials say helps remove a common barrier to shelter access.
“That’s the concept,” King said. “The goal is to bring people in, get them stabilized, meaningfully connected with services, and then move them on to their next step.”
The project is funded through the state’s Emergency Stabilization Beds (ESB) program. The city allocated more than $5.5 million from that fund to construct the Van Nuys site, according to city documents.
“I’m really excited for the opportunity to provide our unhoused an opportunity to have a safe place to live,” said Pam Bingham, vice president of the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council. “We know that many of our Van Nuys residents are not in the position to have safe and secure dwelling for themselves and even their pets; this is a win for our community.”
According to the 2025 LAHSA Homeless Count, Council District 2 has seen a 35% drop in unsheltered homelessness and a 38% increase in interim shelter placements since last year.
“We’ve been dealing with a homelessness crisis for the last almost decade and a half,” Nazarian said. “ What we’ve needed to do going back five, six, seven decades ago, was to invest more money so that we could have come up with shelters. We could have come up with the support systems that are necessary … we’re making up for all of that lost time and all that failure in a very short period of time.
“This is a sliver of hope,” he added. ”This is a sliver of activity facing a very overwhelming issue. But, sliver by sliver like this, I’m going to make sure that in my time in office I’m addressing this issue,” he said.