On that warm, sunny Saturday a few weeks ago, Rick Klun stopped by to visit the resident of Center City's first tiny house.
The woman, who had been homeless for ten years and living in a shelter, was entertaining her daughter, and the pair had plans to head up the shore to pick agates.
"How normal is that?" marvels Klun, the executive director of Center City Housing. Thanks to an in-house contest from Wagner Zaun Architecture - and the resulting design, Center City and volunteer labor built the 28-by-12 foot house in Duluth's Central Hillside. And Klun is excited. Whether options for future tiny houses are stick-built, as this one was; refurbished shipping containers or an entire micro-house village, Klun hopes there may be hope on the horizon for housing the single adults in the Northland who are without homes.