A HORSHAM firm has constructed housing solutions for the homeless.
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Horsham's Oscar Builders is involved in a project to build "tiny homes" to provide immediate housing to those experiencing homelessness across Australia.
The project was completed in conjunction with the Harris Transportable Housing Project, Launch Housing and VicRoads.
Oscar Builder director of building, Matthew Op De Coul, said the crisis accommodation project was initiated about three years ago.
He said 14 houses had been shipped to Melbourne - six of which are already occupied. He said the company was building the next 23 houses at their Horsham site, which are due for completion in January 2020.
He said each tiny house takes about five weeks to complete.
"The houses are self contained - it has a little bathroom, a kitchenette and a living space," he said.
Matthew Op De Coul said the project enabled the company to expand their employee base.
"It has grown our business for sure. We have been bringing in extra skilled staff. It will certainly enable us to grow our workforce and we are looking to grow much further," he said.
Oscar group chief executive Anthony Op De Coul said the project had been in the making for some time.
He said the company worked with architect Sophie Dyring for the prototype about six years ago.
Anthony Op De Coul said the first few houses are located in Ballarat.
"VicRoads have a lot of blocks of land in Ballarat that they own, and the idea was to make the road wider at some point. That may or may not happen. All these vacant blocks are doing nothing, so Launch Housing put a proposal together to put this housing on that land," he said.
"To be able to get people off the street is fantastic. We wish we could have done it earlier."
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