INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.– On any given year, there are about 8,000-10,000 homeless people living in the city of Indianapolis. One organization says the key to solving such a big problem may in fact be tiny.

On Tuesday in front of a group of homeless advocates, Leon Longard pitched the idea of using tiny homes to combat homelessness.

“We want to create something that will be an asset to the city and an asset to whatever neighborhood it ends up in,” he said.

Longard says tiny homes can help provide adequate and sustainable shelter for those families at a cost of about $10,000 per home.

Last week, Indianapolis received $5 million in federal funding to help combat homelessness. Supporters of the tiny houses for homeless movement say tiny houses could be a valuable tool in that fight.

“I think we’re going to have to figure out whether this works or not and the only way we’re going to figure out whether it works is by actually doing it,” said Alan Witchey of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention.

Longard says there’s still a long way to go before this idea becomes reality. He told all who attended the presentation that if the project is going to happen, then it needs to be done right.

There is a tiny home village for the homeless currently in Munciel; Longard says they used that model as part of their research.

“And hopefully be something that’s just a piece of the total picture of what we are doing to address and end homelessness in Indianapolis,” he said.