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In a context of austerity and economic crisis, public authorities are forced to adapt their own practices, to create low-cost social policies and sometimes to draw inspiration from informal practices. Through the analysis of the institutionalization of the tiny home village model in Portland as a means to house the homeless, this article aims at understanding the extent to which these informal practices spread into public policies and reconfigure the governance of homelessness. The paper points out that, although the political dimension of the villages was fundamental in their regularization, the modalities of their institutionalization and their official deployment can depoliticize their functioning and reproduce certain limitations already associated with congregate shelters.