ABBOTSFORD - The City of Abbotsford is taking another look at a plan to house the homeless in a village of tiny cabins.

City officials brushed off the idea when it was first proposed several years ago, but Jeff Gruban with the Abbotsford Dignitarian Society says the application is being reviewed.

He believes the change was prompted by overflowing shelters and a B.C. Supreme Court decision allowing the homeless to sleep in parks overnight if no shelter spaces are available.

Gruban says if the society's application for a temporary-use permit is approved, a 40-cabin village could be set up within a month, complete with a dining hall and shared washrooms.

He expects residents could begin moving into the single-bed cabins by early summer on a two acre lot near Highway 11, on the east side of the Fraser Valley city.

The plans are much like a village already operating in Portland, Ore., but Gruban says the Abbotsford cabin village would be the first in Canada.