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Thread: Tiny housing receives potential boom.

  1. #11
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Seattle had a pilot program where they offered apartments to the homeless--no strings attached. They saved money, and their tenants drank less, among other improvements. I believe Utah also adopted this approach, with a very high success rate.

  2. #12
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    G, yes sounds similar to what they are doing here. We have the same issues with rent and something needs to be done. I am just happy to see more people getting off the street and they don’t get thrown outside in the morning like regular shelters.

  3. #13
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Jane, that’s great

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    This trend is so stupid it makes my head hurt.


    Yes tiny houses are charming, yes they intrigue us, but dear god they are not practical for “ the homeless” and wtc etc etc. They exist for rich dilettantes.
    So I'm not understanding why you, IL, think "this is so stupid and it makes your head hurt."

    What is wong with smaller living spaces, and collecting less stuff?

  5. #15
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    My take on tiny houses is that they are "cute". But in my urban area, I do not want block full of tiny houses.

    As they are presented currently, tiny houses are stick built mobile homes built on a trailer frame that are as small as they are only to meet hiway restrictions on oversized loads.

    The ones presented do not normally contain a flush toilet but use a composting toilet of some kind and water may be loaded into tanks or run thru a hose. Heating and cooling a mobile tiny house is not a simple or inexpensive affair.

    There is nothing wrong with living in a smaller place or collecting less junk. But these mobile tiny homes are not allowed by almost all zoning laws due to all kinds of issues, like building codes, waste disposal, etc. What is wrong with "rooming houses" built or converted with simple kitchens and shared baths just like existed for most of the last century for both women and men? Heck, in many areas duplexes are illegal, patio attached homes have to be fought for, etc.

    There is a Youtube video about a woman who built a custom tiny house and then SURPRISE could not find anywhere to place it and live in it. Another young woman found she could only stop in RV parks and lived with the coming and going of the other customers.

    So first, to discuss this issue, the facts and terms need to be defined. Makes my head hurt too.

  6. #16
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    https://www.12news.com/article/news/...x/75-599435767

    I toured these 3 homes a few weeks ago with my son. Full utilities like any other house. They have small garden spaces and patio spaces also. There are plans for a dozen or so of them a little bit north of me also in another location.

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tammy View Post
    https://www.12news.com/article/news/...x/75-599435767

    I toured these 3 homes a few weeks ago with my son. Full utilities like any other house. They have small garden spaces and patio spaces also. There are plans for a dozen or so of them a little bit north of me also in another location.
    I would love a house like in the link. I have a friend that lives in a gorgeous - and inexpensive - trailer park in PA that looks more like small homes. Definitely not your angled trailers in a row. I'm working on getting rid of the stuff and trying to save for a major down-sizing move.
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  8. #18
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mschrisgo2 View Post
    So I'm not understanding why you, IL, think "this is so stupid and it makes your head hurt."

    What is wong with smaller living spaces, and collecting less stuff?
    sweetana pretty much covered it. I will add two points:

    emphasizing that small living is something I admire and think is a good thing for several reasons, this idea of giving tiny homes to The Homesless is stupid. The cost per square ft of these trendy things is generally high (depends on the build, of course.) but MY main point is: just giving a shelters to Homeless persons will not magically turn their lives around, they are homeless for a reason.

    Didnt we learn in Social Work 101 with all of that public housing built decades ago that herding groups of poor and likely mentally ill people into their own corral is not good for them or the surrounding community?

    Sure, communities can figure out some kind of housing that is clean, small, and simple, but that would not be new construction of stick built tiny houses.

    And finally, as an old house hugger, if a community wishes to spend a crap ton of money on inflated-cost housing for the poor and mentally ill, please renovate exisitng structures.My city has thousands that are falling down, great old Victorians built to a standard that is much higher than this new stuff.

  9. #19
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    Giving shelter to homeless people often times will automatically turn their life around. There is a reason for why they are homeless, yes and sometimes that reason is they can't afford housing. Then because they are homeless it is hard to get a job (I don't think causation always works the other way) etc..

    I am skeptical that tiny houses are the answer though, why is this preferable again to apartments for single room occupancy? I don't think it would be, if the problem is housing costs for the homeless, you want density. For the density of what look like most tiny home communities you could build single story 1 bedrooms! (and have some room to move by merely sharing some walls and not having empty space between dwellings). But if you want more dense you go with single room occupancy, shared kitchen, multiple stories.

    Public housing built decades ago had problems, since then there is less public housing and more homelessness, things have not improved.
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  10. #20
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Given my son is looking at used campers to park at our VT house next summer, and given that we already have 3 outbuildings and I don't want my yard to look like a clutterfest of tacky-tacky shacks, I considered maybe seeing if a tiny house would look less "hillbilly"--I could side it the same as my house and it would look a little more permanent. And if I invested in it, I could kick out DS when company came

    But they are very expensive--especially, as Gardenarian said, when they are "tricked out." The cheapest I found was a 10x12 not far from here: $18,000. And I know that that's very cheap for a tiny house. I was dismayed when I went on the Tumbleweed House site recently: that's the one that Jay Schaffer started, back when Dee Williams built her TRULY tiny house: https://www.treehugger.com/sustainab...foot-home.html

    But he sold out to another company and now their "tiny" houses start at 20' long and they're upwards of 70k. If I had a 20' long tiny house in my yard it would be about as long as my own "tiny" house.

    So I think I'll let him explore his own options. He's seen some decent campers for $3000-$5000. They're old, but as long as they don't leak, they'll serve as shelter.

    But I do love the tiny home trend. I agree that they may be problematic for the homeless. For that population, my vision has always been more like Japanese capsule hotels https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffre.../#183f68171448.

    Not for longer-term temporary homeless housing, but more for per diem shelter. They could be installed in defunct city spaces like old parking lots.
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