The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tiny houses are affordable, energy-efficient, often illegal
Many cities don’t permit them, with wheels or without.
Sarah Hastings’ 190-squarefoot home was on three acres of farmland next to a small garden in Hadley, Mass. Now it’s in storage.
The 23-year-old recent college graduate built the house last year while she was a student at Mount Holyoke College. But like many who want to live in a “tiny house,” generally defined as a home smaller than 500 square feet, she has struggled to find a place to put it.
After somebody reported her for violating Hadley’s zoning ordinances, Hastings proposed changing the town’s laws to allow for backyard apartments, but the measure was voted down in a town meeting.
Some local governments around the country are welcoming tiny houses, attracted by their potential to ease an affordable housing crunch or even house the homeless. Cities such as Washington, D.C., and Fresno, Calif., have eased zoning and building rules to allow them, and in May California’s housing department issued guidance to help builders and code enforcers know which standards they need to meet. They are even the subject of the HGTV shows “Tiny House, Big Living” and “Tiny House Hunters.”
But lost in the enthusiasm is the fact that in many places, it is hard to live in them legally.
Many residents and local officials fear they will drive down property values. Some state and local governments, perplexed about whether to classify tiny houses as recreational vehicles, mobile homes or backyard cottages, still refuse to allow them.
And as for tiny houses being a solution to the affordable housing crunch, some housing experts caution they aren’t right for everyone.
“People using affordable housing are a diverse group. You’ve got retired people, disabled people, families,” said Robert Silverman, a professor with the University of Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning. “A 300-square-foot trailer with a loft up top may not be suited for all those groups.”
Hastings said Hadley rejected her tiny house proposal because some residents were afraid the town would be overrun with them. “There was kind of a backlash. It only takes a few people saying, ‘Oh, there’ll be 500 of them,’” she said.
In 2015, the median new family home in the U.S. was 2,500 square feet, 61 percent larger than homes from 1975.
Tiny houses have gained traction with people who want to live a simpler life with fewer possessions and financial obligations, and who want to have a smaller environmental footprint. Some nonprofits are eyeing them as a possible solution for people priced out of overheated housing markets.
The difficulty has been where to place them. Those built on foundations must meet local building and zoning regulations. But many tiny houses are built off-site, sometimes without knowing where they will ultimately rest. That makes it difficult to know which building codes to meet, especially if owners plan to move them from place to place.
Bill Rockhill, founding president of the American Tiny House Association and a New York-based builder who primarily builds tiny houses, said he and other builders try to follow uniform building codes for houses or a similar set of standards for RVs. Still, not all requirements can be met — the ladders in a tiny house may not meet requirements set forth for stairs, and lofts may not have high enough ceilings.
But Dan Buuck, a specialist on codes and standards for the National Association of Home Builders, insists that some tiny houses are filled with dangers. Smoke can accumulate more quickly in low-ceiling and loft areas, and ladders and small windows make it harder for help to get in and out.
Those concerns have spawned a cottage industry of firms willing to certify that a tiny house is safe. Chuck Ballard with Pacific West Associates Inc. said his company reviews architectural plans and photos of construction before issuing the certification, which costs around $2,000.
As of now, few cities allow stand-alone tiny houses. Most communities have minimum square footage requirements for single-family homes mandating that smaller dwellings be an “accessory” to a larger, traditional house. Many also have rules requiring that dwellings be hooked up to utilities, which is a problem for tiny-house enthusiasts who want to live off the grid by using alternative energy sources such as solar panels and rainwater catchment systems.
That’s the case for Brian Levy, whose 210-square-foot tiny house in a peaceful back alley alongside a cemetery in Washington, D.C., isn’t considered fit to be occupied full-time because it is on its own piece of land and it is not connected to city utilities.
Many cities are more accommodating to tiny houses on foundations, which are considered guest cottages — as opposed to those on wheels. Starting in the fall, D.C.’s new zoning regulations will permit tiny houses in some neighborhoods, as long as they are on a foundation and are connected to utilities.
When cities require the same permitting for tiny houses on foundations as they do for traditional houses, it often doesn’t make financial sense to build tiny. “At that point it’s really more of a lifestyle choice than an economic choice,” said Nick Krautter, a real estate agent in Portland, Ore., who abandoned plans for a tiny house development.
Just a few cities allow tiny houses that rest on wheels, including Fresno, where they are now considered backyard cottages.
Alexis Stephens, a tiny house dweller who has been traveling the country making a documentary on how people are living in tiny houses legally, said small towns have been more open to tiny houses than their larger counterparts.
One example is Spur, Texas — population 1,318 — where people hope tiny houses will help revitalize the shrinking community. In 2014, Spur declared itself the nation’s first tiny-housefriendly town.