The following portions of an article by Lloyd Alter of Treehugger, citing The Tiny Life blogger, address barriers to the Tiny House Movement. The original is recommended, especially for the many informative comments.
The obstacles are all related to the free market system that has shaped our communities. The model that once worked well is broken. The excesses, financial bubbles and draconian building codes are all aspects of the barriers to choosing small (read: affordable) spaces. The article follows . . .
Notwithstanding the success of people like Jay Shafer and his Tumbleweed Tiny House line, it is still an incredibly tiny niche. What's holding it back? Over at The Tiny Life, Ryan Mitchell lists the Top 5 Biggest Barriers To The Tiny House Movement; the first three L's are well known to me, I am not certain about the last two, and I think he is missing a big one.
Land
One of the largest hurdles for people wanting to live in a Tiny House is access to land. Land is expensive, in growing short supply and people want a balance of having land and being close to city or town centers where they can access services, entertainment and employment.
One of the main reasons people are interested in tiny houses is that they are relatively cheap. Once you try to buy land, it's not anymore, and the actual tiny house becomes the least expensive part of the equation.
Loans
At this point, banks don’t feel that Tiny Houses are a viable option because they don’t have a good resale value.
There are loans available for recreational vehicles and trailers, but the interest rate is high and you have to provide personal security. If you can plop it on the ground that you own, then you might be able to get a traditional mortgage, but don't bet on it.
Laws
This one is the real killer; many municipalities have minimum square footage requirements because they like the higher tax assessments. Even where I am now deep in the middle of nowhere, they have them. They insist on full water and sewer systems that can cost more than the house. They don't allow trailers so you can't just leave it on the chassis. They don't want tiny houses, period.
Social Pressures
In our society today, bigger is better, more is better, we are conditioned to want more and more stuff. These cultural norms are a very strong current in maintaining the status quo. Tiny Houses fly in the face of such things, questioning much of what people hold dear.
This is fundamentally where I think Ryan, and much of the movement, goes wrong. Lots of people all over the world live in tiny houses; they are called apartments. Families all over Europe and Asia are raised in a couple of hundred square feet, and single people have no problem with it. In cities like Vancouver, tiny houses are popping up in back lanes everywhere. But much of the Tiny House movement seems to be about replacing a conventional suburban or exurban model with... a tiny house.
Fear
When faced with the prospect of bucking the system, initiating a radical lifestyle change, and spending a good chunk of money to do it, it can be scary.Encinitas has not found any substantive solutions to housing for working class, underemployed residents who represent the largest labor pool in the community. We all know that Density Bonus Laws are a sham for real solutions. Public land trusts as an investment for citizens and the city are worth exploring along with micro-loans, a thorough review of existing building code constraints and green building grants. These all represent steps towards considering solutions.
All it takes is will. There are individuals and families who have taken on these obstacles individually. But, there is a segment of the community most vulnerable and most in need of assistance from community activists, community groups and the many citizens aware of land use inequities. Greater numbers and cooperative strategies would give Encinitas a chance to venture into this new housing approach. It just needs our humanity to kick in to mobilize such a movement.
For me the great appeal beyond conscious living is the end run around developers we have grown to abhor, the big bankers, large building industry firms and the affordable housing giants who all act as paracites in the process. Who then would be forcing Density Bonus? If we can get our city government, city planners to work as advocates for the citizenry rather than handmaidens to the Bigs, we can begin our ventures into something altogether new. First and foremost we need to get the rigid (broken) State (and/or Federal) Housing Authorities to certify tiny homes and then get city building codes to recognize exceptions.
