Tiny homes are making a big impression
More than half of Americans say they would consider living in a tiny home, mostly defined as between 100 and 600 square feet. And the interest is growing, especially as traditional homes get more expensive. Additionally, many see tiny homes as a possible solution to homelessness and local efforts are underway to create villages of them.
What is a tiny house anyway?
The average size of a tiny home is 225 square feet. That’s ten times smaller than the average home. But it is bigger than one famous tiny home-poet Henry David Thoreau’s 150 square foot cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts.
It used to be most people built their own tiny home. That has changed and YouTuber Jenna Kausal of Tiny House Giant Journey asks-Is the DIY Tiny Home trend dead?
Kausal says the trend away from building your own tiny home is good and bad. Buying “off the shelf,” she explains there are more opportunities for people to live in them and builders know about zoning regulations. However, you’re going to pay more.
The average cost of a tiny home is $52,000. Even though that’s 87-percent cheaper than the cost of a traditional house, building a tiny home yourself can save even more money. One person Kausal highlights is Macy Miller who built her tiny home, including appliances, for just $11,000.
Amazon and Walmart sell prefabricated tiny homes for $16,000 but you have to have a foundation and land to put one on and must consider electricity and plumbing.
The cheaper cost means only 32-percent of tiny homeowners have a mortgage compared to 80-percent of all homeowners.
The popularity
There are more than 10,000 tiny homes in the U.S. and their numbers continue to climb. By 2027 experts say they will increase more than 50-percent in North America.
Forty-percent of people who live in tiny homes are over 50 years old and 55-percent are women.
The top three reasons people say they would live in a tiny home:
- Affordability
- Minimalist lifestyle
- Don’t need a big home
You’ll find more tiny homes in the Northeast and Northwest than any other place in the U.S. The states with the most are: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Wyoming, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Rhode Island and Alaska.
Tiny Home Villages
Community First
CEO of Mobile Loaves & Fishes Alan Graham started Community First Village in Austin, Texas in the early 2000s, noticing a tremendous need for the unhoused. The village started as a mobile home park and eventually morphed into hundreds of tiny homes. Graham says the village is 127 acres with 550 tiny homes and there are plans to add another 1,400 houses.
This is permanent housing for the chronically homeless who have either a physical or mental disability. Graham says, “Anecdotally, we actually settle people pretty profoundly. I mean, 85-percent of the people that move in are going to stay with us long-term.”
And when they die, the village will inter their ashes, carving their name in granite on the property.
Residents pay 35-40-percent of their income. Community First has enterprise opportunities, allowing residents to work in an organic farming operation, an on-site bed and breakfast, in a wood shop, a ceramic studio and more.
Vista Village
Unlike Community First’s permanent housing model, Vista Village in Columbus, Ohio, is transitional housing, where residents can stay up to two years before finding their own place. The faith-based tiny home village, which opened in January, is the brainchild of Juan (John) Perez who bought the 15 acres it sits on.
Residents of the 41 tiny homes started to move in at the beginning of the year. Perez says, “Our houses are basically like any other house except they’re a smaller footprint.” The project was mostly privately funded. Some community members and businesses are even sponsoring a tiny house.
“The most heartwarming aspect of it was when we had the first individual move in and we introduced her to the person who had sponsored her house and it was electrifying. I mean, they hugged each other,” says Perez.
The village serves five different population groups:
- People living on the land
- Veterans
- People returning to society after incarceration
- People in recovery
- Kids aging out of foster care
Vista Village is already talking about Phase II which will serve single parents, using a slightly larger tiny home model of 660 square feet.
The tiny homes were constructed by Unibilt Custom Homes in Vandalia. Just three miles from Unibilt’s site is another planned tiny home village.
Beacon Place Village
Miami Valley Housing Opportunities (MVHO) is in the process of raising money for 40 tiny homes and a community center. CEO Debbie Watts Robinson tells Brick by Brick’s Emiko Moore, “It’s a whole lot cheaper to help someone stay in the housing that we provide than it is for them to be just out there in the system going to the emergency rooms, you name it, all the things that happen when people don’t have a place to live.
Watts researched other tiny home communities, including Community First and Vista Village.
Brick by Brick’s Moore showed possible resident Keith Monnin a picture of the planned development and he thinks it’s a great idea, “If I actually have an address, this is my address and that way this is my here. And I can say there’s a sense of pride in that.”
Tiny Homes for Humanity
Retired architect Earl Crossland and his friend Larry Plum, an Army veteran, are at the very early stages of planning a tiny home village for veterans in Cincinnati. They are calling it Tiny Homes for Humanity.
Even though they just started the effort in October the men have already met with a long list of key players including Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus, The Port’s CEO Laura Brunner, Strategies To End Homelessness CEO Kevin Finn, Habitat for Humanity and others.
Crossland is looking for two-acres to build 25 tiny homes and a community center.
He says, “Each home would be about $60,000. We’re also thinking that this might be developed in phases so that we wouldn’t have to do all 25 at once, but that would be the goal.”
Veterans’ Village
Construction is scheduled to begin later this year, just outside Felicity, on 19 cottages (slightly bigger than tiny homes, about 700-1,000 square feet) for veterans who are unhoused. It’s called Veterans’ Village. Eventually Clermont County Metropolitan Housing, which will own and manage it, will have more information on its website.
There are over 12,000 veterans living in Clermont County and about six percent of them are homeless or on the verge of being homeless. Alicia Morlatt is executive director of the Clermont Metropolitan Housing Authority.
“It’s a whole huge community endeavor. It’s amazing how Clermont County embraces our veterans. And right now, because we don’t have a homeless shelter, a stick and brick homeless shelter….They want to return, and this will allow them a vehicle to do so,” she says.
Morlatt explains that honorably discharged veterans facing homelessness and having a physical or mental disability are eligible. They can use HUD-VASH Project-Based vouchers or veterans affairs supportive housing to pay rent. County Commissioner Bonnie Batchler has been instrumental in Veterans Village.
“I’ve said it many times, no veteran that has served this country should have to live in conditions like that and if we can do something and give them a new start on life, give them a place to live to get their life back together and um, I think we owe it to them,” says Batchler.
Economic and Community Development Administrator Desmond Maaytah explains the reason these houses are a little bigger than tiny homes is to allow for wheelchairs and service animals.
Veterans’ Village is walkable to town, but commissioners are looking into getting more public transportation. There are plans for a dog park, raised garden beds, even pickleball.
One of the biggest advantages will be having a community center with VA care on-site. Clermont County funded Phase I with ARPA money. Plans are already in the works for Phase II.
Effectiveness of tiny home villages
Portland State University studied the effectiveness of tiny pod villages from 2020-2022. Researchers say it was one of the first studies on this model, as an alternative to shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
They focused on six villages, including Oregon’s first and longest-running village, Dignity Village for the 80 in-depth interviews and more than 2,000 community surveys in Portland.
Here are the key findings:
- Eighty-six percent of villagers were largely or very satisfied with their pod.
- Forty-five percent of villagers report food insecurity.
- Villages have disproportionately served white men: 17-percent of villagers in this study identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color).
- Most neighbors who reported concerns about villages at first, reported no longer having those concerns after living near a village.
- Sixty-nine percent of villagers said they should share in decision making at the village.
A separate study, sponsored by the A-Mark Foundation and conducted by Pepperdine University graduate students, asks: Are Tiny Home Villages an Effective Tool in the Fight Against Veteran Homelessness?
They studied the Village for Vets in Los Angeles and found the low barrier to entry housing is essential in helping get some veterans off the streets and it’s preferable to other housing options in part because of its close proximity to healthcare on the VA campus.
Despite repeated attempts, the students were unable to get comprehensive funding and budgetary information from the VA and therefore could not conduct an accurate cost analysis.
Between 2020 and 2022 there was a six percent decrease in veteran homelessness in LA thanks to efforts like Village for Vets.
Alan Graham of Community First Village in Austin, Texas says he hasn’t done any long-term peer-reviewed scientific studies on residents because they cost millions of dollars. But he would welcome outside groups doing them.
Looking ahead
Tiny home developments show no sign of slowing down because they appear to be making a difference. Yetimoni Kpeebi who studies them says he thinks there are now 123 tiny home villages in the U.S., up from just 34 in 2019.
Kpeebi is a native of Ghana and explains, “In Ghana, communal living is deeply valued, so a tiny house village there would likely emphasize shared spaces like central courtyards, outdoor cooking areas, and gardens. With Ghana’s warmer climate, tiny homes would need to be constructed using materials and designs that maximize natural cooling and ventilation, such as sloped roofs.”
International companies continue perfecting tiny home designs. Singapore-based Nestron has designed the Cube Two. It can accommodate a family of four comfortably. And it might be able to protect from natural disasters with its galvanized steel shell. Its website says the Cube Two has built-in furnishings and voice-controlled technology and can be shipped anywhere in the world.
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Ann Thompson – Host, Producer
Over the last thirty years in Cincinnati, Ann Thompson has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting. She has reported and anchored for WVXU, WKRC, WCKY, WHIO-TV and Metro Networks and freelanced for NPR, CBS and ABC Radio. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press and she has won awards from the Association of Women in Communications and the Alliance for Women in Media. She is a former News Director and Operations Manager. Ann has reported from India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Belgium as part of fellowships. Ann thinks of the Brick by Brick project as “journalism for good.” She serves as host and producer. Ann lives in Anderson Township with her husband Scott. They have two boys. Jake graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2022 and Kurt attends West Point.
