Living Tinily

Like flowers after a rain, the "tiny house" meme is spreading across the Internet. Living in a house that's 100-400 square feet appears to be an idea whose time has come.

People are joining this movement for many reasons, but the most popular reasons are because of environmental concerns, financial concerns and seeking more time and freedom.

196 ft² Boise house (SF Gate photo)

SF Chronicle:

tiny houses are popping up around the country as more people decide to downsize their lives....some homeowners have discovered a small house actually leads to a simpler yet fuller life, connecting them with family, friends, and nature while freeing them from mortgages, wastefulness, and an urge to keep up with the Joneses.

Tiny living not only appeals to middle-class and wealthy downsizers but also to some homeless and their advocates. In the Pacific Northwest tiny-house villages are springing up as shelters.

Opportunity Village, Eugene (Buzzfeed photo)

These villages tend to be a hybrid of two trends. One is the tent city, a kind of homeless encampment that goes back at least as far as the Depression and that received revived attention from the media once the recession hit, then again in 2011 when several emerged amid the Occupy Wall Street movement.....The other trend is the tiny-home movement, which has become increasingly chic in recent years as Americans look for ways to reduce their carbon footprint and to live more economically. [snip]

Tiny-home villages for the homeless have retained the idea of everyone having their own tiny structure to sleep and find privacy in, but have, for the most part, consolidated bathroom, kitchen, and recreational space into one or two communal buildings.

Here on the Peninsula, where homes, rents, and land prices are skyrocketing, the homeless problem is so acute that tiny houses may be a solution that overcomes a thicket of regulatory, environmental, and NIMBY obstacles.

Samaritan House is looking toward tiny houses as a creative solution to house the homeless....Samaritan House is not pursuing tiny houses on wheels but rather to find an architect who can design a single-floor community with about 100 tiny homes, about 250 square feet each, with porches and green space on an acre or two, [CEO Bart] Charlow said. The homes would be fixed to the ground and less costly to build than traditional housing, Charlow said.

Based on the 5-10 years it has taken to approve other projects--even those benefiting "worthy" populations--the Samaritan House had better be prepared for a long slog.