Tiny-house movement



The tiny-house movement is an architectural and social movement promoting the reduction and simplification of living spaces. According to the International Residential Code, a tiny house’s floorspace is no larger than 400 sqft. Proponents suggest that tiny homes could offer low-cost, eco-friendly alternatives within the housing market and serve as a transitional housing option for homeless individuals.

In the United States
Shotgun shacks were small, single-story buildings in use among urban Americans from the late 19th century through the Great Depression. Although few such houses contained more than two bedrooms, they provided accommodation for the blue-collar families in Southern U.S. cities like New Orleans.

The average size of newly constructed homes in the United States grew from 1780 sqft in 1978 to 2479 sqft in 2007, and further still to 2662 sqft in 2013.

Henry David Thoreau and the publication of his book Walden are often quoted as an early inspiration for the tiny-house movement. The modern movement is considered to have started in the 1970s, with artists such as Allan Wexler investigating the idea of contemporary compact living. Early pioneers include Lloyd Kahn, author of Shelter (1973), and Lester R. Walker, author of Tiny Houses (1987). Sarah Susanka started the "counter-movement" for smaller houses, something she details in her book The Not So Big House (1997).

Jay Shafer, another pioneer of the tiny-house movement, began working on his first tiny house — measuring 110 sqft — in Iowa in 1997; it was completed in 1999. Tiny houses on wheels were then popularized by Shafer, who designed and resided in a 96 sqft house for two months before founding the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. (He left that company in 2012 to later found the Four Lights Tiny House Company. Shafer had to close down the latter after Tumbleweed came after him with lawsuits. ) In 2002, Shafer co-founded the Small House Society along with Greg Johnson, Shay Salomon, and Nigel Valdez. Salomon and Valdez subsequently published their guide to the modern tiny-house movement, Little House on a Small Planet, in 2006, and Johnson published his memoir, Put Your Life on a Diet, in 2008.

With the Great Recession affecting the economy of the United States from 2007 to 2009, the tiny-house movement gained more traction due to its perceived affordability and environmentalist nature. Despite this, tiny-house purchases represented a minimal percentage of real estate transactions, with only approximately 1% of total home buyers at the time acquiring houses qualified to be labeled as tiny homes.

Small houses are also used as accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to serve as additional on-property housing for aging relatives or returning children, as a home office, or as a guest house. Tiny houses typically cost about $20,000 to $50,000 as of 2012.

In 2013, the Tiny House Fair at Yestermorrow, Vermont, was organized by Elaine Walker. At the event, Shafer suggested promoting ethical business practices and offering guidelines for the construction of tiny houses on wheels. Walker continued this effort in 2015, creating the non-profit organization American Tiny House Association.

Tiny houses have received considerable media coverage, with a television show on the movement, Tiny House Nation, airing in 2014, alongside the similar program Tiny House Hunters.

Outside the United States


While the movement is most active in the United States, interest in tiny homes has been observed in other countries as well:


 * In Australia, designers such as Fred Schultz have created attention for the tiny-house movement. Owned by Grant Emans, Designer Eco Tiny Homes is Australia's largest tiny-home builder, creating roughly 100 tiny-homes annually out of 2 factories in Ulladulla. In 2022, Designer Eco Tiny Homes opened the world's first tiny-home showroom with a 9.6 m long home. In 2024, Konpak Tiny Homes launched Australia's first approvable tiny home to the Australian public. Currently, many tiny home manufactures design and build to meet the caravan regulations in efforts to avoid needing Council/Building approval. Although in practice, many of the buildings are not getting weighed by the manufacturer and are indeed being sold over the 4.5 tonne weight limitation.
 * In Canada, the legality of tiny homes depends on the location of the home and whether it is mobile or stationary. In Toronto, a tiny home requires a building permit and a connection to the power grid. In December 2019, Edmonton introduced by-laws permitting the construction of tiny homes on foundations, removing the former 5.5 m minimum width requirement. Some municipalities consider buildings which are not connected to the city electricity grid and sewerage systems in violation of building codes, possibly to avoid incidents similar to the leaky condo crisis in British Columbia, which resulted in an overhaul of the province's building codes. Similarly, some mobile tiny homes have been rejected from spaces designed for recreational vehicles (RVs) due to the tiny home failing to meet RV criteria. An "eco-village" of homes under 600 sqft in Okotoks known as the Homestead Project was proposed in 2017 but faced opposition from the Okotoks residents. Eventually, in August 2019, the council voted not to consider the project further after deciding to honor a petition with 3,000 signatures opposed to the development.
 * In France, the Ty Village opened its doors 6 km away from University of Rennes Saint-Brieuc campus in Brittany, in September 2019.
 * In Germany, the community of Vauban created 5,000 households on an old military base in Freiburg im Breisgau. The planned density of the building in that area was 50 dwelling units per acre. British architect Richard Horden, at the Technical University of Munich, developed the Micro Compact Home (M-CH), a high-end small (76 sqft) cube designed for 1–2 persons, with functional spaces for cooking, hygiene, dining/working, and sleeping.
 * In New Zealand, company-built units are called mobile homes and tiny houses on wheels. As of 2021, it tends to be a grassroots initiative. Bryce Langston – a filmmaker with a passion for small space design, permaculture, and downsized, eco-friendly living – has created short, documentary-style videos on small space living for YouTube via his channel and website Living Big in a Tiny House.
 * In Spain, Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores presented the 300 sqft House in a Suitcase.
 * In Sweden, a chef couple launched a forest-to-table movement, Stedsans in the Woods, out of tiny home cabins for rent in a Swedish forest. They have shared the blueprints for their A-frame cabins.
 * In the United Kingdom, Tiny Eco Homes UK has developed several customizable tiny house models starting at £26,000. Dozens of the homes are being used as primary residences across the UK and mainland Europe. Abito created intelligent living spaces apartments of 353 sqft in Manchester. Tiny House Scotland has created the "Nesthouse," a 23 m2 modular movable small eco-house to explore the possibilities of sustainable small-scale living in a highly insulated timber-framed structure with some passive house principles ensuring very low energy usage, with an estimated cost of €55,000. Northern Ireland has also seen a small but growing community of tiny house owners, although the planning rules do not specifically accommodate tiny houses, with the result being that the planning process for a tiny house would need to be decided upon on a case-by-case basis.
 * In Brazil, Tiny Houses Brazil was the first mini-house factory in the country, operating out of a shed on a farm property in Porangaba, São Paulo. The company develops projects and builds mini-houses on wheels. The houses are customized and built by hand with values of R$90,000.
 * In South Africa, the company Freedom Tiny Homes builds and sells tiny houses. The Tiny House Project is a non-profit working to promote tiny house living in Africa. They offer workshops and educational resources to encourage people to build their own tiny homes.

Issues
One of the biggest obstacles faced by the tiny-house movement is the difficulty of finding a region in which such a house can be constructed. Zoning regulations typically specify minimum square footage for new constructions on a foundation, and for tiny houses on wheels, parking on one's own land may be prohibited by local regulations against camping. While tiny houses have the potential to reduce building and living costs, they can still be costly as a result of the cost of the land they occupy.

In addition, RV parks do not always allow tiny houses unless they meet the criteria required for RVs. Tiny houses on wheels are considered RVs and are not suitable for permanent residence, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association. From RV Business, "The RVIA will continue to shy away from allowing members who produce products that are referred to as 'tiny houses' or 'tiny homes.' (However, the RVIA does allow 'tiny home' builders to join as long as their units are built to RV or park-model RV standards.)"

Some lower court decisions in the U.S. have struck down zoning laws related to size, which pose an obstacle to tiny housing. One such case was League of South Jersey, Inc v. Township of Berlin, in which the court found that a zoning law related to the size of a home did not advance its stated goal of protecting citizens, causing the law to be repealed. This, and other similar decisions, have assisted in allowing for the propagation of the tiny-house movement despite their infrequency.

In 2014, the first "tiny-house friendly town" was declared in Spur, Texas; it was later clarified that a tiny house may not be on wheels, but rather must be secured to a foundation.

In July 2016, Washington County, Utah revised their zoning regulations to accommodate some types of tiny housing.

Increasingly, tiny houses have become larger, heavier, and more expensive. This has signaled a move away from the initial movement goal of a reduced environmental impact as the popularity of tiny homes has taken off.

Tiny houses have been labeled as impractical spaces to raise families in. Overcrowding and lack of space have been noted to be detrimental to both physical and mental health, with the potential to affect academic performance in youth negatively

In New Zealand, some district councils have sought to classify mobile homes and tiny homes on wheels as buildings, subject to the Building Act 2004. This was backed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in a determination that was then challenged in District Court (Dall v MBIE ). Judge Callaghan found in favor of Dall's argument that his home was not a building, ruling the council and MBIE to have erred in saying it was. Other cases have since been heard, but no further clarifications have been made by the New Zealand Government as of January 2021.

Housing for the homeless
The Great Recession fueled the growth of the tiny-house movement. In several cities, an entrenched homeless population formed around tent cities, encampments that evolved to become semi-permanent housing. Homelessness in these communities was driven by foreclosures and expensive mortgages as a result of the United States housing bubble.

Tiny houses became an affordable option for individuals who lost their homes as a result of financial hardship. With their low cost and relatively easy construction, tiny houses have been adopted as shelters for the homeless in Eugene, Oregon; Olympia, Washington; Ithaca, New York; and other cities. Communities of tiny houses offer residents a transition towards self-sufficiency. Communities such as Othello Village in Seattle, Washington, originally lacked electricity and heat. In Seattle, non-profits have stepped in to help provide amenities.

Providing housing to the homeless reduces costs for municipalities. The long-term viability of tiny houses for homeless people is entirely dependent on the structure and sustainability of the model. Benefits of access to housing include privacy, storage, safety, restoration of dignity and stability. For cities such as Chicago, tiny houses are seen as an appealing option to close the gap in housing availability.

In Reno, Nevada, faith-based groups and community advocates have legislated new zoning for housing of homeless people in a tiny home community called Camp Safe. The community, which opened in October 2023, has 50 8'x8' tiny house units, which the city calls ModPods. Each ModPod cost a $13,000 to build, compared with the $3,800 the county had initially estimated. The program has come out to $5.25 million. In 2020, Worcester, Massachusetts, announced plans for a village of 21 tiny homes for the chronically homeless. Due to complication from the COVID-19 pandemic, the city had to pivot to micro-units within a building rather than individual tiny homes. The city unveiled 24 long-term supportive housing units in October 2023, with the goal of opening to tenants in December.

One challenge besides zoning and funding has been a NIMBY response by communities, which may weigh concerns over collections of tiny homes devolving into shantytowns or blighted neighborhoods which reduce the property values of the surrounding neighborhoods. Community planners have also voiced concerns in regards to the possibility of tiny house communities developing into shantytowns.

In California, the city of Richmond has engaged University of California, Berkeley students in the THIMBY (Tiny House In My Backyard) project with a pilot program aimed at developing a model of six transitional tiny homes to be placed in the city. THIMBY, with the support of Sustainable Housing at California, intends to foster an environment that allows homeowners and transitional housing residents to live as neighbors rather than in a landlord-tenant relationship. THIMBY acquires target locations for tiny housing development through surveying interested homeowners offering to rent out backyard space for the tiny housing unit. While Sustainable Housing at California has independently scouted out interested individuals for the initial pilot project, the organization also aims to work closely with the City of Richmond's Tiny House on Wheels ordinance to bolster city-level efforts to provide affordable housing and shelter. This is in line with developing efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area to use micro-apartments and tiny houses in combating the housing crisis and homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area. Similar efforts of using tiny houses to house the homeless are also ongoing in Oakland through a partnership between the City of Oakland and Laney College. In 2021, the California based nonprofit organization Hope of the Valley funded and built 4 tiny home villages in Los Angeles, forming the first formal, legally uncontested tiny home project in the region. More informal efforts to build tiny homes for homeless communities had been made in the past by citizens in Los Angeles, but were ultimately seized by the city due to concerns over sanitation.

As of 2022, tiny homes have been gaining popularity as a temporary solution for homelessness across the West coast, and in the Bay Area. Homeless individuals or families are commonly allowed to live in tiny homes for six months while seeking permanent housing, often with help from caseworkers; if they cannot, they are evicted and then the tiny home is given to the next person or family on the waiting list. An analysis of data from several tiny home communities in Santa Clara and Alameda counties found that compared to dormitory-style homeless shelters, which led to permanent housing less than 15% of the time, tiny home communities led to permanent housing almost 50% of the time. Dormitory-style homeless shelters cost about $17,000 per bed per year; some tiny home communities like Oakland's Oak Street cost $22,500 per bed per year (with onsite portable toilets), with the inclusion of ensuite bathrooms as seen in certain San Jose shelters resulting in a cost increase to approximately $34,000 per bed per year. While the median studio apartment in San Jose rents for $29,000 per year as of 2022, tiny houses come equipped with support services to help homeless persons get jobs and permanent housing, resulting in higher overall costs.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, the Social Enterprise Social Bite asked Jonathan Avery of Tiny House Scotland to design a two bedroom variation of his "NestHouse" tiny house for its Homeless Tiny House Village in the Granton area of Edinburgh. The village was opened on May 17, 2018, by Angela Constance, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, and features eleven "NestHouse" Duo tiny houses and a community hub building all built by Carbon Dynamic.

Pros and cons
In the co-authored research article The Psychology of Home Environments, it's argued that the drive behind the tiny house movement is centered around desires of modesty and conservation, in addition to environmental consciousness, self-sufficiency, and wanting a life of adventure. In building tiny houses, there is often a misalignment between the needs of the occupant(s), and the expressed design from the creating team. This reality is used as a call for architects and design teams to work with psychologists to build tiny homes that are better suited towards the needs of the occupant(s). In understanding these considerations, it is important to note that not everyone is suited for a tiny house.

Smaller homes are less expensive than larger ones in terms of taxes and building, heating, maintenance, and repair costs. The lower cost of living may be advantageous to those with little savings, such as people aged 55 and older. In addition to costing less, small houses may encourage a less cluttered, simpler lifestyle, and reduce ecological impacts for their residents. The typical size of a small home seldom exceeds 500 sqft. The typical tiny house on wheels is usually less than 8 by, with livable space totaling 120 sqft or less, for ease of towing and to exempt it from the need for a building permit.

Small houses may emphasize design over size, utilize dual purpose features and multi-functional furniture, and incorporate technological advances of space saving equipment and appliances. Vertical space optimization is also a common feature of small houses and apartments. An example of this is the use of loft spaces for sleeping and storage. Because of overall height restrictions related to the ability to easily tow a tiny house, it is common for lofts to be between 3.3 ft and 5.5 ft (1.0m and 1.7m) inside height. Therefore, for accessibility of elderly and disabled people, larger floor plans that keep essential elements like bed, bathroom and kitchen on the main floor are more typical.

The increased utilization of small houses as second homes or retirement houses may lead to development of more land. People interested in building a small home can encounter institutional "discrimination" when building codes require minimum size well above the size of a small home. Also, neighbors may be hostile because they fear negative impacts on their property values and have concerns about increased taxes.

More broadly, these sentiments of "othering" homeless and unhoused persons have culminated into a broader movement of NIMBY-ism, or "Not in My Backyard."

The advent of NIMBY-ism occupied much of community organizing and housing advocacy dialogue in the 1980s, so much that some coined it "the populist political philosophy of the 1980s." In many ways, NIMBY philosophy functions through the "spatialization of stigma," allowing residents and homeowners to reallocate and redefine neighborhoods and local communities and, consequently, which individuals should be allowed to occupy such an area. While modern U.S. society has statistically experienced a growing need for human services and welfare, researchers have acknowledged that "The stigmatization of persons and places are thus mutually constitutive of community rejection and organized resistance to human service facility sitting." In effect, community resistance to housing advocacy and affordability measures further exacerbates the dwindling number of public resources and social services available to vulnerable and displaced homeless persons.

Concerns over the efficacy of tiny homes for homeless people persist. Some critics have argued that, similar to other forms of anti-homelessness legislation, tiny home villages are fundamentally carceral, designed to push its tenants into less public spaces near city outskirts in an effort to marginalize homeless people, rather than provide long-term stability.

By treating homelessness as a non-familiarized issue, residents and homeowners are effectively exempt from community obligations towards the well-being and sheltering of other community members experiencing homelessness. Despite the framing of housing as a fundamental rights-based issue, community perspectives have evolved towards a more economic, individualized form that correlates a person's home-ownership and housing to their values and ethics, employ-ability, and general ability to provide for themselves and their families. As such, the inability of both private and public sectors to supplement the widening gap of affordable housing options and shelter is, in some ways, conveniently explained by an individual's supposed inability to ensure living stability, maintain financial independence, and solidify their position within the society at large.

Electrical setup and grid impacts
Tiny homes threaten increased grid defection because of their inherently low energy demands as a result of their small size. Their customized builds and smaller energy demand often results in the ability to sustain a tiny house entirely on rooftop photovoltaics such as roof-mounted solar panels. This has become especially prominent due to the continuously decreasing price of solar panels and batteries, and tiny homes have become notable as an example of an existing and commercially available alternative off-grid option for housing.

Off-grid solar electrical system
Each space and house will have their own energy consumption profile and generation demand. Consequently, they must size their power equipment accordingly. The needed size of battery systems to store captured energy or grid-supplied energy that will be used during times without power production from the rooftop solar, such as when there is inadequate insolation, depend on the generation capacity (as to not under or oversize the battery bank), the type of batteries used, their individual capacity (A⋅h), the discharge rate allowable per cycle (%), the size of loads (W), how long they will be run, and how many days of storage are needed. Battery sizing calculators are available online to simplify this process. Additionally, battery balancers, sensors that can read and recalibrate the available capacity, or state of charge, between different battery cells, can be added to extend the life of a battery system to prohibit voltage offset or non-ideal current flow, potentially damaging or capacity reducing to batteries over time. Batteries are rated in terms of ampere-hours with their discharge rate and capacity set by the manufacturer at a specific current and total amount of time, as voltage differs with temperature and power will vary with rate of discharge.

To fully convert a tiny home for living capacities off-grid, other power electronic power equipment is necessary, such as a charge controller, an inverter to power AC loads or down-regulators for DC loads, and proper protection devices such as circuit breakers and fuses. Specific sine inverters may offer simultaneous grid power hookup, called grid-tie inverters, in case of insufficient energy generation locally. Grid-tie inverters are of academic interest and are being studied by utilities for their impacts and potential benefits to voltage regulation, infrastructure implications, protection schema requirements, economics, and optimum policy regarding integration for implementation into the electrical grid with the rise of distributed generation, namely residential supplied solar power.

Size of homes
Tiny homes typically range between 100 and 300 ft2. Considering the small size of tiny homes in comparison to that of average-sized homes, energy costs are consistently smaller; moreover, tiny home power grids are typically sourced from solar panels, which decreases the amount of publicly produced energy necessary to sustain the home. More importantly, the price difference of using solar power on a tiny home in comparison to an average-sized home significantly decreases the homeowner's expenses, resulting in a significant difference between the energy emissions and cost necessary for output between a tiny home and average-sized home. While a tiny home is sustained to operate on 914 kilowatt hours a year, producing on average 1,144 lb of carbon dioxide, an average-sized house requires 12,733 kilowatt hours, which releases close to 16,000 lb.

Consequently, tiny homes inevitably require the consumption of less energy to support the homeowner. As a result, people living in tiny homes typically limit their engagement with materialism. The limited space of a tiny home encourages owners to make sacrifices in regards to the accumulation of materialistic items. It further allows homeowners to re-evaluate their personal habits, which subsequently translates into awareness regarding environmental sourcing. The concept of a "tiny" home reflects all aspects of the chosen lifestyle; a minimized space necessitates minimal consumer spending while the limited amount of surface area provided decreases the rate and level of energy consumption.

Environmentally conscious design
Human beings have been the main contributors in recent environmental changes. One critical proponent of these changes relates to infrastructure; buildings affect both human beings and the environment. However the costs tend to effect the environment while the benefits are exclusive to humans. The intention of building new infrastructure is to guarantee its sustainability for a long period of time. As a result, the less environmentally intentional a facility is, the more it will depend on consumption of natural resources. "Part of the very definition of a tiny home is that it be constructed with environmentally conscious and renewable materials." Most tiny homes are designed to receive their services in ways that are less environmentally exhaustible. Electrical grids and public utilities are a distinguishable way tiny homes receive various water, electric and plumbing services. This detail is critical for consideration when individuals move from average sized homes to tiny homes because it allows individuals to both save money while using less environmental resources. Another important environmentally conscious feature relates to toilets. Some tiny homes are equipped with incinerator toilets which get rid of waste by burning it rather than flushing. By eliminating toilet flushing, the amount of water used in a household significantly decreases. An alternative feature is a compost toilet which works by decomposing the waste using evaporation to remove it. Therefore, not only are tiny homes energy efficient, the makeup of these homes are also intended to be environmentally friendly. Subsequently, in order for new materials to be both utilized in construction and sustainable for long periods of time, the production of such materials are dependent on various chemicals; this added step removes additional resources from the environment. An alternative to this is the usage of recycled materials. The tiny homes designed by a group in Texas consciously avoid using new materials in their construction. Because 30–40% of energy consumption is expended by human beings, it has been argued that infrastructure is best fit to include the consumption of humans within its blueprints.

Individuals who live in tiny homes are directly connected to the environment primarily because of the close proximity between tiny homes and the surrounding ecosystems. Through constant contact, the homeowner is given the opportunity to better understand the functions of nature. Such an understanding allows for an increase in environmental awareness.

More so, the design of tiny homes are subject to individual modification; the style, level of sustainability, intricacy, materials used, and modifications are all determined by homeowner preferences.

Environment and homelessness
Homelessness is a critical issue in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, about 550,000 individuals were experiencing homelessness on a given night in 2018. Over half of those individuals were able to sleep in different types of shelters while roughly thirty-five percent were unable to reside in a sheltered area. Despite the little information provided on this issue in popular media, homelessness has the capacity to affect the environment dramatically. According to the Environmental Council of Sacramento, homelessness is a contributor to environmental deterioration. For example, waste [litter, drug paraphernalia, etc.] produced by the homeless accumulates around their living spaces which tend to be near waterways, sewage systems, or parks. This leads to the contamination of the surrounding ecosystem. The Environmental Council offers steps towards conserving the environment while simultaneously dealing with the issue of homelessness. These steps include the cleaning of various water systems and public spaces in order to provide both clean water and clean areas for all individuals of the community. One of these steps also includes governmental intervention in establishing sanitary and safe spaces for the homeless in order to prevent further environmental destruction. Luckily, systems for just that are beginning to form though the tiny house movement.

A critical form of combating chronic homelessness is the establishment of tiny house communities. Those behind such establishments aim to help individuals solve their housing problems and offer a space where individuals can connect with others who find themselves in similar circumstances. Creating these communities requires a variety of support, however the end goal is ultimately shared. The primary actors behind the building and funding of tiny homes for the homeless are non-profit organizations. Their goal is not only to give homeless people a place to live, but also offer them resources to help them in all aspects of their lives. Building communities of tiny homes for the homeless is a group effort involving the homeless, cities themselves, and housing patrons. With them, efforts to combat homelessness and its effects on the environment are being continuously improved.