Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 16 November 2017

Tiny houses are trendy _ unless they go up next door

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE houses as a solution, but
Associated Press one middle-class neighbor-
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — hood has threatened to file
As he tows a 96-square- a lawsuit.
foot house around Des “People are sympathetic
Moines, Joe Stevens is over- toward the homeless, but
whelmed by the intense, to put this in an established
sometimes tearful support neighborhood doesn’t
he receives from church- make sense,” said Jon
es, schools and service Kanter, a retiree who has
groups for his plan to use lived in the neighborhood
the trendy little structures to for nearly 40 years.
help homeless people. It’s a comparable situa-
But when Stevens actually tion in Nashville, where resi-
tried to create a village of dents went to court to stop
the homes in Iowa’s largest the zoning board from ap-
city, the response was far proving a church’s plans
different. to build a village of 22 tiny
“We got shot down,” said homes for homeless peo-
Stevens, who leads a group ple.
that proposed erecting 50 In this photo taken Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, a row of tiny houses at a homeless encampment stand Some homeless advocates
tiny homes on a 5-acre in- in view of a full-size home behind, in Seattle. also oppose the move to of-
dustrial site north of down- Associated Press fer tiny houses to homeless
town Des Moines. “It was a a Middle Earth paradise people, saying the money
sense of fear, uncertainty were shocked when they could be better spent sub-
and doubt, a kneejerk situ- learned of plans for a 22- sidizing their move into tra-
ation.” lot tiny home development ditional apartments.
Tiny homes have been pro- that would wrap around In Tallahassee, Florida, a
moted as the solution to all many existing houses. privately funded develop-
kinds of housing needs — “I think tiny homes are ment called The Dwellings
shelter for the homeless, an great and people can en- will open this fall, with 11 of
affordable option for ex- joy them if they like, but an eventual 130 tiny hous-
pensive big cities and sim- please don’t put them in es intended for homeless
plicity for people who want our neighborhood,” said people who have some
to declutter their lives. But Joanna White Wolff, who resources. Residents will
the same popularity that fears existing home values pay $550 to $850 a month
inspired at least six national could drop by $100,000 if for homes up to 410 square
TV shows about the homes the tiny development pro- feet, a price that also in-
often fails to translate into ceeds. “My home is my cludes meals and a range
acceptance when devel- In this Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017, photo, Joe Stevens stands in sanctuary, and it’s going to of other services.
opers try to build them next front of one of the tiny homes his group has built, in Des Moines, be destroyed by different That’s what happened in
door. Iowa. thinking.” Colorado, where Pueblo-
In at least a dozen cases Associated Press Wolff and her neighbors are based Sprout Tiny Homes
across the nation, neigh- size of homes, from 1,200 communities designed for considering legal action to has been building tiny
bors organized to stop tiny square feet in the 1940s to the open market. block the development if houses and then trucking
house projects, including about 1,860 square feet in That’s what happened city leaders approve the them to communities that
in Charlotte, North Caro- this decade. in Charlotte, North Caro- plan, she said. need affordable housing.
lina; Nashville, Tennessee; As home sizes spiraled up, lina, where a developer For his project to help More than 40 of the homes
San Jose, California; Tulsa, tiny house pioneers in the had hoped to build 56 tiny the homeless, Stevens ar- serve as seasonal housing
Oklahoma; Tallahassee, 1990s began promoting homes near a neighbor- ranged for high school and for workers in the exorbi-
Florida; and Bend, Ore- the austerity and frugality hood filled with ranch hous- college students to build tantly expensive resort city
gon. Sometimes the efforts of spaces smaller than most es and split-levels. Oppo- the houses, with donations of Aspen. Others serve as
moved ahead despite ob- garages. The idea cap- nents argued that the tiny to cover costs. But after be- overnight rentals in the city
jections, but in many cas- tivated millions of Ameri- homes would clash with ex- ing thwarted in the search of Lyons, near Rocky Moun-
es, the communities were cans, even those who re- isting housing, cause traffic for a building site, the Des tain National Park. The lat-
blocked. main in more spacious ac- problems and fail financial- Moines group he heads, est effort is a market-rate
The president of the Ameri- commodations. ly due to the cost of the 500 called Joppa, turned to the development of 200 homes
can Tiny House Association “It’s an aspirational life- square-foot homes, which nearby city of Van Meter on nearly 20 acres in the
said opposition arises even style, and it’s fun to watch would be priced at about about locating the village city of Salida.
among people who feel an people try to do something $90,000. there. Company President Rod
affinity for the homes. difficult, which is to live con- “The tiny houses, we feel “We’re not giving up be- Stambaugh said the key to
“People say, ‘Tiny home trary to the general trend, they’re a fad,” said Robert cause we really do believe avoiding opposition is to fill
are great and cool, and which is more space,” said Wilson, who helped lead this is an answer to a seri- a need and take pains to
you can put that village Ben Keys, a real estate pro- the opposition. “It’s a niche ous problem,” said Stevens, be clear about your inten-
anywhere but right across fessor at the University of market, and we think it is who noted that about 250 tions.
the street from my subdivi- Pennsylvania’s Wharton not less expensive.” people are typically home- “You have to have a full-
sion,’” said Chris Galusha, School. A similar story unfolded in less in the Des Moines area. blown plan that’s well
who is also a Fort Worth, The opposition is often fo- the high-desert resort city The homeless population thought out,” he said.
Texas, area builder. cused on developments for of Bend, Oregon, where in San Jose, California, is ___
The current interest in small homeless people, as in Des owners of a develop- much larger — an esti- Follow Scott McFetridge on
houses follows a steady Moines. But in many cases, ment inspired by author mated 4,000 people. That Twitter at: https://twitter.
growth in the median it also extends to tiny home J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision of city would like to offer tiny com/smcfetridge .q