Skip to main content

Introducing the Odessa Eco-Village!

Written by Founder on . Posted in Communities, Founder's Blog. No Comments on Introducing the Odessa Eco-Village!

The Tiny Town Association is thrilled to unveil our newest project- an off-grid, cooperatively run, eco-village designed to redefine what affordable and sustainable communities can look like outside of urban boundaries. The Odessa Eco-village brings together innovation, sustainability, and community.

Nestled just outside of Kingston, Ontario, the Odessa Eco-village will feature a central community hub, 27 private lots, two ponds, landscaped green spaces, and connecting roads. Each lot includes:

  • A 10’x16’ cabin with your choice of a gable or shed style roof
  • A covered porch and deck
  • On-site parking
  • Roughly one acre of land
  • A high-efficiency composting toilet
  • A rooftop solar system

Inside the cabin, you’ll find an open main room with space for an off-grid bathroom. Members are welcome to personalize the cabins to make their own peaceful getaways. During the demonstration phase, members will only be able to visit the community for a maximum of 14 consecutive days, followed by a minimum 7-day absence. Rezoning will take time, but once acquired, the cabins can be year-round small modular homes.

At the heart of the site is the caretaker’s residence, which will evolve into a community hub where members can gather. Shares in the cooperative cost $60,000 with monthly co-op fees of $250. By joining, you’ll not only secure your spot in the first community, but you will also help expand affordable housing options across Canada. Ready to shape a more sustainable future? Register for the Odessa Eco-village here!

Tiny Town Association booth - 2025 Tiny Home Show

Its all About Community

Written by Founder on . Posted in Communities, Founder's Blog, News. No Comments on Its all About Community

A BIG thank you to everyone that stopped by to say hi at the Tiny Home Show last Saturday and Sunday at the Ancaster Fairgrounds. Everyone’s positive enthusiasm was rejuvenating, and the interest in tiny home communities was reaffirming. I was glad that all age groups showed interest and a desire to live in our small modular home community. Based on the questions many people asked at the show, I will prepare a series of posts that provide insight.

The community focus has expanded over the years. Not only are people looking for affordable and attainable housing. but they are missing the community aspect in today’s world. We will continue to expand the “community” component of Tiny Town developments. We want to encourage you to share your thoughts on what that would look like to you, so we are holding a draw for a Tiny Town Association t-shirt. Images of the t-shirt can be seen in the photo of me in our Tiny Home Show booth. (One of the few times there wasn’t a lineup of people waiting to chat.)

Entry into the draw is simple. In your own words, tell us what would make living in our small modular developments a community. Is it the amenities, the social interaction (where/how that would happen), the community layout? Anything is possible. You may only submit one story which will enter you into the draw. The draw is random, we are not judging your thoughts, so every entry is an opportunity to win. The Tiny Town Association reserves the right to incorporate your ideas into our community model and will give kudos in return. We also may share all or part of your submission on the website, in print or use in presentations. If your story is under 250 words, we will award 1-entry and over 250 words we will award 2-entries.  1-additional entry will be awarded if you include a sketch or drawing to help illustrate your story, and 5-additional entries will be awarded if you send a link to a short video you create that explains and/or illustrates your thoughts. A small, medium, or large shirt will be mailed to the winner. Entries can be sent to

See Us at the Tiny Home Show

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog, News. No Comments on See Us at the Tiny Home Show

Yes, I’ll be at the 2025 Tiny Home Show in Ancaster, ON this weekend, July 12 & 13! If you haven’t been before, its’ a great opportunity to talk to industry experts, sit in on some informative presentations, and of course walk through some model tiny homes. This year the show has expanded to include more sustainable living resources, so there is something for everyone, not just tiny home enthusiasts. The show runs Saturday & Sunday, details are available on the show website.

See you there! https://tinyhome.show

Canada Summer Job Opportunity – Remote Work with Impact!

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog, Volunteer/Employment Opportunities. No Comments on Canada Summer Job Opportunity – Remote Work with Impact!

This is a short notice posting, as we just received approval this week.

We’re hiring a Canada Summer Jobs participant—a student between 15–30 years old—to assist with:

  • Conducting online research
  • Organizing website content
  • Creating and scheduling social media posts

Please see the flyer for complete details.

Note: We are currently reviewing applications, and no longer accepting new ones.
Thank you to all who applied.

Slowly advancing to a showcase community

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog. 2 Comments on Slowly advancing to a showcase community

Tim Welch Consulting Inc. (TWC), an independent housing research, planning and development firm, included the following Conclusion to a Feasibility Report commissioned by a municipality on a tiny home community development we proposed:

“This feasibility report underscores the potential of Tiny Town Association’s vision to address the critical shortage of affordable housing in … through innovative, sustainable, and community-focused solutions. By proposing a pocket-neighborhood model of compact and tiny homes, the project exemplifies a scalable and replicable approach to meet the housing needs of one- and two-person households, particularly those earning low to moderate incomes.

While challenges such as site selection, zoning compliance, funding gaps, and organizational capacity must be addressed, the report provides a roadmap and actionable recommendations to guide Tiny Town forward. Key next steps include securing a suitable property, engaging with municipal and provincial stakeholders to address zoning and servicing challenges, and leveraging partnerships to close funding gaps and build organizational capacity.

The Tiny Town project is more than just a response to the housing crisis; it is a bold and innovative initiative that can serve as a model for affordable housing development across Canada. By combining sustainable building practices, energy-efficient designs, and a focus on community living, Tiny Town has the potential to create not only homes but thriving, connected neighborhoods. With commitment and strategic execution, this project can redefine how we think about affordable housing solutions in rural and small-town contexts.

Tiny Town is encouraged to take the insights and strategies presented in this report as a foundation to move confidently into the next phases of planning and development. Through collaboration, persistence, and an unwavering focus on its mission, the organization has great potential to have a lasting impact on the lives of those in need of creative housing solutions.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

As we continue to work towards our showcase community, a living example of the vision, we are encouraged by those that have taken the time to understand and support what we are working to achieve. If you would like to become part of this movement, let us know!

Leeds & Grenville logo

Why so quiet lately?

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog. No Comments on Why so quiet lately?

As you’ll notice, we haven’t been sharing any new potential community designs, or locations. Developing a community is a complex process, and requires that the municipality, township, city and/or town be willing to partner with us on the development. While everyone says we need more affordable housing, and all levels of governments talk about it, very little new affordable housing is being developed. That is because through the development process, potential hurdles can stall or even derail a project. While we are currently work on 2-pojects with the potential to include almost 200-tiny homes, we will no longer post information until a partnership agreement has been reached, and we are sure the development will proceed.

We would like to announce that we recently received a grant:

The Leeds and Grenville Affordable Housing Development Lab (“The Lab”) will assist non-profit groups, municipalities, and community-minded entrepreneurs to conduct a feasibility assessment and development plan, at no cost, to move forward on an affordable housing construction project located in Leeds and Grenville, that will provide long-term affordable housing to households in need.

We are currently working with the Lab to identify a location within the municipality of Leeds & Grenville to build a showcase tiny home community. This is one of the 2 municipalities that have demonstrated a willingness to work with us, to become the host of our community model development. All homes within the community are planned to be affordable forever, cooperatively managed rental units.

Community Bonds

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog, Funding News, Volunteer/Employment Opportunities. No Comments on Community Bonds

Like many countries around the world, Canada has a housing crisis. 78.2% of Canadians can’t afford to live here. We calculated this number, based on Stats Canada information. 21.8% of Canadians earn over $100,000 per year, and financing the average priced home in Canada, requires this as a minimum income. Even renting an apartment requires an income of $88,000/year (at 30% for housing). That means the average Canadian, can’t afford to live here!

Help us change the narrative by supporting our affordable housing developments through the purchase of Community Bonds? As a registered Canadian not-for-profit corporation, we can issue bonds, that are backed by the assets of the communities we build.

These bonds will be available with 5 & 10 year maturity, paying a modest interest rate (planned 3.5%). The bonds are intended to help us build our affordable, cooperative communities across Canada, not generate huge profits for investors.

By completing the following form, you are indicating an interest in supporting our community developments, through the purchase of community bonds. We will use the information you provide to contact you, as we progress on our project.

** Completing this form is not an offer to purchase, nor an offer to sell our Community Bonds. It simply means we can contact when we have a bond issue available. **

Community Bonds

Please enter your name.

Please enter your name.

Please enter your email.

Please enter your email.

Please enter your phone number.

Please enter your phone number.

Please indicate the amount of the bond(s) you would consider purchasing, multiple selections are available.

Please indicate the amount of the bond(s) you would consider purchasing, multiple selections are available.

78.2% of working Canadians can’t afford to live here!

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog, News, Rental News. No Comments on 78.2% of working Canadians can’t afford to live here!

According to Statista.com 78.2% of working Canadians earn under $100,000.

A new stat (21.8% of Canadians earn over $100,000) came across my desk today and I started wondering how many people working in Canada, can afford to live here?

  • On statisca.com I found 2024 income distributions for Canada.
  • On nesto.ca I found average housing costs for April 2024 in Canada.
  • On rentals.ca I found average rent costs for May 2024.

In the associated chart I calculated the number of people employed fulltime, needed in each income bracket be able to carry the costs for each housing type. As an example, 10.1% of the population in Canada earns minimum wage or less. Assuming they somehow saved enough for a down payment, it would take 4-people working fulltime to carry the average home, 5 to carry a single-family home, 4 to carry a townhouse, 3 to carry a condo, or 3 to rent an apartment. A household of 3-fulltime minimum wage earners is required to carry the average rental apartment in Canada.

Also shown in the chart is a cost to rent an apartment of $643,800. I have always been under the impression that renting provided an opportunity to save for a down payment. The average monthly rent in Canada according to rentals.ca hit $2,146 for an apartment. This means that to afford rent, you need to earn $85,840/year and after 25-years (assuming the current 11% rent increases does not continue) you will have spent $643,800. If you could save 30% of your income to use as a down payment, in 25-months you would have enough for a 10% down payment on a condo, converting renting to ownership. Note: these rates do not include condo fees, that can easily push the carrying costs beyond affordable. If you have a partner, together you have more options.

In summary, if you are in the 78.2% of working Canadians that earn under $86,000 per year, you can’t afford to live here. 

Tuesday Catch Up , Tiny Home Show, Rentals.ca, welcome Richard, and goodbye tiny homes.

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog, News, Rental News. No Comments on Tuesday Catch Up , Tiny Home Show, Rentals.ca, welcome Richard, and goodbye tiny homes.

I’m going to begin combining news items, so I can inform but not overwhelm. This will allow me to share more without generating a pile of email notices.

The Tiny Home Show in Ottawa this past weekend was a real success from my perspective. I made lots of great contacts with business people that are eager to help us move forward, along with many future tiny home community citizens. I love talking with everyone, sharing our vision of Less Space, More Life™ as it reinforces that this is a worthwhile pursuit. This year more than ever, the general response has been, “this is exactly what I am looking for, when can I move in?” Happily we are working on 2-projects now, one in Odessa, ON and the other in Elliot Lake, ON. This was the focus of our booth info, and my presentation to close the show, so if you missed it, I am polishing up the presentation and will post it here when complete.

—

Scary news from our friends at Rentals.ca that the average asking rents for all residential property types in Canada increased by 9.3% year-over-year in April, reaching an average of $2,188 per month according to Rentals.ca and Urbanation’s latest National Rent Report. This rate of increase is an acceleration from the 8.8% annual increase recorded in March.

Key points from the summary:

  • Average asking rents in Canada increased by 9.3% year-over-year in April.
  • Rents have surged by a total of 32% since hitting their COVID-19 low in April 2021.
  • Purpose-built rentals outpaced condos with a growth rate of 13.1%.
  • Saskatchewan emerged as the provincial leader in annual rent growth, surpassing Alberta with an 18.4% increase.

May Rental Report

—

Welcome to Richard Schumacher, P.Eng.

Richard has been helping me for the past few months bring the vision of tiny home community living into the “real world”. His years of experience as a Land Development Professional, has been somewhat frustrating at times, as I have been forced to face the challenges that being a developer actually involves.

He is a high performing professional with 20+ years of experience in real estate development, construction, entrepreneurship and start-ups. Known for exception people skills, adaptability to any environment, resourcefulness and finding collaborative and innovative solutions to complex problems. He believes in showing up and going the extra mile. He accepts the challenge, learns from failure and embraces the unknown.

His experience and controlled enthusiasm has been a welcome addition to our volunteer team. You can find him on LinkedIn here …

—

Further on the topic of land development …

I have come to learn that the layers of bureaucracy that have evolved, while I understand have been created to protect, direct, and organize, have also become a nearly insurmountable barrier to development. And with each level of bureaucracy comes another round of costs, and who ultimately pays theses fees, the home-buyer. Initially the developer pays the costs with borrowed money for construction. This borrowed money also carries fees in addition to interest, so a simple $100 municipal fee may cost $125-150 by the time it reaches the home-buyer, depending on the length of time it takes the development to be sold, and there are many. Not that the developer is making money on this, it’s just that a development can cost millions to complete, all that carries interest and fees. Some may say this supports the reason to build more rental units, so the consumer isn’t burdened with these extra costs, but these costs still must be paid, and are some of the reason new purpose-built rental rates are so high.

With the current high interest rates, I have noticed a reduction in traditional construction. At the tiny home show this weekend, I had several developers approach me, interested in exploring tiny home community development. While the governments have been highlighting the advancements they are making in lowering barriers to development in the media, what hasn’t been mentioned is that new construct starts continues to decline. It can take years for a new builds to begin, so what we see now are high-density projects that may have started planning in 2014. It will take years for the effects of fighting to reduce inflation with high interest rates to be seen in housing development. I am hopeful that this will help our nimble, scalable tiny home community model to take hold in a big way.

—

In closing, we are working to eliminate the phrase “tiny home” from our vocabulary. As a society, we tend to attach associations to words and phrases, and in many places “tiny home” has become associated with transient, trailer park, and slum. I gave our form of housing a lot of thought and realized that what we are building is communities of bachelor sized bungalows. Early on I moved away from the concept of homes on wheels, as this involved more explanation than I wanted to put into educating building officials. While I loved the idea of taking your home with you when you moved, we have since evolved the community concept to a national cooperative, that allows you to move within the network, without cost. Moving someone that has embraced a minimalistic lifestyle, doesn’t include moving all the “stuff” that makes moving a chore. So from here on, we will use Bachalows™ to refer to our form of permanent, inspected, building code compliant, bachelor sized bungalows, and look forward to explaining what these are every time someone asks.

Meet Me at the Tiny Home Show – Ottawa this Weekend!

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog. No Comments on Meet Me at the Tiny Home Show – Ottawa this Weekend!

Hey everyone, come visit the Tiny Home Show in Ottawa this weekend – May 10, 11, 12.

If you’ve wondered what tiny home living would be like, come out and walk through some model tiny homes. There are all types of seminars to help you on your tiny home journey, and plenty of helpful people that can answer your questions.

https://tinyhome.show/ottawa

Show Hours:

  • Friday, May 10, 2024 | 9AM to 7PM
  • Saturday, May 11, 2024 | 9AM to 7PM
  • Sunday, May 12, 2024 | 9AM to 5PM

Location:

Stanley’s Olde Maple Lane Farm
2452 York’s Corners Rd, Edwards, ON K0A 1V0