In preparation for our upcoming Tiny Tour 2018 and our initiative to inform the public, media and municipal governments of our Tiny Town project, we have updated the website to focus our content. We would appreciate your suggestions and ideas to help us prepare for this undertaking. This is a big project as we plan to visit 49 cities to find the one that will become our First Tiny Town.
We have begun securing sponsorship for the tour, so I’ll post notices about our sponsors here. Be sure to read about what they are doing to support the tour, the tiny home we’re building and donating to Habitat for Humanity.
There are 133 cities where we would like to build Tiny Towns so that THOWs owners can legally live close to their chosen host city. Our long-term plan is to build all 133 Tiny Towns across the nation, and as people are able to visit an operational town, we expect we will be able to get approvals and build faster. How do we decide the order that we build? There are 2 key factors that determine where we invest our resources first:
How eager a city and municipality are to hosting a Tiny Town that we build is the first factor. We have come to realize, especially for our earlyTiny Towns, that we need to work with cities that are forward thinking and can appreciate the benefits of a Tiny Town, without being able to see one complete. Being the #FirstTinyTown is a distinction that they will forever be able to claim with pride (everywhere around the world), but this alone is not necessarily enough to motivate them. They need to be able to understand the benefits that a Tiny Town will provide by expanding the affordable housing options, as well as adding an affordable solution to homelessness in their city. We are looking for cities that are eager to discuss our plans with them.
The support we have from the public for a Tiny Town will be the second factor determining the order that we come to a city. We need to know that there are people that want to live in that Tiny Town. We will need residents that will move into a Tiny Town as well as people that support the idea of tiny homes as an affordable housing option, even if they never plan to live in one. When we talk to a city, we need to be able to say we have the support of over 1,000 people that have chosen this city as their Tiny Town choice. It may sound like an impossible number, but each city selected has a population of 40,000 plus people.
So how can you help? You can become an Ambassador for a Tiny Town in your city. It doesn’t cost anything, there’s no schooling or courses, and you can help out a little here and there when time permits.
Today we launched a Twitter campaign to reach out to the 49 cities across Ontario that we have identified (based on population) as prospective first Tiny Town host cities. The Tweet simply asked whether the city would be Canada’s most progressive city dealing with #affordablehousing and #homelessness? While we expect with time all the cities we have identified will host a Tiny Town, we are in search of the monumental distinction of Canada’s #FirstTinyTown. Rather than trying to convince a city to host the first Tiny Town, we are seeking the city that realizes this one-time opportunity and wants to work with us to make it happen. We Tweeted to the city, mayor and local newspaper where available. We also included:
the Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne @Kathleen_Wynne
the Ontario Ministry of Housing @housingON
the Ontario Government @ONgov
the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Jean-Yves Duclos @jyduclos
the Minister issued the National Housing Strategy #nhs
the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau @JustinTrudeau
Working through the rest of our 133 host city list, we will continue to Twitter campaign, province by province until we find Canada’s #FirstTinyTown location.
