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Tag: tiny home community

Meeting Rural Ontario’s Housing Needs

Written by Founder on . Posted in Communities, Founder's Blog. 6 Comments on Meeting Rural Ontario’s Housing Needs

1.5M homes by 2032 is an ambitious goal however, the alternative is more people living in friends’ spare rooms, their basements, on couches, and floors, or becoming homeless. While major developers are focused on the high-density, big city builds (the places with the highest need), rural Ontario’s housing crisis is set to explode.

The existing Ontario building industry completed 71,838 units in 2022. The problem is we needed 136,364-units to stay on plan to reach 1.5M homes. If the traditional builders can grow by 5% compounded annually, by 2032 we will only be short 480,000 units, most of which is expected to be in rural Ontario.

Our plan is to build tiny home communities across rural Ontario. The combination of traditional built homes, along with tiny homes, has the potential to meet the anticipated housing need by 2032. Tiny homes can address some of the singles, couples and 3-person household needs, while keeping us on track to absorb some of the big city shortage. We can either plan for it, or be surprised by it.

The following video looks at this plan and explains the numbers. Please share.

Rural Ontario Housing Plan – v2.1

Sources/Info/Print Copy:
meeting-rural-onatrio-housing-needs-v2
TTA-canadacities-v7.xlsx

Tiny Town Community – Elliot Lake

Written by Founder on . Posted in Communities, Founder's Blog. 3 Comments on Tiny Town Community – Elliot Lake

We are excited to announce that the Elliot Lake Council unanimously voted to explore a micro/tiny/small home community development with the Tiny Town Association. Elliot Lake has become known as a retirement destination because of their community centric, affordable living lifestyle. We are happy they see the potential that our community model offers, expanding rapid housing options for singles, couples, both young and mature.

2nd Tiny Home Show & Conference Pass Winner!

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog. 1 Comment on 2nd Tiny Home Show & Conference Pass Winner!

Congratulations to Heibrie Barron, our 2nd 4-Day Pass WINNER to the Tiny Home Show & Conference, August 4-7 at the Ancaster Fairgrounds.

This is shaping up to be a great show, and we look forward to meeting everyone at the show. Stop by and say hello at Booth 30. There will be model tiny homes on display, product providers, and seminars about tiny homes and tiny home living. Check out the demonstration tiny home framing build during the show.

Can’t wait, see you there!

Remember there are still 2-tickets to be won, so spread the word, get your entries in, or buy tickets online.

Survey – Tiny Home Interest

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog. 1 Comment on Survey – Tiny Home Interest

Help us gather the information that we can use to support the development of tiny home communities. Tell us about your interest in tiny home living in a short 3-5 minute survey. We know how we feel about tiny home communities, so help us convince others that tiny home communities should have a place in society.

Tiny Home Survey

After completing the survey, you’ll see how your tiny home interest aligns with others.

Tiny home community videos

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog. 2 Comments on Tiny home community videos

I am continuously developing the Tiny Town community model while advancing towards constructing our first tiny home community. I am also constructing a Logan36 model tiny home, with pictures, and information to follow.

I have been recording a series of video presentations to explain the 3-funding/investment models I have developed to launch the first tiny home communities. Unfortunately, it takes me hundreds of takes, to get the videos to a semi-shareable state, so in the interim, here are 3 shorts that highlight key information to the community’s success.

Logan36 – model tiny home

This video snippet from our Tiny Town tour focuses on our flagship Logan36 tiny home.

Community and Centre Introduction

This video snippet from our Tiny Town tour focuses on our community and the community centre features.

SmartHUB Centre

At the core of each 32-tiny home community is a SmartHub community centre. The centre provides a community gathering place and manages the utility services of the community. In separate shipping containers on the lower level (below ground) are housed equipment that collects and processes rainwater, processes the community wastewater, centralized electricity storage & distribution management, as well as verticle garden pods. These garden pods allow the community to produce more small fruits and vegetables than the farmland that the community may displace.

32 Tiny Home Community Pod

I have come to refer to each 32-tiny home community as a POD. Each Pod is self-contained and can operate independently of its neighbours. Pods can be connected to existing Pods to further develop tiny home communities without affecting established Pods. Pods are designed to allow community expansion in all directions, and as the community grows, the infrastructure grows to accommodate the increased community population.

 

Twenty tiny homes in La Loche

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Here is another tiny home community project in La Loche, Saskatchewan. They are building 20-tiny homes for low-income and the homeless. The units will include a kitchen, living room, one bedroom, a bathroom, and laundry amenities.

Read the full article here: https://sasknow.com/2021/10/19/twenty-tiny-homes-to-benefit-low-income-and-homeless-residents-in-la-loche

Feb-21 Update

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog. 1 Comment on Feb-21 Update

I have been reluctant to post updates because many projects are still in the works, but I wanted to keep everyone aware that progress is being made, on a number of fronts:

  • Our partnership with Collège Boréal in Sudbury, Ontario is making progress. Robin Craig at the college has assembled a great team including the City of Sudbury Planning, Housing, and Council. This is a design, build, install, and study project on tiny home living in northern Ontario. The college has gotten behind the project in a big way, with the support of many departments. They have completed and submitted a grant application for an NSERC Social Innovation Fund project,
    A Comprehensive Study: Building a Modular Tiny Home Standard for an Affordable & Supportive Rapid Housing Solution.
  • We have been working with a growing group in Huron County Ontario to establish a tiny home Pocket Community. This showcase affordable housing development will begin with 16 off-grid tiny homes (to be confirmed, they may be grid-connected) in a small community. At present we are planning that each home will be on a 1/4 acre site. We have been working with Huron County Planning, Housing, Social Services, and Economic Development, along with CMHC.
  • Kaitlyn Adam has joined our Advisory Board and is working to submit an FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities) Green Municipal Fund – Planning: Early support grant for sustainable affordable housing projects for our off-grid tiny home communities.
  • Aldo Ruberto, a councilor in Thunder Bay, Ontario has been spearheading a project to develop a supportive tiny home community within the city. He has connected with the City of Thunder Bay Housing, Planning as well as a number of commercial businesses to launch the project.
  • I was speaking with Steve Janssens at St Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario about the possibility of putting together a small tiny home community project on college property, as another design, build, install, and study project. The homes would be used for graduate student housing, and be connected to full diagnostics providing operating data as well as an opportunity to look at the social effects of tiny home community living.
  • Akshthal Kalia who joined the Association late last year has taken on the project of planning our upcoming social media program. As we work to establish more tiny home communities, we will want to keep everyone informed, so when a development is moving forward, those interested in a site will know how to apply. These demonstration communities will begin small and may have under 2-dozen sites available during the launch phase. We are planning to keep the public updated on our progress through our social feeds first. We will be launching a series of surveys on the Association’s website that will help us in planning the order that these communities are built. 
  • Our partnership with SIPSTECH in Calgary, Alberta is developing at an accelerated rate. They are interested in supplying tiny homes that will be available to rent in our communities. This is an exciting step in our providing affordable rental housing and we are looking into the possibility of offering a limited number of rent2own homes as well. There may be an opportunity for private, corporate, or institutional investment in this program, so if you are interested in discussing it in the early stages, reach out to me.


If you aren’t a member of the Association, you may want to consider joining. Your membership helps support the work we are doing and keeps you informed first. We always post first in the Blog before on our social feeds. 

If you want to get your hands dirty, by volunteering in some capacity, drop us an email and let us know how you would like to help. We appreciate all the help we get, and are looking to develop new projects and partnerships, so nothing is off the table.

More exciting news to come, but that’s all for now. #JOY

World Town Planning Day Conference 2018

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog.

Last fall I presented to the Canadian Institute of Planners at their World Town Planning Day Conference about tiny homes as 21st-century affordable housing. The presentation was aimed at city planners and focused on why they should plan for tiny homes as part of the housing options available in their city.

The 1-hour presentation looks at who the typical tiny homeowners are and will be so that they can understand the coming level of demand. It touches on the types of tiny homes and why they are the fastest form of housing that can be utilized to address affordable housing needs everywhere. It takes a look at how tiny homes can be integrated into society and the benefits of the various methods of integration.

Just scroll down the Association homepage to view the video https://tinytownassociation.com

Tiny Town Manifesto

Written by Founder on . Posted in Founder's Blog.

We have been working on the Tiny Town Manifesto, a compilation/summary of the way we see that tiny homes on wheels (THOWs) can integrate into society. As a not-for-profit Association, our goal is to enable THOWs as a housing option for anyone that is looking for an affordable, minimalistic form of housing. Whether you are a single, couple, new potential homeowner or retiring empty-nester, tiny homes could be the answer you are looking for in an easy to maintain, affordable to operate, community-oriented lifestyle home. 

Each version of the Manifesto we publish builds on the last to develop the concept and provide a path that individuals, companies, cities, municipalities, and countries can incorporate to integrate tiny homes into society. We aren’t looking to change the way people live, we simply want THOWs to be an option for anyone.