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Tag: Tiny Town Association

One corporation to rule them all?

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I was asked in a Facebook group the other day if only the Association would own all Tiny Towns across Canada. This was a perspective I had not considered up to that point. After a bit of thought, here was my reply:

“No, anyone can buy land, build, own and operate a Town and we will even share our designs and information, plus we will also allow them to link into our booking system if they want. Our interest is in developing the network so that tiny homes can be a housing option. We are also open to joint ventures.”

The Association is not about accumulating land, building towns or operating them. The Association is about helping tiny homes become a housing option by facilitating legal places for them to park. Regardless of whether we build them or others do, what is important is that they get built so that tiny homeowners have places to live. 

We are developing a set of standards that we will provide anyone wishing to build a town that is affiliated with the Association so that homeowners will know that moving to an affiliate town will provide a similar living experience.

Ontario Search for #FirstTinyTown

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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.

New Year, New Project Perspective

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I have been talking with Habitat for Humanity Canada about a donation of a tiny home, and I was struck by a comment made by one of their Directors. He said, “I had a great discussion with our CEO and he was supportive of focusing on what we at Habitat can learn from the Tiny Town concept and movement.”

I had not thought of the Tiny Town concept as a movement before this, but when I thought about it, I realized that this is exactly what it is. The online dictionary defines a Movement in this way “a group of people working together to advance their shared political, social, or artistic ideas”.

This is our shared idea: to make a network of Tiny Towns that will allow homeowners to legally live in their tiny homes, in the location of their choice, just as they can in any other type of housing. These Tiny Towns will use the latest innovations so that they will be as environmentally friendly as possible and will result in a truly affordable housing option for singles, couples and young families.

So join the movement by joining the association, signing our petition and sharing our website. Like us and follow us on your social platforms. Tell people that you know that are interested in tiny homes to do the same. For tiny homes to become more than just a passing fad, they will need a place to exist. With your support, the Tiny Town Association can make that happen.

Keeping the news flowing

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Oddly enough, sometimes posting what is happening is the most difficult to do, simply because so much is happening. I always chuckle to myself when someone asks me what is new, I think you really don’t what to know because it could take hours to bring you up to speed. Anyway, here goes:

  • I have been working on numbers to determine the size of a bio-digestor to process waste in a Tiny Town. Using data from toilet manufacturers, I have calculated that a town at startup would produce on average 15 cubic metres of waste per day and a town at capacity around 1,250. As much of this is water, further investigation is required to determine if this needs to be separated before processing. I still would like to try and determine what quantity of NG that may be produced based on these numbers.
  • I participated in the Ontario BudgetTalks in Ottawa on Tuesday. Although my proposal did not make it into the shortlist for this year, I feel that participating in the talks helped me gain a better understanding of the process and will allow me to create better proposals moving forward.
  • I am working on a Canada-wide survey to collect data on Canadians’ perspective on Tiny Homes. The intent is to gain an understanding of Canadians feelings about tiny as a housing option and to expand awareness of our association’s purpose. Here are some of the questions we have come up with so far:
    1. Do you know what a Tiny House is? Yes | No
    2. If Yes: Have you considered living in a Tiny House? Yes | No
    3. If Yes: If a town was created for Tiny Homes within commuting distance of where you live now, would you consider moving to a Tiny House in a Tiny Town? Yes | No
    4. If Yes: What do you think would be a reasonable monthly rent for a site in a Tiny Town that included: utilities, TV, internet, etc? $600 | $500 | $400 | $300 | $200 per month
    5. If Yes: Would you buy or build a tiny home? Buy | Build
    6. If Buy: What would you expect to pay for a Tiny Home?
      less than $60,000 | around $60,000 | more than $60,000
      If Build: What do you expect it would cost to build a Tiny Home?
      less than $40,000 | around $40,000 | more than $40,000
    7. Would you need to finance a Tiny Home? Yes | No
    8. Do you think there should be government standards that certify the liveability and safety for Tiny Homes? Yes | No
    9. If Yes: Would you buy and live in a Tiny Home that was not certified if it was built by:
      A company: Yes | No
      An individual: Yes | No
    10. Would you hesitate to buy a Tiny Home that was CSA certified? Yes | No
  • I spoke with CSA the other week to determine the process to develop a Tiny Home Standard. They are speaking with the government to see if there is another initiative planned to address tiny homes or whether developing a set of CSA standards would be preferable. I hopefully will get some feedback on this next week.
  • We have been working with #GreenTerraHomes to design our model home for our ARTO program, the Logan32 (named after the largest mountain in Canada). We have a basic design and are looking forward to ordering one for our 2018 tour.
  • We are in the process of revamping the Transitional Housing Program into the ARTO Program. We are working on repackaging the program to more closely fit with existing government affordable housing programs. The ARTO Program will allow program participants to own their own Tiny Home after providing community service house in Tiny Towns over a 10 year period.
  • We have opened the Advisory Board Discussion forum to encourage more discussions from all members on the topics posted and to allow all association members to post topics. Please participate in topics of interest.
  • We are looking at redesigning the Association website’s homepage to provide easier access to areas of interest and making links to more frequently updated information more accessible. Stay tuned.
  • We have been working on drafting a request for corporate sponsors to support the 2018 tour. More details to follow.
  • We have been working on the 2018 Tiny Home Town tour. This tour is planned to take a Logan32 on the road to various events and cities across Canada to raise awareness of tiny home living and our Tiny Town initiatives. More details to follow.

NFP Certification

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Just a quick note to keep everyone in the loop. On October 2nd, we received our official certification from Corporations Canada that as of September 29, 2017 we are a Federally incorporated Canadian Not-For-Profit. This certification will allow us to move forward on many of the projects we have on the go, as well as many new projects that are in the planning stages.

As always, if you are available to help out further, please send me a PM. If you know anyone that is interested in making Tiny Homes a viable housing option, introduce them to the website, encourage them to sign the petition and join the association.

Thanks to all.

Website updates

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I just wanted to update everyone on some new website news.

  • The website is now secured and you will notice the Secure | https://www.tinytownassociation.com. This ensures that you will not get any notices about unsecured web site logins.
  • The Tiny Home Directory is beginning to grow, thanks and keep recommending those websites that you find to be of interest.
  • I have secured a really impressive prize to the member that has the most successful invites by the end of 2017! If you own, or plan/hope to own a Tiny Home and you are hoping to stay in a Tiny Town, the grand prize will be something that you will value a lot. More details to come, so keep inviting!
  • Disqus commenting is being added throughout the site, so look for your opportunity to share your thoughts.
  • If you have a question about the Tiny Town Association or something related to the website, post your question in the FAQ section. FAQs will help us grow a repository of answers that may help others with similar questions.

If you have some time that you can volunteer to help us with some of the admin/website/association promotions, update your member profile and let us know. If you aren’t a member, Join and indicate you would like to Volunteer.

Website links directory – delayed on new site

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We have launched our new Tiny Home Directory which we have dubbed “Our world of Tiny Homes”. We want to build a resource for owners and wannabes to help us navigate the growing Tiny Home industry. If you have a tiny home related website or offer products and services for tiny homes, or you find a really great website, YouTube channel, etc. that you want to share with the community, we encourage you to submit it under Recommend a website.

Being listed in the directory is free, as we want to build the most comprehensive directory possible. All we ask is a link reference to the association website on your site so that we can spread the word about our Tiny Town mission. As the industry comes together, we can make Tiny Homes a viable housing option, now and for the future.

100,000 Supporters

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Our goal is to get 100,000 people to sign our petition to prove to the municipal, provincial, territorial and federal governments that Tiny Homes, and our Tiny Town initiative is something to be taken seriously. Once we have reached our target, we will present our Petition, along with our plan to make Tiny Towns a reality to all levels of government.

We are not looking to just advocate our plan, we want to enact our plan by acquiring the land, getting the correct Tiny Town zoning applied, developing the land based on the town model we are designing, then make the sites available to tiny homeowners. We are beginning discussions with some tiny home builders about construction of our social program homes, and plan to have some available in each Tiny Town when they open.

So help us get to 100,000 signatures. Tell everyone you know that has an interest in tiny homes about the association. Post us on your social feeds. When you are logged into the website, within your profile is an Invite tab. You can send invites to your friends from your profile and track who signs up. This will also track how many people that you recommend to us, sign the petition. Maybe we’ll award a prize to the member that gets the most  people to sign the petition. I am not promising anything here, because a prize is not the reason to tell people about the association. It is the strength in numbers that 100,000 signatures brings to the table. So help us grow!