- What are tiny houses? Tiny houses on wheels provide an affordable, attractive, environmentally-friendly housing option for 1-2 people. Nationally the tiny house movement is growing, although most of these mobile units have been built on the West coast and parked in backyards in cities or on rural lands. As property values and rents rise across the city, we want to showcase this potential option for affordable housing.
- Why build small? Today in America, 1 in 4 homeowners owe more money than what their home is worth. People are literally walking away from their homes because of this tragedy. Such expensive homes can come at the expense of our finances, relationships, and quality of life? Consider:
- Over 5 million homes were foreclosed in 2010-2011. The average price of a used home is $244,000.
- Many used homes are poorly designed holdovers from an age of excess that has now passed.
- The average American home consumes about 75% of an acre of forest, produces about 7 tons of construction waste, and emits 18 tons of greenhouse gas every year.
- What is the potential for tiny houses in DC? We think there is great potential for tiny houses on wheels and tiny houses on foundations in Washington DC. DC’s cost of living has risen sharply, the city lacks affordable housing options (half of the affordable housing units have been lost since 2000), and much of the city’s population is transient: moving here for a few years for a job and then leaving or working careers which require them to spend much of their time overseas or in other locations in addition to DC. With the economic downturn many homeowners have turned to creative ways to help with their housing costs. In both Portland, OR and Seattle, WA city code allows for accessory dwelling units (ADU’s) to be constructed and rented out on one’s property. Homeowners rent out their backyards to tiny house dwellers. It’s a win-win situation: lower cost of housing for both parties. DC alleys could be great places to site tiny houses and this may be a possibility in the future if DC removes a code restriction that only allows habitable structures to be built on alleys with widths greater than 30 feet. Adding small units to empty alley spaces also draws on a rich DC tradition of alley dwellings and alley culture that began during the Civil War era and continued during the Great Migration, as chronicled in an excellent book, Alley Life in Washington by Jame Borchert.
- Where is the Boneyard? Out of respect for the privacy of our neighbors, we are not publishing the location of the lot. We would greatly appreciate it if others could refrain from disclosing the address in print.
- Are you making money from this? We are losing money from this. Purchase of the lot cost approximately $31,000. Further improvements (concrete removal, land grading, fencing, electric hookup, storage container, garden bed installation, tree planting, permit fees) have cost $17,400 to date. Construction costs for the tiny house demonstration will vary from $25-50K each. All expenses are out of pocket.
