Tiny Houses: The dilemma

For many, a so-called “tiny house” on wheels fits the dream of small-footprint, sustainable and mobile living. The issue in B.C., and many other municipalities, is where to put one.

By Bob Keating

Kailani Sutton had to give up the dining room table, swap her book collection for a Kindle and leave a few of her daughter’s toys behind. She regrets none of it. “We have absolutely everything we need. There’s nothing we really miss,” says Sutton, who, along with her husband and four-year-old daughter, downsized from a condo in Port Moody to a tiny home on the Sunshine Coast. “The biggest factor was financial freedom, but we’re also reducing our environmental impact. We wanted to live smaller and have fewer things.”

The Suttons have embraced the tiny house movement, which has inspired TV shows and a new lifestyle movement that’s still spreading slowly in B.C., advocates say, because of a void in regulation.

There’s almost no zoning for tiny homes on wheels in this province—or in Canada. A BC Housing report described a tiny house as, “A permanent, ground-oriented dwelling that is detached, movable and non-motorised. They are 500 square feet or under and tailored to compact design. It is neither a mobile home nor a recreational vehicle (RV). It is a home intended for full-time living.”

National and provincial building codes do not classify this type of dwelling, and most rural and urban municipalities haven’t stepped up, even though tiny-home communities could help create affordable housing options. The classification concerns are varied: from building codes and safety standards to rules for determining minimum square footage, home ownership and tenure models, servicing and depreciation concerns or the effect on neighbourhoods.

In these concerns is a whiff of the stigma that follows mobile-home parks, and the so-called “van life” movement depicted in the Osacar-winning film Nomadland. Such concerns also arose in the 1950s and 60s, when trailers and mobile home parks began to pepper the landscape, yet the same challenges still bedevil the tiny-home sector, and according to its proponents, are choking substantial growth.

The Suttons purchased land on the Sunshine Coast while their tiny home was being built, only to discover they couldn’t legally put it there. They sold the land and temporarily placed their tiny home

Pam Robertson (left) and an efficient tiny home layout. Photo: Damon Berryman

In spite of confusing regulations and zoning for tiny homes, there are companies in B.C. that are building, financing and accepting tiny homes in current and future developments. For more resources, see rightsizingmedia.com/resources/ tiny-homes.

buysunshinevalley.com bigcalm.ca queensbay.ca

minttinyhomes.com

tinyhouselistings.com

sunshinetinyhomes.com summittinyhomes.com rewildhomes.com hummingbirdmicrohomes.com nelsontinyhouses.com

Big plans for tiny homes: Queens Bay Resort in Balfour. Photo: Queens Bay

We are experiencing a very strong market. It is definitely a Sellers market.

As of June 2021

Sales volumes are up 75% Average Home Price is $749,000 (up 23% from last year) Inventory is 39% below last year

Sales volumes are up 64% Average Home Price is $420,000 (up 2% from last year) Inventory is 55% below last year

Sales volumes are up 233% Average Home Price is $456,000 (up 55% from last year) Inventory is 63% below last year

We would recommend that anyone thinking of buying in this market should find a realtor that they trust and have that realtor keep looking for what they want to buy. Be prepared to act quickly if a property you like becomes available. Most properties sell with multiple o ers and very quickly. A good realtor will give you the advice you need to get the property you want in these very unusual market conditions.

Greenwood: 101 Government Ave. S. Ph: 250.445.9994 Osoyoos: 8317A Main St. Ph: 250.495.2100

Kailani Sutton and her family enjoy their tiny home on the Sunshine Coast. Photo: Damon Berryman

on a friend’s five-acre parcel, while seeking a permanent location. “There are 3,700 municipalities in Canada,” says Pam Robertson of Sunshine Tiny Homes in Port Mellon, B.C. “Only a handful of them allow for tiny homes.”

Five years ago, when Robertson built her first tiny home (the Minnie Mansion) with her mother, she got hooked. Robertson started the company to build tiny homes commercially and became an advocate for the lifestyle. “When I discovered there was a housing crisis here, my next compulsion was to build a tiny house community.” She encountered the existing regulatory hurdles in most of B.C. “I can think of one municipality in B.C. that has allowed tiny homes: Grand Forks,” Robertson says of the community that passed a backyard home, garden suite and tiny home bylaw in 2019, after floods depleted local housing stock. So far, one tiny home on wheels has been built in Grand Forks.

Most tiny homes in this province operate in tiny shadows, slightly outside zoning and bylaws. That could change. Herman Van Reekam is building Queens Bay Resort, a four-phase housing development in the Kootenays, on the Balfour golf course, with modest lots (around 300 square metres) that are perfect for an RV, modular home or a tiny home. “We are open to designs and ideas. We want a modern look to the place; certainly tiny homes would fit that,” he says. Van Reekam thinks many homeowners will be fulltime residents, which could be a conflict for prospective tiny-home residents. “It’s such a shame, and something I’m going to have to explore further,” says Van Reekum.

As long as there are no complaints, many municipalities and Regional Districts leave tiny-home owners alone, turning a blind eye. “There has not been a lot of progress in B.C.,” says Robertson of Sunshine Tiny Homes. “But at least now there is talk. People know how serious the housing crisis is, and are becoming aware tiny houses are a solution.” Robertson and her company have built a dozen tiny homes while working toward regulatory change.

The BC Tiny House Collective has also been advocating for tiny house regulations in greater Vancouver for five years. Last fall, city staff were directed to come up with recommendations (still pending) to begin zoning tiny homes, to help create affordable options in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Meanwhile, the Suttons are hoping some coastal community will soon allow them to live legally in the home they love—tiny as it is. Kailani Sutton says, “[Society] has a skewed perspective of what a house is and how big it needs to be. The idea you must build a bigger house than this is ludicrous, but it’s how it is.” For now.