Tiny House Communities

Tiny House Collaborative www.thlab.org

SIX POTENTIAL COMMUNITY TYPES

1. Planned Unit Development2. RV Park Conversion3. Tiny in My Backyard4. Non-Buildable Lot5. Tiny Villages for the Homeless6. Community Land Trust

PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT

• Cottage Clusters• Courtyard apartments• Ground-bound• Orientation to create

privacy, interaction, commons

• Layers of privacy

EXAMPLES: Greenwood Ave Cottages and Cully Grove

RV PARK CONVERSION• Zoning and infrastructure

already in place• Doesn’t always allow for full-

time living year round –depends on park

• Some RV parks don’t allow tiny houses

• Others are recruiting them• Usually in peri-urban areas

or rural areas

EXAMPLES: Orlando Lakefront, Lemon Cove, and Llamalopolis

Photo of Llamalopolis courtesy of Tiny House Expedition

Orlando Lakefront Tiny House Community

TINY IN MY BACKYARD

• Tiny private spaces • Can be classified as detached

bedrooms, ADUs (or travel trailer or work/art studio)

• Shared common facilities:• Common House• Garden• Wood Shop• Bike Shed

EXAMPLE: SIMPLY HOME COMMUNITY

NON-BUILDABLE OR VACANT LOTS

• Work with city, community groups, or developers

• Blighted properties in cities • Better for temporary structures

(on wheels)• Could try for zoning variance to

get property to be deemed buildable (alley lots in DC)

Non-buildable lot in DC that is home to an urban garden

EXAMPLE: Boneyard StudiosOTHER EXAMPLESLots of Tiny (Cincinnati)Start Small (Cincinnati)CityLab (Pittsburgh) Cass Community Social Services Tiny Homes (Detroit)

Non-buildable alley lot where Boneyard Studios began

Current Boneyard Studios location shared with an Urban Farm and located on an old school grounds (property leased from DC Public Schools)

TINY HOUSE VILLAGES FOR HOMELESS• Typically collaboration between city and non-profit (often religious

organizations)• Often shared kitchen and common space, sometimes shared bath• Volunteer &

member-run

• Usually built with sweat equity & donations

Photo of Opportunity Village, Eugene, OR

EXAMPLES: Many, including:

Photo of Om Village, Madison, WI

• Opportunity Village, Eugene, OR• Dignity Village, Portland, OR• Quixote Village, Olympia, WA• Community First, Austin, TX• Om Village, Madison, WI• Infinity Fellowship Micro Village,

Nashville, TN• Riverhaven, Ventura, CA

House at Dignity VillageQuixote Village

House at Community First Village

MORE TINY VILLAGE EXAMPLES

COMMUNITY LAND TRUST• Many examples around the

country of community land trusts for housing, although not necessarily yet for tiny house communities

• Example: Oakland community land trust

• Tools/resources: National Community Land Trust Network

THANK YOU!Tiny House Collaborative

www.thlab.org