Tiny homes could go up, helping to ease the housing crisis — if zoning police would allow them.
Tiny homes could go up, helping to ease the housing crisis — if zoning police would allow them.
P olicy-makers worried about affordable housing sometimes announce ambitious projects but fail to deliver. Resources are limited. Yet a simpler fix is available that would not cost taxpayers anything.
Zoning police could get out of the way and let people build on their own land with their own money. One charity in Georgia is ready to help.
Tiny House Hand Up submitted plans in 2021 for a community of southern-style cottages. Each single-family unit would be 540 to 600 square feet — the perfect size for recent college graduates, lower-income individuals, or anyone looking to declutter their lives.
This is exactly what policy-makers say they want. Yet when the charity tried to break ground in Calhoun County, the zoning police shut down the project. The reason? Code enforcers insist that new houses in the area must have at least 1,200 square feet of living space.
As supporters of the rule testified during public hearings, the idea is to keep out the “riffraff.”
Tiny House Hand Up fought back with a lawsuit, and the case is pending. Our public-interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represents the charity as part of our Zoning Justice Project.
Other clients have faced similar challenges nationwide.
Chasidy Decker tried to live in her tiny house on wheels, which she parked on her landlord’s property behind a fence in Meridian, Idaho. Amanda Root tried to live in a recreational vehicle on her trailer-park lot, which she owns without a mortgage in Sierra Vista, Ariz. And the Catherine H. Barber Memorial Shelter tried to relocate to a business district in North Carolina.
The zoning police opposed each project.
Elsewhere, cities and counties routinely deny permits for auxiliary dwelling units, sometimes called “granny flats” or “backyard cottages.” They impose parking restrictions, limit multifamily housing, and label entire neighborhoods as blighted — even when no blight exists — so they can clear out existing homes for commercial development.
Officials in Ocean Springs, Miss., applied the “blight” designation quietly in 2023, so residents in one neighborhood did not learn what was happening until after a vote occurred. Now, family homes that have been handed down for generations are at risk of demolition. The city even wants to tear down a renovated two-story house on the National Register of Historic Places.
Some states recognize the harm. Lawmakers in California, Oregon, Massachusetts, Montana, and Utah have passed reforms in recent years to ease zoning burdens. Other jurisdictions get bogged down in the bureaucracy. New York mayor Eric Adams launched an initiative in 2023 to address “outdated, highly restrictive, and overly complicated” zoning laws. But all that has happened so far is talk.
Public planners are good at talking.
Officials in Gainesville, Fla., eased restrictions on residential properties in 2022 but backtracked in 2023 before anyone could benefit. And Virginia lawmakers considered granting statewide permission for accessory dwelling units but tabled the measure in 2023.
Meanwhile, families are hurting. One recent survey shows half of U.S. homeowners and renters are struggling with skyrocketing housing costs. Young adults cannot afford starter homes. Renters cannot afford leases. Some people cannot afford anything. Families experiencing homelessness increased by 16 percent in 2023 compared with 2022.
“The cost of building housing is staggering, and there is a serious need for affordable housing,” says Cindy Tucker, former director of Tiny House Hand Up. “We are proposing 30 to 40 homes, but the government just will not let us build them.”
The average home price in Calhoun, Ga., has more than doubled in the past decade. The rate of increase is even higher in larger cities, led by San Diego, Chicago, and Detroit. But zoning police do not seem to care. They want to preserve what they call “residential character.”
Alternate phrases include “neighborhood harmony,” “stability,” “desirability,” “comfort,” “convenience,” and “general welfare.” These are euphemisms for keeping lower-income families out or driving them away.
Government-subsidized housing could help. But public funds are limited. To scale up any solution, policy-makers must unleash the full power of their communities. Step one is calling off the zoning police.
Erica Smith Ewing is a senior attorney and Daryl James is a writer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va.