Living in a small space on a large parcel of land enabled Mitchell to leave his hometown in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a few months and live overseas, something he'd never have been able to do if he had mortgage payments. "My fixed costs are very low," he says. Also, because tiny houses can be moved, would-be homeowners have opportunities to set down roots in a place — or places — where an average-costing house could not be built.

Big Community Benefits in a Tiny Package

Tiny homes can help in managing several of the most significant issues facing towns, cities and counties across the U.S. Here’s how:



1. Energy and the Environment

Part of the very definition of a tiny home is that it be constructed with environmentally conscious and renewable materials. Because of that tiny houses present clear opportunities for towns and cities looking for environmentally sustainable housing options.

According to TinyHouseBuild.com, a resource website created by tiny house owners Andrew and Gabriella Morrison, who teach others how to build tiny houses, constructing the average new home consumes three-quarters of an acre of forest, or seven full logging trucks worth of supplies. In contrast, the materials required to build a tiny house can fit on a half of one logging truck.

Tiny homes also save energy. The average American home needs 12,733 kilowatts a year to operate, which emits about 16,000 pounds of cardon dioxide per year. A tiny house uses 914 kilowatts a year of energy, emitting about 1,144 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

Some tiny houses are able to get their utilities, water and sewage services the way most other houses do by connecting to electrical grids and using public utilities, if the community or city will allow it. If not, tiny houses can receive their electricity from standard generators or solar panel systems — or a combination of the two. Water may come from a well or a rainwater capture/treatment system that also filters the collected water and heats it by a propane hot water heater.

As for plumbing waste, the solutions vary. Some homes use composting toilets, which use the natural process of decomposition and evaporation to eliminate wastes; others rely on incinerator toilets, which burn instead of flush wastes. Some attach to septic systems or use a holding tank and removal system similar to that employed by portable toilet providers.

2. Homelessness

Tiny houses can provide an affordable tool for combating homelessness by getting people off the streets and into their own space, thus offering them both shelter and a measure of self-respect.

In Eugene, Oregon, a micro-housing community called Opportunity Village has 30 tiny homes that provide shelter for citizens in need. Each tenant lives in an 80-square-feet space and shares a common kitchen, community space and bathrooms. The homes were built by volunteers using donated materials and $100,000 in private donations. In Oakland, California, an artist transformed illegally-dumped shipping containers into wheeled shelters for homeless citizens.

"A roof and a set of keys is 90 percent more effective than any other homelessness solution," notes Chmael, who has worked with cities on such issues.

3. Emergency and Transition Housing

Tiny houses can provide temporary shelter. Reeling from Hurricane Katrina, communities on the Gulf Coast built so-called "Katrina Cottages," 300 foot, durable and attractive small homes that were designed as an alternative to the unpopular and often hard-to-obtain trailers being provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The cottages were hailed as not only a great solution to a crisis, but as desirable housing choice in general.

Also, during a crisis, tiny houses have uses other than as homes.

"Tiny houses can also be tiny clinics, tiny schools, or tiny labs that can be transported to communities most in need," says Wade Boarman, who works with George Chmael as a program coordinator at SustainaFest, an educational nonprofit that engages all age groups in sustainability issues. He adds that micro homes can be a viable option for military personnel in transition.