Brown said that RVs aren’t allowed as primary residences in most Montana communities and aren’t held to the same building standards. Tiny homes would have to be built to residential building codes, even though they can be transported on wheels.

Right now, local governments in the state don’t have codes that allow them to regulate tiny home villages or tiny homes on wheels.

“There’s no way for the current legal structure to deal with tiny homes on wheels,” he said. “It’s a gray area. The hearing was great. We’re going to figure out a path forward. We had bipartisan interest and we’re going to form a committee to make it all work.”

Brown said he got the idea after seeing news articles about the town of Chico, California, turning to tiny homes as a solution to homelessness after a season of devastating wildfires last summer.

“This is seen as a solution in communities across the nation that are dealing with homelessness and affordable housing issues,” he told the committee on Tuesday. “There are advocates that have tried to get specifically tiny homes on wheels permitted as an option in communities and often the answer is we don’t know where that would fit in state law.”