With all of Chicago's architectural prowess and innovation, one of its most beneficial developments might be less than 400 square feet.

Some in Chicago are using a relatively new trend -- tiny, or micro, homes -- to address the city's issue of homelessness for young adults and others. The tiny homes can take up a small part of a yard, and they can have innovative ways to create space, like foldable furniture and loft areas.

"Affordable housing buildings aren't actually affordable in terms of building costs," said Eithne McMenamin, a member of a Chicago tiny home working group and associate director of policy for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, or CCH. "Tiny homes can be more sustainable for the residents and city."

125,848 Homeless in Chicago during the 2014-15 school year, according to CCH 11,447 Homeless unaccompanied youth, ages 14 to 21, according to an estimate by CCH 374 Youth shelter beds across Chicago, according to CCH

About the tiny homes

This rendering is a sample tiny home, based on images from a Chicago-based tiny homes working group.

1 Photovoltaic panels would generate some amount of electricity for the building. They are installable during or after construction. 2 Structural insulated panels come pre-made and can have different thicknesses. They save a lot of labor and time. 3 Drought-resistant native planting is a flexible way to have some greenery around the home. It doesn't require a lot of water or energy for maintenance.

4 Landon Bone Baker Architects is considering using multipurpose materials from The Rebuilding Exchange for the siding and walls. This organization deconstructs buildings and keeps the materials that can be repurposed. 5 The porch is made of paving that allows water to percolate through it. These pavers can have joints in them so that water can soak into the ground, and some burden is taken off city sewers.

The tiny homes, the way they are being planned by the working group, would cost $55,000 to $65,000, excluding the cost of the land or any site work like landscaping. Tenants would have yearlong leases, and the group is hoping that a local nonprofit would play the role of the landlord. Tenants would pay the utilities.

Next to funding, the biggest obstacle tiny homes advocates face is zoning. Chicago zoning attorney and Chicago Tiny Home Summit panelist Danielle Cassel said she ran out of sticky notes when logging inconsistencies between tiny home models and zoning code requirements.

"In any project, it's really a dialogue between the city and the developers, and that's where things are right now," Cassel said. "It can be really difficult to create something new and innovative. We're in a regulated world."

Zoning law requirements can involve a limit to households per lot, a minimum number of inches between the structure and the end of a lot, or a limit to the number of units per lot -- all of which would affect the progress of tiny homes being erected. Cassel said that developers would have to come up with creative solutions to fall within zoning requirements.

Inside a tiny home

This rendering is a sample tiny home, based on images from a Chicago-based tiny homes working group.

1 Some tiny homes will contain a loft as a sleeping area, as a way to create space within the home. 2 The alternating tread stair allows for a more compact stair structure, taking up less space. 3 The tiny homes allow for spaces, such as the porch, the patio and the greenery area, that can be semi-private and multipurpose.

"Homeless youth are often invisible. There are youth who have already been through transitional housing," said Kim Hunt, executive director of the Chicago-based Pride Action Tank. "These are young people who are already on the way to thriving. They just need a home."

Some of the groups that presented at the Chicago Tiny Home Summit are now in talks with the city to find available locations for the homes and ways to fund them.

McMenamin's plans, produced with Jeff Bone of Chicago-based Landon Bone Baker Architects, include accepting residents who earn $5,000 to $25,000 a year. "Social service plans take a long time to get done," McMenamin said. "We have a sense of urgency. This is for people in your neighborhood who need this now."

McMenamin and her three colleagues presented their ideas and blueprints at the Chicago Tiny Home Summit in April at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This followed a 2014 summit on LGBTQ youth homelessness organized by the founders of Pride Action Tank. A tiny home design, originally displayed at the summit, is currently on display in the Back of the Yards neighborhood and is open to the public on certain days.

"We have a sense of urgency. This is for people in your neighborhood who need this now." -- Eithne McMenamin, of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

Bone said that the city has been receptive to the tiny homes idea for low-income populations. The working group is in talks with a lawyer to make sure the structures are complying with zoning requirements.

"We want the areas to include public, semi-private and private spaces for the residents," Bone said. "We envision these tiny home areas as a pocket neighborhood; the community could start to define spaces that are common spaces."

McMenamin said she wants to keep working until she hears a "No."

"No one has ever said, 'That can't be done.' Until someone says that, I'm going to keep going."