Moving Into Tiny Homes
By James Donahue
America’s housing crisis is generating an interest in owning and renting tiny, self-containing homes. But draconian zoning and government housing ordinances, many of them created during the Johnson Presidential era tend to prohibit them.
Lyndon Johnson promoted a grandiose vision of a utopia styled nation by creating a government handout program for communities that met certain criteria. Large payments of cash trickled down to towns that hired developers to draft community development programs and updated zoning laws designed to beautify neighborhoods. The developments called for large well-kept yards with homes properly set back from streets and space providing adequate square footage for their occupants.
The Johnson Community Development (CDC) programs also paid to beef up local police departments, establish drug task forces, create city manager forms of government and a variety of other things that changed the way local governments operated and the general way we live. He did all of this while beefing up the ugly war in Vietnam. Johnson boasted a “guns and butter” economy. But as times changed and those government CDC handouts diminished, that utopian styled concept is now coming back to haunt us.
Local governments now find themselves dealing with a financial crunch caused by a growing number of under-paid or unemployed citizens, rising costs and a massive housing crisis. Owning and maintaining a larger house and grounds created during the Johnson era has become a big financial burden. Heating fuel bills, electric bills and home repair costs are going through the roof. Young married couples just out of college and ready to buy homes, cars and home appliances, and start families are now thwarted by student loan debt that federal law makes a primary part of home budgets. Consequently good homes are standing empty while an untold number of citizens live homeless in the street or are packing into houses with friends and relatives.
Because of this changing economy there has been this growing interest in tiny homes. They are less costly to buy, many come with wheels that make them extremely portable, and they are easy to maintain, cheap to heat and power. The new green renewable energy systems adapt more easily to these little houses. In fact, many tiny homes come equipped with solar panels or wind turbines that generate their own electricity. They also come equipped to collect and clean rainwater making them perfect for people wanting to live entirely off the grid.
Naturally this kind of housing is stirring the ire of big business interests that challenge changes in the way folks wish to live. And because big business interests have strong financial say in government there is a movement to squash this potential new way of life even as it is getting off the ground.
This, we suspect, is why so many of the tiny homes on the market are mounted on wheels. This makes them mobile and very capable of being moved from place to place, staying one step ahead of zoning and corporate interference.
Change is coming, but like always, there is government and corporate resistance to contend with.
By James Donahue
America’s housing crisis is generating an interest in owning and renting tiny, self-containing homes. But draconian zoning and government housing ordinances, many of them created during the Johnson Presidential era tend to prohibit them.
Lyndon Johnson promoted a grandiose vision of a utopia styled nation by creating a government handout program for communities that met certain criteria. Large payments of cash trickled down to towns that hired developers to draft community development programs and updated zoning laws designed to beautify neighborhoods. The developments called for large well-kept yards with homes properly set back from streets and space providing adequate square footage for their occupants.
The Johnson Community Development (CDC) programs also paid to beef up local police departments, establish drug task forces, create city manager forms of government and a variety of other things that changed the way local governments operated and the general way we live. He did all of this while beefing up the ugly war in Vietnam. Johnson boasted a “guns and butter” economy. But as times changed and those government CDC handouts diminished, that utopian styled concept is now coming back to haunt us.
Local governments now find themselves dealing with a financial crunch caused by a growing number of under-paid or unemployed citizens, rising costs and a massive housing crisis. Owning and maintaining a larger house and grounds created during the Johnson era has become a big financial burden. Heating fuel bills, electric bills and home repair costs are going through the roof. Young married couples just out of college and ready to buy homes, cars and home appliances, and start families are now thwarted by student loan debt that federal law makes a primary part of home budgets. Consequently good homes are standing empty while an untold number of citizens live homeless in the street or are packing into houses with friends and relatives.
Because of this changing economy there has been this growing interest in tiny homes. They are less costly to buy, many come with wheels that make them extremely portable, and they are easy to maintain, cheap to heat and power. The new green renewable energy systems adapt more easily to these little houses. In fact, many tiny homes come equipped with solar panels or wind turbines that generate their own electricity. They also come equipped to collect and clean rainwater making them perfect for people wanting to live entirely off the grid.
Naturally this kind of housing is stirring the ire of big business interests that challenge changes in the way folks wish to live. And because big business interests have strong financial say in government there is a movement to squash this potential new way of life even as it is getting off the ground.
This, we suspect, is why so many of the tiny homes on the market are mounted on wheels. This makes them mobile and very capable of being moved from place to place, staying one step ahead of zoning and corporate interference.
Change is coming, but like always, there is government and corporate resistance to contend with.