Tiny houses at a big crossroad

Detroit — Twenty-five tiny houses are under construction in a blighted Detroit neighborhood by a non profit group with a plan that could become a national model for helping people who earn about $12,000 a year become homeowners in seven years.

Energy efficiency is a top priority for the diminutive dwellings being built by Cass Community Social Services for cash-strapped college students, young adults who have aged out of the foster care system, senior citizens and homeless people.

Nine inches of fiberglass insulation and vinyl windows by Genex Window and Door Co., which is based in the Detroit suburb of Warren, are two of the building products selected to keep utility bills at a minimum for the rent-to-own residents of the 250- to 400-square foot houses.

“It's not only a small space but a green space,” said the Rev. Faith Fowler, executive director of the agency and pastor of Cass Community United Methodist Church, as she stood inside a 300-square foot Tudor-style tiny house. “I'm told the electric and heating bills for the first house, in the middle of February, when it's cold in Michigan, should be $32 because we have 9 inches of insulation and very energy efficient windows.”

The tiny house trend started as a way of living simple. Proponents extol the advantages of a minimalist lifestyle. They own fewer things, have less clutter. They reduce their energy consumption. They pay fewer bills. They spend less time on house work. They also can travel if their tiny house is on wheels — but that's not the case with the Detroit homes, which are on foundations.

“Our people don't own cars and we want to help repopulate a neighborhood,” Fowler said.

In the last couple years, the appeal of living small has broadened from do-it-yourselfers to low-income housing advocates to the general public. Now it could be on the verge of nationwide acceptance. On Dec. 6, the International Code Council approved an appendix to the 2018 International Residential Code, which sets minimum requirements for habitable structures. The appendix can be the model U.S. code for tiny houses used as primary residences.

The appendix was drafted by Andrew Morrison, who lives in a 207-square-foot tiny home with his wife and two kids.

It addresses issues surrounding the legality of tiny homes from a building code perspective with the exception of the use of a trailer as a foundation system. The proposal covers loft access, ceiling heights above and below lofts, and emergency egress and escape routes, among other issues.

“The tiny house movement continues to grow and I think it is still developing into something long term,” Morrison said in an email. “Whether the population on a large scale will live in 400-square-foot [or less] homes or not is yet to be seen; however, I think one of two options will become reality. No. 1, large swaths of the population will make the move to living tiny. Or, No. 2, the tiny house industry will have a huge impact on overall house square footage across the U.S., bringing it back into scale. Either way, there will be a move to smaller houses as time pushes on.”

The average size U.S. house has grown to 2,687 square feet, and 31 percent of newly constructed homes are at least 3,000 square feet, according to 2015 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. With residential and commercial buildings accounting for about 40 percent of total U.S. energy consumption and 12 percent of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, building size and materials matter.

“That's why I'm involved with tiny houses,” said Robert Reed, past president of the American Tiny House Association, which represents the needs and values of the tiny house community.

“I see this ultimately as a sustainability issue. If you have a smaller footprint, the amount of carbon needed to keep your existence can be reduced if you do it well.”

Plastic products like insulation, foam board, foam spray — which will be used on future Detroit tiny houses — windows and doors help create a solid building envelope, he added.

“Tiny houses pose a unique problem because as you shrink the house, the ratio of volume to envelope changes,” Reed said. “In a tiny house, when you open a door, if you leave that sucker open for even a minute you're going to completely change the air in the house out. That envelope is very important and you have to do everything you can to be efficient and keep in as much air as possible.”

The Florida-based American Tiny House Association works with local governments on zoning and building code issues that keep small structures — usually those less than 500 square feet — from being a viable, acceptable housing option. The same rules established to keep people safe can constrain innovation and make tiny living illegal. Issues related to pocket neighborhoods, like the one going up in Detroit, backyard cottages, reworking RV parks and collecting property taxes are finding their way onto public meeting agendas everywhere.

“Some empty nesters want to live in a tiny house in their backyard and lease their other house so they can travel,” Reed said, describing the common rally cry as “less stuff, more life.”

The cultural change around employment also is contributing to the popularity of tiny houses.

“People don't have traditional jobs,” Reed said. “They have gigs, like maybe the nine-month startup of a website or a new product. They want the liberty to take that job opportunity and not be burdened by mortgages. Millennials are deeply affected by the housing bubble burst and seeing their parents unable to make life decisions because they have a mortgage and are upside down.”

To Morrison, society simply can't afford to keep building larger and larger houses.

“We can't afford it from an environmental perspective, nor can we simply afford it financially,” he said. “Too many people are being pushed out of the housing market as prices continue to skyrocket, even as incomes plateau and remain stagnant.”

Building material manufacturers and suppliers are responding to the demand. In March, 84 Lumber, which is based in Eighty Four, Pa., jumped on the tiny house bandwagon with four models all under 200 square feet to build or buy. A cottage style called “Shonsie” features reinforced polymer composite siding, low-e vinyl windows and a front porch of composite decking. Blueprints, a materials list and a trailer start at $6,884 while a “shelled in” semi-DIY package costs $22,884 and a fully outfitted, move-in ready Shonsie goes for $59,884.

“With our national footprint and commitment to the dedicated do-it-yourselfer, we are uniquely positioned to become a part of this new path to homeownership, and are excited to offer tiny living on a national scale,” owner President Maggie Hardy Magerko said in a news release.

Last year, Dow Building Solutions was among the sponsors of a young couple that started towing their 130-square-foot living space around North America for a project called Tiny House Expedition. The Midland, Mich.-based company provided its Styrofoam-brand insulation and Froth-Pak spray foam insulation for the walls, noting that when there's not an inch of space to waste, its products have thin profiles and are light weight.

Then, there's the 170-square-foot “Tiny House That's Big on Energy Efficiency” that traveled around to science centers as part of the Plastics Make It Possible initiative of the American Chemistry Council. Built with Zack Giffen, co-host of DIY Network's “Tiny House Nation,” the dwelling has polysio-based foam sheathing, polyurethane spray foam, plastic solar shingles, vinyl siding, windows and tile, a polycarbonate skylight, fiberglass door and cross-linked polyethylene pipe.

When Cass Community Social Services announced its rent-to-own tiny house program for roughly $1 per square foot per month, Fowler said the agency was swamped with applicants and requests for information about how residents of the $1.5 million development might become homeowners in seven years.

“Everybody on the planet wants to know how we're doing it,” Fowler said. “People in Australia, England, Haiti as well as 20 different states have contacted me for information. We're asking them to wait until next summer when we have 13 houses built and occupied. Then we'll know our information will be good.”

Only one house, the stucco Tudor on a 30-by-100 square foot lot, has been completed. It will rent for $300 a month. Fowler said that should be a reasonable expense for someone earning at least $750 a month, which was the minimum threshold to apply.

To get the development going, Fowler said the agency received corporate donations, including $400,000 from Ford Motor Co. It is about halfway to its goal and several churches and other Detroit groups are “adopting” tiny houses for $40,000. That's what Fowler estimates the first house cost using professionals. Volunteers will do the finish work like drywall, painting, tiling and deck building on the next 24 houses and the costs should go down.

All the houses will be distinctly different with styles including Cape Cod, Victorian and contemporary. Some will have metal roofs. To date none of the designs use vinyl siding, but Fowler said no building materials have been ruled out.

Inside, the houses have a stove, refrigerator, microwave, washer and dryer, bathroom with shower or tub, table and chairs, and bedroom or a loft. Outside, there's a porch and backyard deck and landscaping. Although there are about 300 vacant lots and many decaying buildings within a mile of the project, there's also a medical clinic, gym and small store within a couple blocks.

The social service agency will act as landlord and pay residents' property taxes until the occupants become the owners. While they are building equity, residents will meet monthly with financial advisers about budgets, debt, credit, savings and investments. If their earnings increase, they can stay.

“That's unique to our project,” Fowler said. “Usually you have to stay low income. Here, you end up with an asset, which is of course, how most of us function in life. We live there. We use it for collateral. We sell it if we have a need. We leave it to our kids. It really will be a game changer for them, and we think a great way to include them in the American Dream.”

With approval of the appendix by the ICC, advocates for tiny houses are celebrating and bracing for more work.

“It means that we will be able to work towards adoptions across the U.S. now,” said Morrison, the appendix co-writer. “That's another challenge that will take a lot of effort, but we can do it.”

The appendix covers issues related to loft access, ceiling heights, emergency egress and escape routes and will be incorporated into the 2018 International Residential Code. It will serve as a guide to building safe and healthy tiny houses that can be issued certificates of occupancy should local jurisdictions adopt it.

Movable tiny houses, which are on trailers, need to addressed next, Morrison said.

“I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I want to harness the energy of excitement and use it to help us build a solid platform moving forward,” he said.

Part of the excitement is that appendix was approved after its initial submission. ICC members vote every three years on changes and many suggestions take 3-6 years to implement. More than 162,000 ICC ballots were cast during the voting period but the breakdown isn't known yet.

Morrison told Plastics News he expects the tiny house trend to grow for environmental and financial reasons – reduced energy use and no 30-year mortgages – and this will bode well for manufacturers of plastic building products.

“I imagine that lightweight products from all markets will continue to be valuable for the tiny house industry,” Morrison said in an email. “I look forward to seeing what comes of it. I think the biggest room for opportunity comes in lightweight, energy efficient, and environmentally sound products for insulation, envelope, and energy production. We need to marry the tiny house industry with the green building movement to make the biggest impact possible.”