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Two women, Sam and Stasia, co-founded the BC Tiny House Collective in 2016 to legitimize and legalize tiny houses in the province of British Columbia, Canada. They now have thousands of people supporting them, and over a hundred volunteers to help with everything from building tiny houses and analyzing research data, to updating their website.
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
They’re using a 3-pronged approach to try and legalize tiny houses in their area that seems very interesting and effective:
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
1) Educate and engage with the community;
2) Research to find out who is interested in tiny houses and what current barriers (legal or other) prevent tiny houses in Vancouver and municipalities across BC;
3) Pilot projects to observe and reflect on what works and what doesn’t before legalizing on a large scale.
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
© Exploring Alternatives/YouTube
We really admire these two ladies and the incredible amount of passion, thought, and time they’ve put into this project to support and encourage the tiny house movement in BC.
To hear more about what they’re up to, watch the video below:
VIDEO: These Two Women Are Trying to Legalize Tiny House Living in BC
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Just an idea as I try to be an advocate for human rights when possible…
Quite seriously though people with disabilities and older people are often at a disadvantage in the workplace and often make less money that others. Having a minimum square footage requirement is discriminatory (in my opinion) and needs to be addressed so that everyone can own a home. Has anyone considered filing a Human Rights complaint with the appropriate agency? Food for thought.
Great article!!
I love what your doing , we need alternatives like this , especially in Vancouver . This is affordable .
This is great. Keep us informed Ladies. We all can use this information for our own fights with the established old rules that are very discriminatory to not just elders and disadvantaged people but everyone in general. Might be able to have many homeless off the streets if these were leagle in all areas of Canada and the US.
It boggles the mind that a 450 sq ft studio apartment is completely acceptable but a tiny home is not.
I live in Abbotsford and it’s absurd that you can drive up Mount Lehman and see huge manors on acres of (unused) agriculture zoned land and nobody bats an eye. Such waste and opulence!
Tiny homes should be legalized, and in lieu of a property tax, post a federal “chattel” tax which could be utilized the same way. We aren’t asking for an escape from taxation or society, just to not have to live a life where we have to stretch and struggle to make ends meet, deny ourselves the joys inherent in natural life (time in nature, simplicity, freedom from debt)
It is unacceptable to me that dank, dark basement suites here are being rented for upwards of $1800/month, dilapidated mobile homes built in the 1970s, are selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars – with the interest on a chattel loan of that amount it seems there’s no current alternative to a $2,000+ mortgage or too-high monthly rent.
Why is it that people with inherited wealth (with the money to buy things outright) benefit so much more from our current systems? We will never have real equality in North America.
There are certainly so many issues…it’s very sad!