this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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Tech millionaire builds 99-unit tiny house neighborhood for homeless Canadians - rent is kept at 30% of income, the large majority of residents pay a maximum of $200 — including all utilities (www.goodgoodgood.co)
submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] Showroom7561 3 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

If each home cost $40k

"Lowest cost for a Canadian tiny home: $80,000 to $150,000" (SOURCE)

Yes, probably less if they are building them all themselves, but $80,000 seems to be the norm for temporary tiny homes. Uxbridge priced tiny homes made from trailer containers at $80,000, too.

I think they could be sustainable as far as electricity (solar) and even water and heating (propane), so that's not a bad thing.

But how is the land being paid for? Taxes? etc.

Every tiny home project I've heard about has these barriers that get in the way. What needs to change so we can build more of these, instead of single, detached homes with massive yards??

We need more of these!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I have done zero research, but that figure seems crazy. I could see it holding up if you were trying to build a single tiny home as each of the contractors will want to ensure a full day's worth of income. However, if you're build 100 units the piece cost should fall substantially. 240 square feet is truly tiny, so it should be pretty fast to assemble and wouldn't take much raw materials. One other possibility for keeping costs down is volunteer labor, similar to habitat for humanity. That type of model won't scale, but it can help keep prices low for a handful of jobs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

You would be surprised. There are a lot of fixed costs for building tiny homes, you have all of the appliances that need to be installed, trailer bed, plus framing, siding and roofing trades that need to happen.

Plus there is sitework, sewer, electrical water, and development fees.

Hopefully they got economies of scale to work here but they still can be a bit pricey.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Canada doesn't have the single family zoning problem that is prevalent in the US. Lots of Canadians live in high rise apartments.

This is proby a smaller community though.

[–] Showroom7561 2 points 1 hour ago

I contribute to the OpenStreetMap project, and there are a lot of detached homes here. Some areas have like 20 homes in a space that could house thousands of people. It's pretty disgusting, actually.

We should be building up, and not contribute to sprawl.

But tiny homes are a great solution for keeping land space confined, while still offering functional homes in very little time.