WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.299 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:02.299 --> 00:00:05.240 going to get small. Very small. Like radically, 00:00:05.419 --> 00:00:07.500 uncomfortably, fascinatingly small. Extremely 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:10.039 small. But also, as we found out, surprisingly 00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:12.019 complex. We are talking about the tiny house 00:00:12.019 --> 00:00:14.900 movement. And I have to admit, I have fallen 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:16.960 completely down the rabbit hole on this one. 00:00:17.079 --> 00:00:19.120 Oh, it's easy to do. You know the drill? You're 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:21.140 scrolling through Instagram or YouTube. It's 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:26.820 maybe 11 .000 PM. And the algorithm just serves 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:31.160 you this image. It's a perfectly curated sun 00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:34.359 drenched cabin in the woods. It's got the reclaimed 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:37.479 barn wood siding, the sleeping loft with the 00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:39.659 skylight right above the pillow. The steam rising 00:00:39.659 --> 00:00:42.219 off the pour over coffee. Yes. The steam rising 00:00:42.219 --> 00:00:44.439 off a pour over coffee sitting on a fold out 00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:46.399 table. It looks like the ultimate escape, doesn't 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:49.020 it? It absolutely does. It triggers that that 00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:52.079 primal urge to just run away from it all. Exactly. 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:55.560 It screams financial freedom. It screams minimalism. 00:00:55.579 --> 00:00:58.250 It screams I have checked out. the rat race and 00:00:58.250 --> 00:01:01.270 i am now living my best life it looks like the 00:01:01.270 --> 00:01:04.109 dream the dream but as we dug into the stack 00:01:04.109 --> 00:01:06.810 of research for this deep dive and it was a massive 00:01:06.810 --> 00:01:10.010 stack i started to realize that the gap between 00:01:10.010 --> 00:01:12.829 the instagram fantasy and the actual reality 00:01:12.829 --> 00:01:17.750 is well it's huge it is a chasm it's the grand 00:01:17.750 --> 00:01:21.069 canyon of expectations versus reality because 00:01:21.069 --> 00:01:24.680 for every beautiful shot of a cozy reading nook, 00:01:24.700 --> 00:01:27.700 there is a very, very complicated backstory. 00:01:27.980 --> 00:01:31.379 It involves zoning laws, sewage disposal, which 00:01:31.379 --> 00:01:33.799 we are definitely going to get into, and some 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:36.260 serious psychological adjustments that I don't 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:38.120 think people anticipate. No, not at all. That's 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:40.180 right. What's so fascinating about the tiny house 00:01:40.180 --> 00:01:42.439 phenomenon is that it's not just an architectural 00:01:42.439 --> 00:01:45.000 trend. It's more than that. Oh, yeah. If you 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:47.359 peel back the layers, it's really three distinct 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:49.260 things all rolled into one. It's architectural 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:51.799 movement, obviously, but it's also a massive 00:01:51.799 --> 00:01:54.750 social shift in how we view stuff and success 00:01:54.750 --> 00:01:59.049 and debt. And thirdly, and maybe most frustratingly 00:01:59.049 --> 00:02:01.109 for the people actually trying to do it. It's 00:02:01.109 --> 00:02:03.370 a legal nightmare. It is a legal nightmare. A 00:02:03.370 --> 00:02:06.030 legal nightmare. I love that phrase for this. 00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:08.090 And we are going to unpack all of that. But before 00:02:08.090 --> 00:02:10.729 we start putting walls up or really, really close 00:02:10.729 --> 00:02:13.250 together walls, we need to define what we are 00:02:13.250 --> 00:02:15.849 actually talking about. Yeah, that's step one. 00:02:15.969 --> 00:02:19.590 Because tiny feels incredibly subjective. To 00:02:19.590 --> 00:02:22.110 me, a studio apartment in Manhattan is tiny. 00:02:22.699 --> 00:02:26.120 To someone in Texas, a three -bedroom ranch might 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:30.560 feel cramped. Is there a hard number? It is surprisingly 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:32.620 subjective, and that ambiguity is actually where 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:34.900 a lot of the legal trouble starts later on. But 00:02:34.900 --> 00:02:37.520 if you want the Bible definition, I guess, you 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:40.259 have to look at the IRC. Okay, and for the uninitiated, 00:02:40.259 --> 00:02:43.259 the IRC is what exactly? That is the International 00:02:43.259 --> 00:02:45.780 Residential Code. It's the comprehensive set 00:02:45.780 --> 00:02:48.270 of building rules that most U .S. states... and 00:02:48.270 --> 00:02:50.449 even many other countries, adopt. So it's the 00:02:50.449 --> 00:02:52.409 rulebook. It's a rulebook. It tells you how thick 00:02:52.409 --> 00:02:54.110 your walls need to be, how steep your stairs 00:02:54.110 --> 00:02:57.069 can be, how much insulation you need. And recently, 00:02:57.150 --> 00:02:58.909 because this movement got so big, they actually 00:02:58.909 --> 00:03:02.409 added a specific section, Appendix Q, just to 00:03:02.409 --> 00:03:05.530 address this. Appendix Q sounds mysterious, like 00:03:05.530 --> 00:03:08.310 a James Bond gadget. It's the holy grail for 00:03:08.310 --> 00:03:11.430 tiny house builders. And it defines a tiny house 00:03:11.430 --> 00:03:15.310 as a dwelling that is 400 square feet or less 00:03:15.310 --> 00:03:18.150 in floor area. 400 square feet. Okay, let's anchor 00:03:18.150 --> 00:03:20.409 that for the listener. The average American home 00:03:20.409 --> 00:03:23.289 right now is pushing, what, 2 ,600 square feet? 00:03:23.530 --> 00:03:25.469 Roughly, yeah. So we're talking about roughly 00:03:25.469 --> 00:03:29.250 15 % of the size of a standard home. So to visualize 00:03:29.250 --> 00:03:33.110 that. Imagine a standard two -car garage that 00:03:33.110 --> 00:03:36.610 is usually about 400 square feet. Okay. Now imagine 00:03:36.610 --> 00:03:40.830 living your entire life sleeping, cooking, bathing, 00:03:40.930 --> 00:03:43.490 working inside that garage. That puts it in perspective 00:03:43.490 --> 00:03:45.909 very quickly. But here is the kicker in the code. 00:03:46.250 --> 00:03:48.849 That 400 square foot limit. Yeah. It excludes 00:03:48.849 --> 00:03:51.030 lofts. Wait, why exclude the loft? That's where 00:03:51.030 --> 00:03:53.129 you sleep. That's usually half the usable space 00:03:53.129 --> 00:03:55.310 in these things. Right. But legally, a loft in 00:03:55.310 --> 00:03:57.689 a tiny house often doesn't meet the definition 00:03:57.689 --> 00:04:00.490 of a habitable room. How so? In a normal house, 00:04:00.689 --> 00:04:02.789 a bedroom needs a ceiling height of at least 00:04:02.789 --> 00:04:05.129 seven feet. Right. So you can stand up. So you 00:04:05.129 --> 00:04:07.629 can stand up. In a tiny house loft, you usually 00:04:07.629 --> 00:04:09.750 can't stand up. You're crawling. So if they counted 00:04:09.750 --> 00:04:12.030 the loft floor space toward the total, the ceiling 00:04:12.030 --> 00:04:14.050 height rules would kick in and the whole design 00:04:14.050 --> 00:04:17.360 would be illegal. So the code carves out this 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:20.319 very specific niche to make the math work. So 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:22.480 it's a compromise. The code basically says, okay, 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:24.199 we'll let you sleep in a crawl space. Just don't 00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:26.860 call it a room. Precisely. But then you step 00:04:26.860 --> 00:04:29.240 outside the building code and you look at, say, 00:04:29.379 --> 00:04:32.089 the dictionary. Merriam -Webster says a tiny 00:04:32.089 --> 00:04:34.470 house is up to 500 square feet. Okay, so that's 00:04:34.470 --> 00:04:35.689 different. And then you have some architectural 00:04:35.689 --> 00:04:38.230 firms pushing it to 600. Yeah. So the lines are 00:04:38.230 --> 00:04:41.449 very blurry. Very blurred. And it gets even messier 00:04:41.449 --> 00:04:43.970 when you try to categorize what the object actually 00:04:43.970 --> 00:04:47.350 is. Is it a house? Is it an RV? Is it a shed? 00:04:47.529 --> 00:04:50.529 Is it a park model? And that confusion over definitions. 00:04:51.009 --> 00:04:54.089 That is it a building or is it a vehicle? Question. 00:04:54.589 --> 00:04:56.709 That is the root of almost all the trouble these 00:04:56.709 --> 00:04:59.610 owners face. Okay, so our mission today is to 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:01.629 sift through all that confusion. We want to find 00:05:01.629 --> 00:05:04.649 out, are tiny homes a genuine solution to the 00:05:04.649 --> 00:05:06.990 housing crisis and climate change? Or are they 00:05:06.990 --> 00:05:09.769 just an overhyped trend that's going to leave 00:05:09.769 --> 00:05:12.970 people claustrophobic and, well, legally stranded? 00:05:13.370 --> 00:05:16.449 That is the question. Yeah. And to answer it, 00:05:16.470 --> 00:05:18.509 we have to look backward before we look forward. 00:05:18.689 --> 00:05:21.310 Let's do it. Let's talk origins. Because while 00:05:21.310 --> 00:05:23.310 Instagram might have made this trendy, the idea 00:05:23.310 --> 00:05:26.879 of living small... It isn't new. Humans lived 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:29.319 in small spaces for most of history. Oh, not 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:32.079 at all. If you want the spiritual ancestor of 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:34.100 the tiny house, you have to go back to 1845, 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:36.899 Henry David Thoreau. Walden, of course. Walden. 00:05:36.980 --> 00:05:39.060 He goes into the woods near Concord, Massachusetts, 00:05:39.420 --> 00:05:42.279 builds a cabin, and writes about living deliberately. 00:05:42.819 --> 00:05:45.660 And that philosophical thread that living with 00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:48.100 less brings you closer to nature and to yourself, 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:51.339 that is the DNA of the modern movement. Right. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:52.819 He wasn't doing it because he couldn't afford 00:05:52.819 --> 00:05:54.720 a bigger house. He was doing it to strip away 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:57.079 the non -essentials. But it wasn't just philosophers 00:05:57.079 --> 00:06:00.720 sitting by a pond. Right. There's a more. practical 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:03.399 history here in the U .S. Absolutely. Think about 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:05.620 the shotgun shacks of the American South. From 00:06:05.620 --> 00:06:07.959 the late 19th century through the Great Depression, 00:06:08.180 --> 00:06:10.860 these were the standard for blue -collar families. 00:06:11.139 --> 00:06:14.319 They were long, narrow houses, maybe 12 feet 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:17.240 wide. And the lore is that you could fire a shotgun 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:19.279 through the front door and it would go out the 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:21.759 back door without hitting anything. That's the 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:23.800 one. Because the rooms were just stacked one 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.519 after another. No hallway. Super efficient. Exactly. 00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:29.560 Efficient, cheap to build, excellent cross ventilation. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:33.259 But it's important to note, they weren't trying 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:35.800 to be minimalist as a style choice. No. They 00:06:35.800 --> 00:06:38.660 were minimalist out of economic necessity. Right. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:41.740 Poverty isn't an aesthetic. No. Yeah. Then we 00:06:41.740 --> 00:06:44.779 jump to the 1970s. This is a pivotal time. You 00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:47.120 had the counterculture movement, hippies rejecting 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:49.889 the suburban dream, and crucially... You had 00:06:49.889 --> 00:06:52.350 the oil crisis. Right. People started questioning 00:06:52.350 --> 00:06:55.310 consumption. Yes. You had artists like Alan Wexler 00:06:55.310 --> 00:06:58.149 and pioneers like Lloyd Kahn, who wrote a book 00:06:58.149 --> 00:07:01.050 called Shelter in 1973. They were investigating 00:07:01.050 --> 00:07:03.810 compact living, not just to save money, but as 00:07:03.810 --> 00:07:06.329 an environmental statement. Small is beautiful. 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:09.720 But the modern viral version of this, the tiny 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:12.240 house on wheels that we see on TV, that has a 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:14.180 specific father figure, doesn't it? It does. 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:16.819 His name is Jay Schaefer. OK, let's unpack Jay 00:07:16.819 --> 00:07:18.680 Schaefer, because this seems to be where the 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:22.180 movement shifts from concept to viral product. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:27.139 It is. So in 1999, Jay Schaefer builds this 110 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:31.189 square foot house in Iowa. 110 square feet. I 00:07:31.189 --> 00:07:33.889 have to stop you there. That's a large walk -in 00:07:33.889 --> 00:07:36.490 closet that's smaller than a parking space. Essentially, 00:07:36.529 --> 00:07:39.329 yes. But he made it look like a real house. It 00:07:39.329 --> 00:07:42.129 had a pitched roof, cute little porch, nice wood 00:07:42.129 --> 00:07:44.990 siding. It wasn't a trailer. It was a miniature 00:07:44.990 --> 00:07:48.149 Victorian cottage. Okay. And this is the crucial 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:50.689 part. He put it on wheels. Okay, here's where 00:07:50.689 --> 00:07:52.850 I need you to explain the logic. Was he planning 00:07:52.850 --> 00:07:55.350 to travel? Was this a road trip project? You 00:07:55.350 --> 00:07:57.399 would think so, right? That's the logical assumption. 00:07:57.560 --> 00:08:00.300 But no, the wheels weren't for mobility. The 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:02.980 wheels were a legal magic trick. A magic trick. 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:04.939 Explain that. Well, think about it. If you build 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:07.379 a structure on a concrete foundation, what are 00:08:07.379 --> 00:08:10.339 you subject to? Local building codes, zoning 00:08:10.339 --> 00:08:14.600 laws, inspections, all that. Exactly. And local 00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:18.730 zoning codes almost always have a... minimum 00:08:18.730 --> 00:08:21.129 square footage requirement for a primary dwelling. 00:08:21.310 --> 00:08:23.810 Right, to keep property values up. To keep property 00:08:23.810 --> 00:08:26.709 values up and prevent overcrowding, towns say 00:08:26.709 --> 00:08:29.970 you can't build a house smaller than, say, 700 00:08:29.970 --> 00:08:33.950 or 1 ,000 square feet. So if Jay builds his 110 00:08:33.950 --> 00:08:36.149 -square -foot house on a foundation... The city 00:08:36.149 --> 00:08:38.370 comes in and condemns it. Immediately. It's an 00:08:38.370 --> 00:08:40.490 illegal structure. Yeah. But if you put it on 00:08:40.490 --> 00:08:42.330 wheels. It's not a building anymore. Correct. 00:08:42.429 --> 00:08:44.090 It falls out of the jurisdiction of the building 00:08:44.090 --> 00:08:46.350 department and into the jurisdiction of the Department 00:08:46.350 --> 00:08:49.450 of Transportation. It becomes cargo or a vehicle. 00:08:49.570 --> 00:08:53.629 That is deviously clever. It's brilliant. He 00:08:53.629 --> 00:08:55.330 essentially hacked the housing code by turning 00:08:55.330 --> 00:08:58.830 his house into a trailer. And that specific decision 00:08:58.830 --> 00:09:01.870 wheels over foundation is what defined the aesthetic 00:09:01.870 --> 00:09:03.669 of the entire movement for the next 20 years. 00:09:03.809 --> 00:09:05.710 He founded the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company 00:09:05.710 --> 00:09:08.210 based on this. He did. If you've seen a tiny 00:09:08.210 --> 00:09:09.990 house, you've probably seen a Tumbleweed design 00:09:09.990 --> 00:09:12.009 or something inspired by it. But I read in the 00:09:12.009 --> 00:09:13.889 notes that there was some drama there. There's 00:09:13.889 --> 00:09:16.250 always drama in startup stories. Jay actually 00:09:16.250 --> 00:09:18.629 left Tumbleweed in 2012, founded a new company, 00:09:18.769 --> 00:09:20.870 and then ended up being sued by the company he 00:09:20.870 --> 00:09:23.669 founded. Ouch. Yeah, a classic business tragedy. 00:09:23.769 --> 00:09:26.269 But it didn't stop the movement. He already lit 00:09:26.269 --> 00:09:29.250 the fuse. Now... Alongside Jay, there was Sarah 00:09:29.250 --> 00:09:32.149 Suzanka, right? With the not so big house. Yes, 00:09:32.210 --> 00:09:34.049 though she was doing something slightly different. 00:09:34.149 --> 00:09:37.029 She wrote that back in 1997. She wasn't advocating 00:09:37.029 --> 00:09:40.129 for 100 square feet. Not that extreme. No. She 00:09:40.129 --> 00:09:42.049 was advocating for quality over quantity. She 00:09:42.049 --> 00:09:44.429 was saying, why build a massive house with a 00:09:44.429 --> 00:09:47.389 formal dining room you never use? Build a smaller, 00:09:47.429 --> 00:09:50.490 better designed house with nicer finishes. She's 00:09:50.490 --> 00:09:53.490 sort of provided the intellectual cover for downsizing. 00:09:53.629 --> 00:09:55.690 Okay, so we have the philosophy from Thoreau. 00:09:55.769 --> 00:09:58.149 We have the pioneers like Schaeffer and Susanka. 00:09:58.269 --> 00:10:00.789 We have the legal loophole. But what was the 00:10:00.789 --> 00:10:03.909 gasoline on the fire? What took this from a niche 00:10:03.909 --> 00:10:07.210 hobby to a global phenomenon? The Great Recession, 00:10:07.330 --> 00:10:11.090 2007 to 2009. It always comes back to the economy. 00:10:11.289 --> 00:10:13.490 It has to. Think about the psychology of that 00:10:13.490 --> 00:10:16.710 moment. The housing better burst. Millions of 00:10:16.710 --> 00:10:19.330 people face foreclosure. The Vic Mansion. That 00:10:19.330 --> 00:10:23.269 big, sprawling suburban house suddenly stopped 00:10:23.269 --> 00:10:26.029 looking like the American dream. It started looking 00:10:26.029 --> 00:10:29.549 like a symbol of excess debt and financial ruin. 00:10:29.669 --> 00:10:31.289 And suddenly a house that you could buy for $30 00:10:31.289 --> 00:10:35.350 ,000 cash that had almost no utility bills didn't 00:10:35.350 --> 00:10:37.549 look like a sacrifice. It looked like a lifeboat. 00:10:37.629 --> 00:10:40.730 Exactly. Affordability and environmentalism converged. 00:10:40.750 --> 00:10:42.909 People wanted out of the mortgage trap. They 00:10:42.909 --> 00:10:46.039 wanted to own their lives again. But, and I have 00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:48.700 to temper the enthusiasm here with a stat check. 00:10:48.820 --> 00:10:51.080 Okay, hit me with the numbers. Despite all the 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:54.059 buzz, all the TV shows like Tiny House Nation, 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:57.440 Tiny Homes represented only about 1 % of real 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:00.120 estate transactions at the time. So... Loud on 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:02.840 the internet, quiet in the actual market. Precisely. 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:05.120 It's a very visible 1%. Okay, let's unpack the 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:06.860 actual experience of living in one of these. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:08.879 Let's get into the design and engineering because 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:12.220 living in a box requires some serious Tetris 00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:14.299 skills. It really does. This isn't just building 00:11:14.299 --> 00:11:16.200 a house. It's engineering a machine for living. 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.399 It is. You are typically working with 100 to 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:22.340 400 square feet. And if you are mobile, if you 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:24.860 are on a trailer, you are constrained by the 00:11:24.860 --> 00:11:27.600 Department of Transportation rules. You are building 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:30.100 a house that has to survive hurricane force winds 00:11:30.100 --> 00:11:32.720 every time you drive down the highway at 60 miles 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:34.759 per hour. That's a good point. A normal house 00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:36.779 just sits there. This one has to endure an earthquake 00:11:36.779 --> 00:11:39.500 every time it moves. Exactly. And you generally 00:11:39.500 --> 00:11:42.059 can't be wider than 8 .5 feet without getting 00:11:42.059 --> 00:11:44.700 a special wide load permit. You can't be taller 00:11:44.700 --> 00:11:47.679 than 13 .5 feet. Why 13 .5 feet? Is that an arbitrary 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:51.720 number? Bridges. Ah, of course. The standard 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:54.080 clearance for highway overpasses in the U .S. 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:57.340 is often around 14 to 16 feet, but older bridges 00:11:57.340 --> 00:12:01.639 can be lower. 13 .5 feet is the safe zone. If 00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:03.700 you build it 14 feet tall, you're going to turn 00:12:03.700 --> 00:12:05.480 your house into a convertible the first time 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:08.139 you go under a low bridge. Not ideal for resale 00:12:08.139 --> 00:12:10.200 value. Not at all. So that height limit creates 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:12.480 a massive design challenge, especially for the 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:14.870 lofts we talked about earlier. Right. If the 00:12:14.870 --> 00:12:17.330 trailer deck is, say, two or three feet off the 00:12:17.330 --> 00:12:21.629 ground and the roof is at 13 .5 feet, you have 00:12:21.629 --> 00:12:24.129 about 10 feet of vertical space to work with 00:12:24.129 --> 00:12:27.169 total. Exactly. So if you want a seven foot ceiling 00:12:27.169 --> 00:12:28.750 in the kitchen so you don't hit your head when 00:12:28.750 --> 00:12:30.669 you're making coffee. You're left with about 00:12:30.669 --> 00:12:33.389 three feet for the bedroom loft upstairs. That's 00:12:33.389 --> 00:12:35.570 it. I've seen videos of people trying to get 00:12:35.570 --> 00:12:37.710 dressed in those lofts. It looks like a yoga 00:12:37.710 --> 00:12:39.789 workout gone wrong. You're putting your pants 00:12:39.789 --> 00:12:42.029 on while lying flat on your back. It's not for 00:12:42.029 --> 00:12:44.870 the claustrophobic. But the tradeoff, and this 00:12:44.870 --> 00:12:47.210 is what draws people in, is the energy efficiency. 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:49.840 This is one of the strongest arguments for the 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.960 movement. The grid defection. Right. Utilities 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:54.960 are actually kind of terrified of this. Tiny 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:57.820 homes threaten what they call grid defection 00:12:57.820 --> 00:13:00.080 because they use so little power that it barely 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:01.860 makes sense to hook them up. What are the numbers 00:13:01.860 --> 00:13:03.840 on that? Let's look at them. An average American 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:08.240 house uses about 12 ,700 kilowatt hours per year. 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:12.159 That produces about 16 ,000 pounds of CO2. And 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:15.200 a tiny house? Around 900 kilowatt hours per year. 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:18.460 Producing maybe 1 ,100 pounds of CO2, it's a 00:13:18.460 --> 00:13:21.539 massive reduction. You are using less than 10 00:13:21.539 --> 00:13:25.399 % of the energy of a normal home. That is staggering. 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:27.960 And because the roof is small, but the energy 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:30.820 demand is so low, you can often power the entire 00:13:30.820 --> 00:13:32.960 house with just a few solar panels. So you can 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:36.200 actually go fully off -grid. You can. You don't 00:13:36.200 --> 00:13:38.159 need a massive solar farm. You just need a few 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:40.860 panels and a good battery system. Though the 00:13:40.860 --> 00:13:43.450 battery math gets tricky, doesn't it? It forces 00:13:43.450 --> 00:13:45.529 the homeowner to become an amateur electrical 00:13:45.529 --> 00:13:48.970 engineer. It does. You have to calculate days 00:13:48.970 --> 00:13:52.090 of autonomy. If it's cloudy for four days in 00:13:52.090 --> 00:13:54.690 a row in Seattle, can you keep the fridge running? 00:13:54.830 --> 00:13:56.929 You need to understand discharge rates. Right. 00:13:57.110 --> 00:14:00.870 You become intimately aware of every single watt 00:14:00.870 --> 00:14:03.750 you consume. You stop leaving lights on because 00:14:03.750 --> 00:14:05.570 you know exactly how much battery percentage 00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:07.889 that light bulb costs you. Speaking of becoming 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:11.009 intimately aware of things. We have to talk about 00:14:11.009 --> 00:14:13.929 the toilets. The toilet talk. It is unavoidable 00:14:13.929 --> 00:14:16.330 in the tiny house world. It's the first question 00:14:16.330 --> 00:14:19.129 everyone asks. If you aren't hooked up to a sewer 00:14:19.129 --> 00:14:21.649 system and you aren't hooked up to a septic tank, 00:14:21.830 --> 00:14:24.529 where does it all go? Well, the answers range 00:14:24.529 --> 00:14:27.490 from extremely high -tech to basically a bucket. 00:14:27.730 --> 00:14:31.149 But none of them are flush and forget. Let's 00:14:31.149 --> 00:14:33.230 start with the high -tech option. I read about 00:14:33.230 --> 00:14:37.169 these incinerator toilets. Yes. These are fascinating, 00:14:37.409 --> 00:14:39.870 if little intense, pieces of engineering. It 00:14:39.870 --> 00:14:42.070 sounds terrifying, like a jet engine in your 00:14:42.070 --> 00:14:44.389 bathroom. It's actually quite civilized, though 00:14:44.389 --> 00:14:46.649 it can be loud. You do your business, you close 00:14:46.649 --> 00:14:49.149 the lid, and you press a button. Then the toilet 00:14:49.149 --> 00:14:52.509 uses electricity, or propane gas, to heat the 00:14:52.509 --> 00:14:54.909 inner chamber to about 1 ,000 degrees Fahrenheit. 00:14:55.230 --> 00:14:57.889 1 ,000 degrees inside the house. Inside a very 00:14:57.889 --> 00:15:00.429 well -insulated chamber, yes. It boils off the 00:15:00.429 --> 00:15:02.769 liquid immediately and burns the solids until 00:15:02.769 --> 00:15:05.090 there is literally nothing left but a tiny amount 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:08.769 of sterile white ash. So you basically fire blast 00:15:08.769 --> 00:15:11.429 your own waste into nothing. Essentially. It's 00:15:11.429 --> 00:15:13.590 sterile. You can dump the ash in your garden, 00:15:13.669 --> 00:15:15.809 but they're expensive. Thousands of dollars. 00:15:15.889 --> 00:15:18.049 And they use a lot of energy. Ah, there's the 00:15:18.049 --> 00:15:21.669 catch. If you are off -grid, firing up a 1 ,000 00:15:21.669 --> 00:15:23.370 degree heater every time you use the bathroom 00:15:23.370 --> 00:15:25.269 is going to kill your batteries. So what's the 00:15:25.269 --> 00:15:28.090 more common, low -tech, eco -friendly route? 00:15:28.509 --> 00:15:30.450 The composting toilet. This is what most people 00:15:30.450 --> 00:15:33.850 use. It separates liquids from solids. The liquids 00:15:33.850 --> 00:15:35.789 go into a jug that you have to dump elsewhere. 00:15:36.129 --> 00:15:38.549 The solids go into a bin and are covered with 00:15:38.549 --> 00:15:41.509 sawdust or cocoa core. So you are literally keeping 00:15:41.509 --> 00:15:44.909 a bucket of decomposing human waste inside your 00:15:44.909 --> 00:15:47.870 200 square foot box. If managed correctly, with 00:15:47.870 --> 00:15:50.669 a fan to vent it outside, it doesn't smell. It 00:15:50.669 --> 00:15:54.070 smells like earth or mulch. That is a very heavy 00:15:54.070 --> 00:15:56.549 if. It is. But this is part of the philosophy. 00:15:56.750 --> 00:15:59.350 You are taking responsibility for your own waste 00:15:59.350 --> 00:16:01.950 rather than flushing it away for someone else 00:16:01.950 --> 00:16:04.850 to deal with. And it reduces water usage significantly. 00:16:04.950 --> 00:16:07.450 It's true. A standard flush toilet uses gallons 00:16:07.450 --> 00:16:10.889 of water. A compost toilet uses zero. Precisely. 00:16:10.889 --> 00:16:13.129 Now, before we get too bogged down in the plumbing, 00:16:13.210 --> 00:16:15.029 I wanted to touch on the superlative section 00:16:15.029 --> 00:16:17.549 of our research. Because humans being humans, 00:16:17.870 --> 00:16:19.870 people have tried to see how low they can go. 00:16:20.009 --> 00:16:21.710 Oh, it's a race to the bottom. It gets absurd. 00:16:21.990 --> 00:16:24.009 I found this story about a Boston artist, Jeff 00:16:24.009 --> 00:16:27.230 Smith. He built a house that was 25 square feet. 00:16:27.350 --> 00:16:29.990 25 square feet. That's a five foot by five foot 00:16:29.990 --> 00:16:32.889 box that is smaller than a standard prison cell. 00:16:33.240 --> 00:16:35.700 He did it as a mockumentary project, but he actually 00:16:35.700 --> 00:16:38.980 listed it on Airbnb. It had a sink, a stove, 00:16:39.019 --> 00:16:41.519 and a hole in the floor for waste. That's pushing 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:43.820 the definition of house to its absolute breaking 00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:46.039 point. And then there's Levi Kelly, a YouTuber 00:16:46.039 --> 00:16:49.059 who built what he calls the tiniest tiny home 00:16:49.059 --> 00:16:53.620 recently. 19 .4 square feet. Wow. And somehow 00:16:53.620 --> 00:16:56.399 he fit an air conditioner, a sink, and a seating 00:16:56.399 --> 00:16:59.340 area in there. At that point, you aren't living 00:16:59.340 --> 00:17:01.840 in a house. You're wearing it. It's an exoskeleton. 00:17:02.190 --> 00:17:03.909 It reminds me of the smallest house in Great 00:17:03.909 --> 00:17:06.710 Britain. It's a tourist attraction now, but authorities 00:17:06.710 --> 00:17:08.730 eventually ruled it uninhabitable because you 00:17:08.730 --> 00:17:11.009 couldn't stand up in it. Which brings us to the 00:17:11.009 --> 00:17:13.589 biggest hurdle, the authorities, because you 00:17:13.589 --> 00:17:15.910 can build the cutest, most energy efficient, 00:17:16.089 --> 00:17:18.890 solar powered tiny house in the world. But if 00:17:18.890 --> 00:17:21.569 you can't park it legally, you have a very expensive 00:17:21.569 --> 00:17:24.109 lawn ornament. This is segment three, the legal 00:17:24.109 --> 00:17:26.490 maze. Where do I park this thing? This is the 00:17:26.490 --> 00:17:28.990 core conflict. Most zoning laws in the U .S. 00:17:28.990 --> 00:17:31.289 and Canada. or build around the idea of protecting 00:17:31.289 --> 00:17:34.109 property values and safety. And they do that 00:17:34.109 --> 00:17:36.589 by setting minimum square footage requirements. 00:17:36.970 --> 00:17:39.529 So a town might say, you can't build a house 00:17:39.529 --> 00:17:42.230 smaller than 1 ,000 square feet, or something 00:17:42.230 --> 00:17:45.529 like that. Exactly. They do this to prevent shanty 00:17:45.529 --> 00:17:50.029 towns or overcrowding. So you can't build a tiny 00:17:50.029 --> 00:17:52.950 house on a foundation in many places. So as we 00:17:52.950 --> 00:17:55.450 discussed, people put them on wheels to evade 00:17:55.450 --> 00:17:57.390 the building code. But then you run into the 00:17:57.390 --> 00:17:59.940 camping problem. Correct. If it's on wheels, 00:18:00.140 --> 00:18:02.480 the law sees it as a vehicle, usually an RV. 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:05.759 And in most residential zones, you are not allowed 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:09.740 to camp in an RV on private land for more than, 00:18:09.740 --> 00:18:12.000 say, 30 days a year. So let me get this straight. 00:18:12.299 --> 00:18:15.160 Even if I buy a plot of land, I own the dirt, 00:18:15.259 --> 00:18:18.119 I pay the taxes. If I put my tiny house on wheels 00:18:18.119 --> 00:18:20.099 on it, I'm breaking the law if I sleep there. 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:23.519 In many jurisdictions, yes. You are illegally 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:25.970 camping on your own property. You can park it 00:18:25.970 --> 00:18:27.349 there, you can store it there, but the moment 00:18:27.349 --> 00:18:29.210 you start living in it, you are violating zoning 00:18:29.210 --> 00:18:31.589 ordinances. That is maddening. It gets worse. 00:18:31.690 --> 00:18:33.109 You might think, okay, I'll just go to an RV 00:18:33.109 --> 00:18:35.670 park. Makes sense, right? Seems logical. But 00:18:35.670 --> 00:18:38.549 the RV industry, the RVIA, which is the Recreational 00:18:38.549 --> 00:18:41.009 Vehicle Industry Association, doesn't want anything 00:18:41.009 --> 00:18:44.029 to do with tiny houses. Why? They seem so similar. 00:18:44.410 --> 00:18:46.789 It's a house on wheels. It's all about liability 00:18:46.789 --> 00:18:50.529 and standards. The RVIA represents a multibillion 00:18:50.529 --> 00:18:52.910 -dollar industry of Winnebagoes and Airstreams. 00:18:53.069 --> 00:18:56.009 Those vehicles are built to specific safety standards 00:18:56.009 --> 00:18:58.930 for temporary recreational use. They are light. 00:18:59.049 --> 00:19:02.049 They are often, frankly, quite flammable. Tiny 00:19:02.049 --> 00:19:05.549 houses are heavy, often DIY projects, often built 00:19:05.549 --> 00:19:07.869 by people watching YouTube tutorials. So the 00:19:07.869 --> 00:19:10.630 RVIA is afraid that if a homemade tiny house 00:19:10.630 --> 00:19:13.730 catches fire in an RV park. Exactly. If a tiny 00:19:13.730 --> 00:19:16.049 house burns down or falls apart, the government 00:19:16.049 --> 00:19:18.190 might come in and regulate the entire RV industry 00:19:18.190 --> 00:19:22.089 more strictly. So the RVIA lobbies hard to distinguish 00:19:22.089 --> 00:19:25.730 RVs from tiny houses. They often ban tiny houses 00:19:25.730 --> 00:19:28.089 from RV parks unless they're built by a certified 00:19:28.089 --> 00:19:30.650 manufacturer. So you can't park on your own land 00:19:30.650 --> 00:19:32.710 and you might not be able to park in an RV park. 00:19:32.910 --> 00:19:35.210 Where do you go? You live in the gray area. You 00:19:35.210 --> 00:19:37.670 hide. You park in a friend's backyard behind 00:19:37.670 --> 00:19:39.670 a tall fence and you hope the neighbors don't 00:19:39.670 --> 00:19:42.470 complain. You become a housing fugitive. Basically. 00:19:42.890 --> 00:19:45.930 But there are some bright spots. The law is slowly, 00:19:46.049 --> 00:19:48.309 very slowly catching up. Okay, let's hear some 00:19:48.309 --> 00:19:51.890 good news. I need some. Spur, Texas. In 2014, 00:19:52.210 --> 00:19:54.809 they declared themselves the first tiny house 00:19:54.809 --> 00:19:57.309 -friendly town. They were losing population, 00:19:57.529 --> 00:19:59.329 they had empty lots, and they said, come on down. 00:19:59.630 --> 00:20:01.430 But there was a catch. There's always a catch. 00:20:01.529 --> 00:20:03.869 Yeah. They clarified that the houses had to be 00:20:03.869 --> 00:20:06.740 on foundations. They didn't want the transient 00:20:06.740 --> 00:20:09.359 wheeled lifestyle. They wanted permanent residents 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:11.319 who would pay taxes and send kids to school. 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:13.539 So you had to take the wheels off. And Washington 00:20:13.539 --> 00:20:16.339 County, Utah revised their zoning, too. Yes. 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:18.680 And there have been some court victories. A really 00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:20.940 fascinating case in New Jersey, League of South 00:20:20.940 --> 00:20:24.160 Jersey, Inkvee Township of Berlin. The court 00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:27.140 struck down size -based zoning because the judge 00:20:27.140 --> 00:20:29.940 essentially asked, how does demanding a big house 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:32.390 protect the public health and safety? That makes 00:20:32.390 --> 00:20:34.250 perfect sense. A small house isn't inherently 00:20:34.250 --> 00:20:37.069 dangerous just because it's small. No. But the 00:20:37.069 --> 00:20:39.890 irony remains. In most of America, you can buy 00:20:39.890 --> 00:20:41.910 the materials at Home Depot. You can build a 00:20:41.910 --> 00:20:44.470 house perfectly, but you, strictly speaking, 00:20:44.789 --> 00:20:47.609 cannot legally live in it. So if I'm hearing 00:20:47.609 --> 00:20:49.470 you right, in America, we have this paradox. 00:20:49.890 --> 00:20:52.130 We have the technology to build these homes. 00:20:52.190 --> 00:20:54.930 We have the desire to live in them. Right. But 00:20:54.930 --> 00:20:57.049 our legal system is essentially stuck in the 00:20:57.049 --> 00:21:00.049 1950s, viewing anything small as substandard. 00:21:00.069 --> 00:21:02.730 That is the perfect summary. We have an innovation 00:21:02.730 --> 00:21:06.170 that the law simply cannot categorize. Is this 00:21:06.170 --> 00:21:08.589 just us? I feel like Americans are particularly 00:21:08.589 --> 00:21:11.869 obsessed with bigger is better. Are other countries 00:21:11.869 --> 00:21:14.410 figuring this out, or is the tiny house versus 00:21:14.410 --> 00:21:16.970 the law battle happening everywhere? It is a 00:21:16.970 --> 00:21:19.630 global headache, for sure. But the symptoms vary 00:21:19.630 --> 00:21:23.069 by country. If you look at Australia, for example, 00:21:23.250 --> 00:21:25.470 they are embracing the lifestyle. They have a 00:21:25.470 --> 00:21:27.869 massive outdoor culture, but they've run into 00:21:27.869 --> 00:21:30.009 a completely different engineering wall. What's 00:21:30.009 --> 00:21:31.910 happening down under? Well, they don't have the 00:21:31.910 --> 00:21:33.990 same zoning panic we do, but they have a very 00:21:33.990 --> 00:21:37.190 strict road authority. In Australia, to tow a 00:21:37.190 --> 00:21:39.650 trailer with a standard land cruiser or a pickup 00:21:39.650 --> 00:21:42.250 truck, the trailer generally has to be under 00:21:42.250 --> 00:21:46.049 4 .5 tons. That's roughly 10 ,000 pounds. Okay, 00:21:46.089 --> 00:21:47.869 that sounds like a lot. It sounds like a lot, 00:21:47.930 --> 00:21:50.190 but tiny houses are heavy. People want stone 00:21:50.190 --> 00:21:52.509 countertops, they want tile showers, they want 00:21:52.509 --> 00:21:56.140 double -pane glass. So builders... And specifically, 00:21:56.259 --> 00:21:57.880 there was a controversy with a company called 00:21:57.880 --> 00:22:00.900 Designer Eco Tiny Homes. We're allegedly building 00:22:00.900 --> 00:22:03.380 homes that were way over the weight limit. And 00:22:03.380 --> 00:22:05.539 just not telling the customers. Or fudging the 00:22:05.539 --> 00:22:08.339 numbers. So you have customers buying these homes, 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:10.859 driving down the highway, and they are technically 00:22:10.859 --> 00:22:13.759 driving an illegal overweight load. If they get 00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:16.250 into an accident, their insurance is void. It's 00:22:16.250 --> 00:22:18.650 a weight scandal. That's terrifying. What about 00:22:18.650 --> 00:22:20.430 New Zealand? I've seen that YouTube channel, 00:22:20.710 --> 00:22:23.390 Living Big in a Tiny House. Bryce Langston, he's 00:22:23.390 --> 00:22:25.569 huge. He's probably done more than anyone to 00:22:25.569 --> 00:22:28.670 popularize the movement globally. But legally, 00:22:28.869 --> 00:22:31.730 they are fighting the exact same battles. There 00:22:31.730 --> 00:22:34.369 was a landmark court case there, Dahl v. Mbie. 00:22:34.750 --> 00:22:37.730 Okay. A guy named Alan Dahl built a tiny house 00:22:37.730 --> 00:22:41.170 on wheels. The local council said, that's a building, 00:22:41.309 --> 00:22:43.410 and it doesn't meet building code. Dahl said, 00:22:43.529 --> 00:22:46.460 no, it's a vehicle with wheels. The classic argument. 00:22:46.700 --> 00:22:48.960 Yeah, the classic argument. He took it to court 00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:51.579 and the court actually ruled in his favor. They 00:22:51.579 --> 00:22:53.759 said it was not a building under the Building 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:56.319 Act. That sounds like a big win. It was a win 00:22:56.319 --> 00:22:59.180 for him, but it created chaos for the local councils 00:22:59.180 --> 00:23:01.940 because now they don't know if they have the 00:23:01.940 --> 00:23:03.940 authority to inspect them or not. If it's not 00:23:03.940 --> 00:23:06.880 a building, can the council check if the wiring 00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:10.220 is safe? Nobody knows. It's a regulatory limbo. 00:23:10.299 --> 00:23:12.440 And then we have the cautionary tale to end all 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:15.460 cautionary tales. The Scandinavian scandal. This 00:23:15.460 --> 00:23:18.640 story blew my mind. Oh, the Stidsons in the woods 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:21.980 story. This is heavy. It's a perfect example 00:23:21.980 --> 00:23:25.180 of what happens when idealism meets the hard, 00:23:25.259 --> 00:23:27.880 cold reality of infrastructure. Set the scene 00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:31.140 for us. So you have a Danish chef couple, very 00:23:31.140 --> 00:23:33.500 charismatic, very good on Instagram. They launch 00:23:33.500 --> 00:23:35.759 a Kickstarter for a forest -to -table retreat 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:38.470 in the woods of Sweden. Sounds dreamy. I'm in. 00:23:38.690 --> 00:23:41.349 It was. It was called Stetsons. They built these 00:23:41.349 --> 00:23:43.769 beautiful A -frame cabins. They had a permaculture 00:23:43.769 --> 00:23:46.369 farm, high -end dining under the stars. It was 00:23:46.369 --> 00:23:49.990 the ultimate tiny living fantasy. Influencers 00:23:49.990 --> 00:23:52.329 flopped there, and then the system started to 00:23:52.329 --> 00:23:56.049 fail. In 2025, the company was declared bankrupt. 00:23:56.890 --> 00:23:59.789 The owners reportedly fled the country to Guatemala. 00:24:00.069 --> 00:24:02.829 Fled to Guatemala. That is a plot twist. Leaving 00:24:02.829 --> 00:24:05.569 behind millions in debt to the Swedish tax authorities. 00:24:06.140 --> 00:24:08.819 But the gross part, the part that really highlights 00:24:08.819 --> 00:24:12.240 the unsexy side of tiny living, is what they 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:14.400 left behind in those woods. I'm afraid to ask. 00:24:14.759 --> 00:24:17.559 They left behind animals that needed care, but 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:21.319 they also left behind 158 barrels of human excrement. 00:24:21.980 --> 00:24:25.000 158 barrels. Barrels. And investigators found 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:27.119 wastewater just flowing directly into the forest 00:24:27.119 --> 00:24:29.579 floor. Oh, my God. This is the dark side of off 00:24:29.579 --> 00:24:32.160 -grid. When you disconnect from the sewer system, 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:34.940 you become the sewage treatment plant. And if 00:24:34.940 --> 00:24:36.700 you scale up, if you have hundreds of guests 00:24:36.700 --> 00:24:39.240 using compost toilets and you don't manage it 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:41.500 perfectly, you are just creating a biohazard. 00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:43.819 That is a stark reminder that the green requires 00:24:43.819 --> 00:24:46.259 plumbing. You can't just wish away the waste. 00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:50.059 Indeed. Idealization versus infrastructure. Infrastructure 00:24:50.059 --> 00:24:52.900 usually wins. So we've covered the hipsters, 00:24:53.059 --> 00:24:56.619 the dreamers, and the tax fugitives. But there 00:24:56.619 --> 00:24:59.099 is a much more serious side to the tiny house 00:24:59.099 --> 00:25:02.799 movement. This brings us to segment five, from 00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:05.900 lifestyle to lifeline. This is the most significant 00:25:05.900 --> 00:25:07.819 evolution of the movement in the last decade. 00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:11.440 We've seen a shift from sort of yuppie downsizing 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:14.539 to humanitarian aid. We talked about the recession 00:25:14.539 --> 00:25:17.019 earlier. Tent cities started popping up everywhere 00:25:17.019 --> 00:25:20.160 in 2008, 2009, and some of those evolved into 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:23.000 tiny house villages. Exactly. It started informally. 00:25:23.539 --> 00:25:25.660 Activists started building simple wooden huts 00:25:25.660 --> 00:25:27.720 for people sleeping in tents just to get them 00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:29.599 off the mud, out of the rain. But then cities 00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:31.960 began to realize that a wooden structure with 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:34.700 a locking door is infinitely better than a tent. 00:25:34.940 --> 00:25:37.640 So you start seeing official projects. You see 00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:40.500 places like Othello Village in Seattle or Camp 00:25:40.500 --> 00:25:43.440 Safe in Reno, which uses these mod pods, or Social 00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:45.740 Bite Village in Edinburgh, Scotland. And the 00:25:45.740 --> 00:25:48.420 data on this is surprisingly strong. We aren't 00:25:48.420 --> 00:25:50.279 just guessing that it works. We have actual numbers 00:25:50.279 --> 00:25:52.579 from San Jose. This is the crucial argument. 00:25:53.150 --> 00:25:55.789 In San Jose, in the Bay Area, they compared the 00:25:55.789 --> 00:25:59.309 outcomes of traditional dormitory shelters versus 00:25:59.309 --> 00:26:02.410 tiny hard villages. Now, remember, a traditional 00:26:02.410 --> 00:26:05.049 shelter is usually a cot in a gymnasium. Right. 00:26:05.130 --> 00:26:08.029 Zero privacy. Very chaotic. You have zero privacy, 00:26:08.210 --> 00:26:10.450 zero security. What did they find? What did they 00:26:10.450 --> 00:26:13.049 find? The dormitory shelters led to permanent 00:26:13.049 --> 00:26:15.910 housing, meaning the person actually got back 00:26:15.910 --> 00:26:17.630 on their feet and moved into their own apartment 00:26:17.630 --> 00:26:20.609 less than 15 percent of the time. That's a very 00:26:20.609 --> 00:26:24.059 low success rate. depressingly low. It is. It's 00:26:24.059 --> 00:26:26.819 a revolving door. But the tiny home communities, 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:30.000 they led to permanent housing almost 50 % of 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:33.420 the time. Wow. So living in a tiny home tripled 00:26:33.420 --> 00:26:35.940 the success rate. Why? What is the mechanism 00:26:35.940 --> 00:26:38.339 there? It's psychological. It's about agency 00:26:38.339 --> 00:26:40.980 and dignity. If you are in a shelter with 100 00:26:40.980 --> 00:26:43.940 other people, you are constantly stressed. You 00:26:43.940 --> 00:26:46.019 are watching your backpack so it doesn't get 00:26:46.019 --> 00:26:48.279 stolen. You aren't sleeping well because of the 00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:51.059 noise. You are in survival mode. Right. You can't 00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:52.700 plan for the future when you're just trying to 00:26:52.700 --> 00:26:55.240 get through the night. Exactly. A tiny home gives 00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:58.660 you a key, a lock on the door. It gives you a 00:26:58.660 --> 00:27:01.000 base. It reduces your cortisol levels. It gives 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:03.380 you the mental space to apply for jobs, to make 00:27:03.380 --> 00:27:05.900 phone calls, to heal. It treats you like a human 00:27:05.900 --> 00:27:08.559 being, not a number. But the critics will point 00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:11.039 to the cost. It's not cheap. It is more expensive 00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:15.119 up front. A shelter bed might cost $17 ,000 a 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:18.240 year to operate. A tiny home spot with an en 00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:20.940 suite bathroom in San Jose costs about $34 ,000 00:27:20.940 --> 00:27:23.880 a year. So it's double the cost. That's a hard 00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:26.599 sell to a city council. But if the outcome is 00:27:26.599 --> 00:27:29.240 three times better, isn't that a better investment? 00:27:29.500 --> 00:27:31.759 If you spend half the money but get bad results? 00:27:32.279 --> 00:27:34.099 You're just burning cash year after year. That's 00:27:34.099 --> 00:27:36.900 the penny wise pound foolish argument. Precisely. 00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:39.119 However, it's not without criticism. We have 00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:41.099 to talk about the imbizom. Not in my backyard. 00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:43.680 Residents often fight these villages tooth and 00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:46.559 nail. They fear property values will drop. They 00:27:46.559 --> 00:27:48.599 fear shantytowns. And there's criticism from 00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:50.160 the left, too, right? It's not just homeowners. 00:27:50.519 --> 00:27:53.200 Yes. Some advocates argue that these tiny home 00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:56.920 villages are carceral. Meaning like a prison. 00:27:57.140 --> 00:27:59.460 Sort of. They are often placed on the outskirts 00:27:59.460 --> 00:28:02.299 of the city. In industrial zones, far from services 00:28:02.299 --> 00:28:05.839 or jobs. The argument is that we're just pushing 00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:07.819 the homeless out of sight, putting them in sheds, 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:10.200 and calling it a solution so we don't have to 00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:13.079 build real, permanent, affordable housing. The 00:28:13.079 --> 00:28:15.140 shed accusation? I saw that some of these units 00:28:15.140 --> 00:28:17.339 don't even have bathrooms inside. Right. Some, 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:20.299 like the cabins in Oakland, are basically garden 00:28:20.299 --> 00:28:24.420 sheds. Insulated, yes. But no plumbing. You have 00:28:24.420 --> 00:28:27.160 to walk to a communal portable toilet. Is that 00:28:27.160 --> 00:28:30.339 housing? Or is it just a better tent? It raises 00:28:30.339 --> 00:28:32.920 serious human rights questions about what we 00:28:32.920 --> 00:28:34.980 consider adequate living standards for the poor 00:28:34.980 --> 00:28:37.619 versus the rich. It's complex, but that 50 % 00:28:37.619 --> 00:28:40.119 success rate is really hard to ignore. It is. 00:28:40.180 --> 00:28:42.480 It proves that the model can work if it's resourced 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:44.279 correctly. Let's pivot to the final segment, 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:46.599 the psychology of small spaces. Why do people 00:28:46.599 --> 00:28:49.240 choose this, really, beyond the money? Because 00:28:49.240 --> 00:28:51.539 even if you save a ton of money, living in 200 00:28:51.539 --> 00:28:54.440 square feet is hard. It is. I think it comes 00:28:54.440 --> 00:28:57.279 down to a desire for adventure and a rejection 00:28:57.279 --> 00:28:59.849 of materialism. When you live in 200 square feet, 00:28:59.950 --> 00:29:02.869 you cannot go to Costco. You cannot buy things 00:29:02.869 --> 00:29:05.430 on a whim. You are forced to own less because 00:29:05.430 --> 00:29:07.950 physics demands it. If you buy a new pair of 00:29:07.950 --> 00:29:10.470 shoes, an old pair has to leave. And for many 00:29:10.470 --> 00:29:12.809 people, that purge is incredibly liberating. 00:29:12.809 --> 00:29:14.809 It forces you outside. You don't hang out in 00:29:14.809 --> 00:29:16.369 your living room because your living room is 00:29:16.369 --> 00:29:18.430 also your kitchen and your hallway. Right. You 00:29:18.430 --> 00:29:20.630 hang out on your porch or in the park. You connect 00:29:20.630 --> 00:29:23.829 with nature because you are practically sleeping 00:29:23.829 --> 00:29:26.319 in it. You're also so much more aware of your 00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:28.799 resource consumption. Your water, your power. 00:29:28.900 --> 00:29:31.480 Every drop of water, every watt of power. You 00:29:31.480 --> 00:29:34.279 understand it intimately. But there's a downside. 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:37.640 The teeny house, big lie, as one article called 00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:40.500 it. The romance wears off. Humans need personal 00:29:40.500 --> 00:29:44.400 space. Overcrowding is a real health issue. Studies 00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:46.440 show it can harm physical and mental health. 00:29:46.599 --> 00:29:48.920 If you are a couple and you have an argument 00:29:48.920 --> 00:29:51.440 in a 200 -square -foot box, where do you go? 00:29:51.619 --> 00:29:54.400 The bathroom. If you have a door. There is no 00:29:54.400 --> 00:29:57.599 escape. You are constantly in each other's biofield. 00:29:58.059 --> 00:30:01.079 And for children, a lack of privacy can impact 00:30:01.079 --> 00:30:03.359 academic performance. And then there's the issue 00:30:03.359 --> 00:30:05.220 of depreciation. We touched on this, but it's 00:30:05.220 --> 00:30:07.019 worth repeating. This is the financial trap. 00:30:07.460 --> 00:30:11.299 A normal house usually appreciates in value because 00:30:11.299 --> 00:30:13.319 the land underneath it gets more valuable. Build 00:30:13.319 --> 00:30:16.579 equity. You build equity. A tiny house on wheels. 00:30:17.049 --> 00:30:19.750 It's a vehicle. It depreciates like a used car. 00:30:19.970 --> 00:30:22.430 It loses value every year. You aren't building 00:30:22.430 --> 00:30:25.829 equity. You are consuming a product. So after 00:30:25.829 --> 00:30:28.930 all this, the history, the legal battles, the 00:30:28.930 --> 00:30:32.269 poop barrels, the homeless solutions, what is 00:30:32.269 --> 00:30:35.170 the verdict? Is the tiny house movement viable? 00:30:36.009 --> 00:30:37.789 I think the conclusion is that it is a niche 00:30:37.789 --> 00:30:40.630 solution, not a mass market one. Okay. It serves 00:30:40.630 --> 00:30:43.309 specific groups incredibly well. The elderly 00:30:43.309 --> 00:30:45.670 think granny flats are ADUs in the backyard. 00:30:45.829 --> 00:30:48.759 It serves the environmentally conscious. single 00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:51.940 person or couple, and it is a powerful transitional 00:30:51.940 --> 00:30:54.660 tool for the homeless. But for the average family 00:30:54.660 --> 00:30:57.140 of four? Probably not. The zoning and the space 00:30:57.140 --> 00:30:58.940 constraints just make it too difficult for the 00:30:58.940 --> 00:31:00.900 mainstream. We aren't going to see the suburbs 00:31:00.900 --> 00:31:03.720 replaced by tiny villages anytime soon. It's 00:31:03.720 --> 00:31:05.500 a tool in the toolbox, but it's not the whole 00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:07.740 toolbox. Exactly. All right, let's wrap this 00:31:07.740 --> 00:31:10.599 up with our key takeaways. Okay. One, the movement 00:31:10.599 --> 00:31:13.960 was born of recession and philosophy. It's Thoreau 00:31:13.960 --> 00:31:16.980 meets the financial crisis. Two, it works technically. 00:31:17.549 --> 00:31:20.230 We can build amazing small spaces, but it often 00:31:20.230 --> 00:31:22.990 fails legally because our zoning laws are outdated. 00:31:23.309 --> 00:31:26.750 And three, it's proving to be a potent, if imperfect, 00:31:27.009 --> 00:31:29.769 lifeline for the homeless crisis, with real data 00:31:29.769 --> 00:31:31.730 to back it up. And I want to leave the listener 00:31:31.730 --> 00:31:33.430 with a thought I had while reading about all 00:31:33.430 --> 00:31:35.829 these legal battles. We talked about the spatialization 00:31:35.829 --> 00:31:39.500 of stigma. Yes. That's a powerful concept. Our 00:31:39.500 --> 00:31:42.859 society values large homes. We see square footage 00:31:42.859 --> 00:31:44.759 as a sign of worth. If you have a big house, 00:31:44.839 --> 00:31:46.619 you are successful. If you have a tiny house, 00:31:46.740 --> 00:31:49.720 you are camping or unstable or less than right. 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:52.880 It's a status symbol. So by shrinking our homes, 00:31:52.920 --> 00:31:55.640 are we just saving money? Or are we fundamentally 00:31:55.640 --> 00:31:58.160 challenging the social contract of what it means 00:31:58.160 --> 00:32:00.819 to be a successful human being? And if the law 00:32:00.819 --> 00:32:03.240 refuses to adapt to these smaller footprints, 00:32:03.500 --> 00:32:06.039 what does that say about who our cities are actually 00:32:06.039 --> 00:32:08.900 built for? Are they built for people or are they 00:32:08.900 --> 00:32:11.319 built for property values? That is the question. 00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:14.339 If we can't make space for the small, what does 00:32:14.339 --> 00:32:16.880 that say about our capacity for change? Something 00:32:16.880 --> 00:32:19.200 to think about next time you see that cozy cabin 00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:21.799 on Instagram. Thanks for listening to The Deep 00:32:21.799 --> 00:32:23.160 Dive. See you next time.