At least one Hamilton city councillor wants to bring the growing tiny house movement to Hamilton — with the aim of alleviating some of the city’s affordable housing crisis.
Ward 3 Coun. Matthew Green has introduced a motion to ask city staff to identify unused lots and laneways in the city for standalone homes no bigger than 425 square feet.
Green’s motion asks staff to identify “detached, secured, serviced lots that could provide for future land tenure and individual ownership.”
READ MORE: Are tiny homes the answer to affordable housing?
He says the lots could be old parking or industrial spaces that are no longer in use.
Green says “these tiny homes can accommodate a deeply vulnerable community in our city that we are seeing out of the tent city phenomenon where people are being displaced. They are living along our rail lines and our escarpments.”
But he says these tiny home communities could provide housing for more than just the homeless.
He says there is a growing “middle class or minimalist market who would prefer to downsize and not have all of their life savings in their real estate.”
READ MORE: Tiny homes: Perks of buying a ‘shoebox’, and tips for maximizing space
Green says his ward in central Hamilton has one of the oldest housing stocks in the city with two-thirds of all the city’s laneways.
He says his office is always receiving complaints about the safety and lack of use of those laneways.
He says by “animating them with people, you bring back the vibrancy to those spaces.”
Green’s motion will be discussed by a city committee on Oct. 3.
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