Can tiny houses help solve affordability crisis? A student who’s building one thinks so

Olivia Tyrnauer adjusts the ladder and carefully begins to climb, balancing on the steps as she carries a large window up to an empty frame.

Positioned precariously on one of the top steps, she loops a screw gun out of her belt and pulls a screw from one of the pockets of her tan cargo pants. Confidently and methodically she begins to secure the window in place.

The 21-year-old junior at The Evergreen State College has spent the past nine months building a 204-square-foot tiny house on a trailer from scratch on a $20,000 budget.

Beginning the project with little construction experience, Tyrnauer plans to complete the house, located on the border of Olympia, by the end of August for the beginning of Evergreen’s fall quarter. It will have a loft sleeping area, bathroom, kitchen and living area.

“I wanted to learn more about how to build … and gain a lot of skills that I feel like are valuable,” Tyrnauer said. “It’s kind of an experiment, and it’s connecting me with a lot of wonderful people that I didn’t even imagine I’d meet.”

Her timing is good.

On July 28, Washington State’s recently passed Senate Bill 5383 went into effect. The law recognizes tiny houses with wheels as legitimate permanent residences.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Hans Zeiger (R- Puyallup), which passed the Senate 41 to 1, allows cities and counties across the state to regulate communities of tiny houses on wheels.

It also forbids any city or town from having an ordinance which does not allow tiny houses on wheels as permanent residences in mobile home parks.

Zeiger said he sponsored the bill because of the grassroots support of the tiny house community.

“We need more affordable housing,” he told The News Tribune. “There’s a market there that’s waiting to take off.”

Owning isn’t realistic

As she navigates the twists and turns of a two-lane road that leads to her tiny house, the lush green Washington foliage dappling the street, Tyrnauer explains her reasons for wanting to build it.

“I wanted the security of owning my own house, but this day and age, (for) my generation, owning a house isn’t really realistic,” she said.

Arriving at the property where she currently lives, which Tyrnauer calls an eco-village, she gives a quick tour, pointing out the chicken coop and vegetable garden. Residents collaborate on property chores and occasionally cook together.

Sections have been set up as campsites, rented out on Hipcamp, a site like Airbnb which matches property owners with people wishing to camp.

Sitting out on the deck, which is decorated with potted plants, Tyrnauer stirs cream into her coffee. A small rabbit hops across the grass next to the deck.

“It sounded really cool,” Tyrnauer said, remembering the first time she heard about tiny houses. “I always really liked living in small spaces, going underneath my grandparents stairs and making everything small and super functional.”

Difficulties finding housing in Olympia’s tight market further inspired her to begin building, she said. Tyrnauer studies sustainable agriculture, so she said she needed to be in a place with access to the outdoors.

“It was really, really tough as a college student to find a place,” she said.

According to a study conducted by the University of Washington, housing insecurity affects college students throughout Washington.

On three of their campuses in 2018, 4,800 to 5,600 students dealt with housing instability and were forced to spend nights in their cars, homeless shelters or couch surf with friends.

About 20 percent of UW students found it difficult to pay rent due to price increases, The News Tribune reported.

Expensive tuition paired with increasing rents and housing prices can take a toll on students. Tyrnauer is one of a number of college students looking for alternative ways to live more inexpensively.

I want my house to last

Based on her passion for environmental sustainability, Tyrnauer devised a system for acquiring building materials for her house. She said she wanted to use as many natural products as she could within her budget.

If natural materials became too expensive, Tyrnauer said, she looked into using recycled or reclaimed materials. After that, she tried to buy her materials as locally as possible.

“Why build something super eco friendly if it falls apart in 10 years?” Tyrnauer said. “I want my house to last and be very strong.”

Tyrnauer’s tiny house will rest on a trailer.

“I’m still young, and I’m going to invest all this money into this thing I’m going to love, and it’s super unique to myself,” she said. “I wanted the security of being able to move it, because there’s a few places I could see it living.”

Aaron Sauerhoff, a 25-year-old recently elected member of the Olympia Planning Commission and founder of Earth Homes LLC, said that he believes impact fees for tiny houses can often be prohibitively expensive for those looking for affordable housing.

Impact fees are paid to the city by developers for transportation, parks and schools, though tiny houses classified as mobile homes or accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are exempt from school fees in Olympia.

Known as mother-in-law units or granny flats, ADUs are secondary living structures located on the same lot as a house.

In Olympia, if tiny houses are classified as mobile homes, owners must pay around $5,000 in impact fees this year. If the house costs $20,000 to build, the impact fee would constitute about 20% of the overall cost of the house.

For a house of the same price classified as an accessory dwelling unit, the impact fees would be just over 10% of the total cost.

As part of the planning commission, Sauerhoff said he plans to address this.

“It winds up being a huge amount of the overall cost,” Sauerhoff said. “One of my objectives is to take a critical look at some of these fees.”

Young people like Tyrnauer represent about 30% of the demographic of people interested in tiny houses, said Todd McKellips, founder of the Puyallup-based Washington Tiny House Association. The other most common demographics are single women in their 40s and 50s and seniors looking to live more cheaply.

Tyrnauer’s $20,000 house is significantly less expensive than most tiny houses. McKellips said people generally spend between $30,000 and $60,000 to build one.

Building your own house can be empowering, Tyrnauer said. She says the experience has made her more confident in her own abilities and brought her into the strong tiny house community.

“I’ve taught like five people how to use a table saw safely, and use a screw gun,” Tyrnauer said with a smile. “I just want to inspire more women to have the power to go out and do it.”

Where are tiny houses legal?

That gets complicated and depends on whether the tiny house is on wheels or a permanent foundation, as Washington city planning departments confirmed.

In Tacoma, Lakewood, and Olympia, tiny houses are legal as permanent residences if they’re in mobile home parks, Leonard Bauer, Brynn Grimley, and Megan Snow said.

Bauer is the deputy director of Community Planning and Development for Olympia. Grimley is the communications manager of the City of Lakewood. Snow is the media contact for the City of Tacoma’s Planning and Development Services.

For a tiny house to be legal on a property, it must be placed on a permanent foundation and connected to utilities. If the tiny house is on a property with another house, it must be registered as an ADU in Tacoma, Snow added.

Senate Bill 5382, another Zeiger proposal which failed this year, would have allowed tiny houses on wheels as ADUs on private properties in rural areas.

McKellips said his organization will try to pass the bill this coming year.

The issue can be difficult, McKellips said, because “some people are for tiny home communities, but they’re against a tiny home … in their neighbor’s backyard.”

Puyallup recently rejected proposed code amendments that would have allowed tiny houses on wheels as ADUs, according to the News Tribune.

“Making ADUs easier can severely impact the character of the neighborhood,” Puyallup Councilman Jim Kastama told the News Tribune about his reasons for voting against the proposal.

McKellips said despite the challenges some people continue to live in tiny houses in areas where it is illegal.

If neighbors complain, they’ll receive eviction notices. Due to housing shortages, police departments often doesn’t want to throw people out, McKellips said.

“In all reality they don’t want to fight against anything,” McKellips continued. “They want to leave people in peace in a home.”

Tiny house enthusiasts view the recently enacted bill as an important step in the right direction. A section of the bill they view as groundbreaking prohibits Washington cities and counties from discriminating against tiny houses.

“We want to get them in compliance so they’re not discriminating against a certain housing type, which to be honest they have been for years,” McKellips said.

The bill also requires the State Building code to adopt tiny house specific codes by the end of the year.

While tiny houses won’t solve Washington’s housing issues, McKellips said taking more steps to legalize them will help different types of people.

“There’s all these categories of people,” he said, “cops, nurses, firefighters, people in service industries, that are having problems and struggling right now. There could be somebody paying rent right now and it’s 50 to 80 percent of their income.”

“What would you do if you could actually live on your income in your house?” he asked.

Olivia Tyrnauer’s tiny house

Tyrnauer will present her house in progress at the Thurston County Fair as part of a demonstration on “Addressing Homelessness in Thurston County.”

When: Through Aug. 4

Where: 3054 Carpenter Road SE, Lacey.

Cost: $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $5 for children

This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 6:10 AM with the headline "Can tiny houses help solve affordability crisis? A student who’s building one thinks so."