Causeway will host an Open (Tiny) House on Friday. The free event invites Chattanoogans to tour a 221-square foot house on the Walnut Street Bridge.
The open house will run from 4-7 p.m. at the south end of the Walnut Street Bridge. The event will also feature live music, a food truck, and some interactive installations exploring what makes an ideal community.
Slated to coincide with other community Earth Day festivities, the event will offer the public a first-hand look at what it’s like to live in a “tiny house” – and introduce community members to the concept of an urban tiny house community in the downtown area, said Causeway Fellow Jeremy Weaver.
Mr.
Weaver, who has spent the past two years building custom tiny homes for people across the country, is completing a one-year fellowship at Causeway to focus on developing a tiny house community as a solution to the growing problem of affordable housing within the downtown Chattanooga area.
“Economic growth is bringing new business and opportunity to Chattanooga at an unprecedented rate, but it is also generating increasing need for more accessible, affordable housing options,” said Mr. Weaver.
According to 2012 research completed by the Westside Community Association and Dr. Courtney Knapp and presented to the City Council by Chattanooga Organized for Action, nearly 54 percent of all renters and nearly 47 percent of mortgage holders in Chattanooga’s urban core live in housing considered unaffordable relative to their income by HUD standards.
“With these numbers holding steady in Chattanooga through 2015, tiny houses and tiny house communities are beginning to emerge as one example of a practical and viable solution to this problem,” Mr. Weaver said. “Our community’s track record of innovation makes Chattanooga the ideal location to pioneer a first-of-its kind tiny house pocket neighborhood – one that could serve as a model for other cities facing similar housing concerns.”
Mr. Weaver’s work on the tiny house community is the perfect example of why Causeway launched the Causeway Fellowship program in January 2016, according to Executive Director Abby Garrison.
“We’ve always believed that anyone in any part of our community with an idea for creating social change should have access to the tools and resources to act on that opportunity,” Ms. Garrison said. “For larger-scale projects, lack of time to focus on building relationships, doing research and testing an idea can be the biggest barrier to success. The Causeway Fellowship is designed to remove that barrier, giving dedicated individuals the time and space they need to forge ahead with a big idea – and turning specific challenges into big opportunities for our community as a result.”
Along with Mr. Weaver, Josiah Golson will also spend the next year developing a community project through his Fellowship at Causeway. Mr. Golson is an artist and attorney who is focused on getting more African American male teachers into the classroom, inspired by a recent John Hopkins University study that shows that white teachers expect significantly less academic success than black teachers when evaluating the same black male student. Mr. Golson hopes to design and implement a plan to bring more diversity to educators in Hamilton County, with the goal of providing healthy role models for African-American, male students.