Jeremy Weaver tells City Council members about tiny house movement
City Councilman Chris Anderson questions Jeremy Weaver about portable tiny house
photo by Jessica Kramer
Living area
photo by Jessica Kramer
Bathroom
photo by Jessica Kramer
Upstairs bedroom
photo by Jessica Kramer
Kitchen
photo by Jessica Kramer
Living room and stairs to bedroom
photo by Jessica Kramer
Near the front door
photo by Jessica Kramer
Jeremy Weaver hopes that his tiny houses will start making a big impact in Chattanooga's growing housing gap.
Mr. Weaver, a fellow at Causeway, spoke to the City Council on Tuesday.
“There's a lot of popular excitement,” he said. “It's not just a fad.”
Mr. Weaver is currently trying to get a tiny house pilot community off the ground. He has been looking at 20 different lots, mainly in the MLK and Southside area. The goal is to start building by this winter or next spring.
Though tiny houses can be built on wheels, Weaver said that they differ from RVs and mobile homes because they “are built explicitly as permanent residences most of the time.” He said that tiny houses are built “exactly like your home,” whereas RVs are built “to save weight.” He said that in a tiny house, “everything is durable.”
Mr. Weaver said that there are at least 10 tiny house communities in the country, mostly aimed at the homeless. However, “this particular project (in Chattanooga) is aimed at the working poor.” His project is trying to attract “young, entrepreneurial types,” working people making less than $30,000-$40,000 a year.
For more than a year, Mr. Weaver and his wife have been living full-time in a tiny house. He said that this allowed them to start up the company without accruing debt and to pay off their student loans.
The City Council was given the opportunity to tour a newly-built tiny house. Though the houses are custom-made, Mr. Weaver estimated that the trend in size will land somewhere between 500-1000 square feet.
For the tiny house community, the project budget estimated about $40,000 per unit. The unit would include one or two bedrooms (lofted or unlofted), one bathroom, one kitchen, a washer/dryer, and a mini-split a/c and heater.
The tiny house pocket community would address the housing gap in Chattanooga's urban core. Rent or lease purchase arrangements were estimated at $400-$600 per month. The goal is to have the pilot community completed by mid-2017.
Mr. Weaver was optimistic with the plans, calling tiny houses a “completely revolutionary new model of flexible, affordable housing.”