Owners of tiny homes search for a little place to belong

James Moriset lives in his adult son’s basement in Grimes. After he moved from Tucson, Ariz., in September, the 59-year-old contacted a real estate agent and began searching for homes.

The former firefighter and paramedic is on a limited income, so it was tough to find anything that fit his budget. He is single and spends most of his time restoring antiques.

“You don’t need a house,” agent Valerie Ashley of Coldwell Banker finally told him. “What you need is a tiny home and a workshop.”

Moriset was soon convinced. He bought a large trailer, and with his son, Tobias, and friends began assembling on it an ideal bachelor pad, a 265-square-foot home with a sleeping loft and precious little to clean or hold junk he didn’t need.

Protecting black history from gentrification

Tiny homes of fewer than 500 square feet have been a talker for the past few years, their clubhouse-like mini features displayed on television shows and in the popular press. But one obstacle has kept them from widespread use — city building and zoning codes that prohibit them because they are too small.

“There’s been a few interested in my homes, but they are stuck on placement,” said Sean Spain, the Johnston man who was featured in a 2014 Register story for building artistic tiny homes made of reclaimed materials. “That’s one thing I keep hearing; they can’t find a place that will let them do it.”

It’s a problem that affordable housing and homeless advocacy organizations in Des Moines have researched, as well as a committee in Cedar Rapids with designs on building a planned urban development of tiny homes.

“Tiny homes could not only be a solution for the homeless, but a solution to not even get there,” Ashley said.

Recent college graduates with large student loan debt and military veterans who are in financial straits would have a lower mortgage to continue payments on a home. She said it’s also perfect for people who simply choose to lower their carbon footprint, consume and own less stuff, or want to avoid spending up to $1,500 a month on a 1,000-square-foot apartment.

“It could be sexed up to be a lifestyle,” she said. “I think people are worried about property values, but we need to remove that stigma. These tiny homes are well-built. I was thinking a smaller town would be easier or more accepting, because tiny homes could put them on the map.”

The search for a lot

Moriset quickly found out why Iowans don’t yet see tiny homes around their towns.

He found a lot next to an abandoned home in the small town of Stuart, an hour's drive west of Des Moines. When he contacted city officials, they said city ordinances prohibited it.

Zoning officials in Stuart confirmed that they require a minimum of 900 square feet of living space.

His next step is asking the Grimes City Council on Tuesday for a building code variance to put the tiny home on a lot in Grimes.

Grimes Mayor Tom Armstrong said the city doesn’t have one citywide square-footage requirement, but building codes include ceiling height minimums and specific requirements for stairs, which Moriset’s fold-down stairs leading to his upstairs loft may not meet.

Moriset has the framework of his home built, and it sits in a large machine shed of his son’s friend in Granger. As the weather warms, they will begin the finishing work on the $32,000 house.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how it could be a comfortable little home.

Aspiring to change 7124 Tuxedo in Detroit into literary center

The 8-foot-wide home has a front porch that leads to a roughly 7-foot front sitting room flanked by big windows, with partial walls that separate a 6-foot kitchen area and a small bathroom in the back, which will include a shower and toilet. The upstairs loft that is 14 feet long is big enough for a bed, a reading and television viewing area and built-in cabinets.

Moriset was also a fire investigator and a master plumber, so he said all the wiring and mechanicals go well beyond code, and the home would be secured to the ground after the trailer is removed.

“This is going to be my home,” he said, standing amid the building materials, wearing a short ponytail and sporting a mustache. “It’s more than I need. Everybody has got too many clothes. What do you need? Most of what I have was put in a yard sale.”

He says his disability status is for mental issues.

“I just saw one too many dead bodies,” he said.

The one that sent him over the edge was a family of four, whose car was flattened by a truck. Two small children were dead in the back seat, the older brother trying to protect his little sister with his body.

“Take a guy like me. It’s not just firefighters and medics, but I think a lot about military guys. So many veterans have nothing and are living on the streets,” he said.

His agent, Ashley, has worked to advance the idea of tiny homes for veterans.

An affordable option

Nonprofit organizations have also advanced the tiny-home idea.

The Polk County Housing Trust Fund, which advocates for affordable housing, included tiny homes as an option in its report issued 10 months ago, called "Housing Tomorrow."

“But I can’t think of any place in the region where you can go in and put up a tiny house,” said Executive Director Eric Burmeister. “One of the things that need to happen is to figure out the barriers in codes and zoning ordinances that need to be removed in order to get that done. Are all of them really necessary?”

In Des Moines, one requirement is that a home must be 24 feet wide, city officials say.

Joppa Outreach, a nonprofit that assists the homeless in Des Moines, has been researching plans for tiny homes for a couple of years and hopes to bring its plan to fruition soon.

“Many communities similar to Des Moines have already found immediate and long-term success in using tiny homes to reduce and end homelessness in their communities.  We believe tiny homes are a fundamental solution to our growing homeless crisis in central Iowa,” said Amy Hunold-VanGundy, coordinator of Joppa Tiny Home Village.

Joppa studied eight tiny home villages in cities such as Portland, Ore., Madison, Wis., and Nashville, Tenn.

The idea has also spread to Cedar Rapids, but with an eye toward the younger population’s needs for starter homes.

A working group of interested buyers, nonprofits and city officials formed in the past year and has produced plans and designs of about 500-square-foot homes for a tiny home development.

When Susie Weinacht began talking up the idea, she found that startup entrepreneurs, military veterans or young hipsters began calling to find out more. She serves on the City Council, and saw it as a way to bring more young people to the eastern Iowa city.

“How can you get young people to own a home? Well, a lot of young folks are about experiences. Life is an experience,” she said. “It’s not about the stuff. It’s kind of a cultural shift.”

A home must have a minimum of 660 square feet of living space in Cedar Rapids, but zoning officials there say the requirement is eliminated in a planned urban development.

“The working group did a good job of developing some basic assumptions. It wouldn’t be just a wheeled home, and the code does require a foundation,” said Jennifer Pratt, community development director in Cedar Rapids.

The homework is done and the interest is there.

“The next step: How do we find a developer? And will somebody finance these homes,” Weinacht said. “We’re still looking.”