Tiny homes on wheels have gained traction in recent years as an affordable housing alternative, but building them legally poses challenges in many communities. Sitka was one of the first cities in the country to introduce a set of tiny home friendly code changes last year. But, a year after passing the groundbreaking ordinance, no one is building them.

A few years back, Stephanie Kruse and her husband decided they were sick of renting.

They moved around a lot for Kruse’s job, so buying a house wasn’t a great option. Besides, with Southeast Alaska’s high rental rates, they weren’t saving enough for a down payment.

“It’s hard to put away money when you’re paying so much in rent. And you know, at the end of the year, you don’t get anything back from that besides having had a place to live,” Kruse said. “So, for us, we wanted to do something that would allow us to build some equity with that 1200 plus dollars a month we were paying in rent and housing costs.”

They looked at manufactured homes and RVs, but ultimately settled on a tiny house on wheels. 

“We preferred the tiny house for a lot of reasons. One of them for sure is that a tiny house holds its value a lot better than an RV because it’s built with more traditional construction materials that are meant to withstand the weather. And then also, you know, they’re whimsical and fun and interesting.”

With beige siding and a blue metal roof, the roughly 170-square-foot house looks like a mini single-family home. Kruse and her husband took out an RV loan and paid a company in British Columbia to build it. They moved it to Juneau on the ferry and parked it on a shared lot.

When Kruse’s job brought them to Sitka, the tiny house came with them. Even with their loan payment and the cost to rent a spot at a local RV park, Kruse said they were paying a couple hundred dollars less a month than if they were renting.

“I think the kind of ruling concept for people who do small homes or tiny homes is a small house for a big life. If you can reduce your housing expenses and kind of minimize that in your life, but still make it a pleasant place to be,” Kruse said. “And that gives you the ability to kind of put your funding towards the things that you are really passionate about in your life.”

For Kruse and her husband, that meant a trip to Japan and saving to buy a regular house. And when they sold the tiny house and left Sitka for the Pacific Northwest, that’s exactly what they did. 

“I think it’s a really great stepping stone to home ownership like it was for us.”

But even though rent in Sitka is high and home ownership can be cost prohibitive, people in Sitka aren’t following in Kruse’s footsteps. That’s despite changes to the city’s building and zoning codes a little over a year ago to make tiny homes, and particularly tiny homes on wheels, easier to build. Pat Swedeen is Sitka’s Building Official.  

“There’s definitely been a few individuals who have been interested in it. We’ve also had actually a couple of companies think about maybe trying to go that route,” Sitka’s Building Official Pat Swedeen said. “Thus far we haven’t had anybody actually begin that proper process of permitting and, and constructing a tiny home.”

Even before the changes, Sitka didn’t have a minimum house size, but meeting building standards for small structures was a challenge. So Sitka adopted a set of international regulations to make it easier to build houses under 400 square feet, allowing for things like ladders and lower ceilings. 

It also addressed a legal grey area for tiny homes on wheels. Before last March, Sitka considered them RVs like almost any other place in the country, and legally, you can’t live in an RV year-round in Sitka. Now, they have their own designation. They’re allowed in trailer courts, and there are some zones where they can be placed on lots by themselves with planning commission approval. 

“The two main barriers in most places are zoning and building codes,” Tiny Home Industry Association communications director Alexis Stephens said. She said Sitka’s changes are a big step in the right direction. Sitka is one of just a few across the country to update their zoning regulations to be more tiny home friendly. “The progress is really picking up but to put that into context, there’s almost 90,000 municipalities in the United States, having more than a dozen embracing tiny homes, still leaves quite a bit of work to do.”

And even with the regulations changes, there are still barriers like the cost of construction, Swedeen said.

“Per square foot, a tiny home isn’t really super affordable. You know, since it’s small, it’s not like the cost of building a 2500 square foot house. But you know, you still need to have cooking appliances, you still need to have heating appliances, you still need to have bathing facilities and a toilet and things like that.”

Financing and land availability are also big hurdles. Tiny homes on wheels aren’t allowed as accessory dwelling units in Sitka, so you can’t just buy one and park it in someone’s yard. 

Jennifer Younger bought Kruse’s tiny home as an affordable option for her son. Much like Kruse, it allowed him to save money to buy his own house. Now, they’re looking to sell, but Younger said land availability has stopped a lot of buyers.

“We’ve had several people very interested and check it out and it’s a beautifully built little home, but people just don’t have property to put it on,” she said.

Even though tiny homes haven’t taken off, Sitka Conservation Society Sustainable Communities catalyst Chandler O’Connell said she isn’t discouraged. SCS partnered with a Sitka High School construction class to build their own tiny house a few years ago. Their efforts to sell it sparked a community conversation, which contributed to the eventual code changes.

“And I think our learning from past code changes is it takes a while for that information out there. It takes a while for people to understand the implications and think about how they want to implement that in their own building decisions. I’m excited to see how it can shape Sitka’s housing market over the next few years.”

She said she sees tiny homes as one affordable housing option of many. They won’t work for everyone, but it’s about getting more tools in Sitka’s housing toolbelt.

Throughout April and May, KCAW News will be bringing you stories about affordable housing solutions every Friday as part of our “Building Solutions” series. Erin McKinstry is a Report for America corps member.

The Tongass Tiny Home project, a six-year collaboration between the Sitka Conservation Society and Sitka High School, has finally come to an end. The student-built tiny house was sold to a buyer in Juneau this spring. As part of KCAW’s Building Solutions series about affordable housing, Sitka Conservation Society’s Chandler O’Connell spoke with KCAW’s Erin McKinstry about lessons learned and the possibilities tiny homes hold for Sitka. 

CO  Hello, my name is Chandler O’Connell. I am the Sustainable Communities catalyst with the Sitka Conservation Society and the Sustainable Southeast Partnership here in Sitka.

KCAW  Let’s just start off by talking about the Tongass Tiny Home project. A little bit about when it started and what the project entailed.

CO  Great. The Tongass Tiny Home is a project that started before I joined Sitka Conservation Society actually. It’s been going actively since 2014, and has provided the basis for a high school workforce development curriculum for the past six plus years now. It’s a project that’s been led by Mike Vieira, through the vocational education program at Sitka High School. And it provided the basis for our students to learn advanced construction skills. So everything from framing to siding to flooring, and what was really great about it is that we were building this interesting home using locally and regionally sourced sustainable young growth timber. So it was a unique project that allowed students to learn, not just about the technical skills that are useful in the local economy, but also to think about place-based economies and what makes sense here in Southeast Alaska.

KCAW  And why was the Sitka Conservation Society involved in the project?

CO  So the Sitka Conservation Society has the mission of protecting the Tongass and building sustainable communities. And for us, a sustainable community is one that can thrive, environmentally, but also socially and economically. So we’re super invested in workforce development and exploring sustainable industries that don’t replicate the boom-bust cycles that can be challenging. And so the Tongass Tiny Home project was at an intersection of a lot of things we care about. It was an investment in youth and developing skills that they needed. This was the first time there’d been an advanced construction class at Sitka High School for several years, when this project launched. It was a way to invest in an emerging young growth sector, which was working with small-scale mills who are doing the work to figure out what products are viable, what products make sense for different applications. And so we were excited to purchase products from these mills, figuring that out and seeing what actually was a good fit for local needs. And then finally, it gets to this question of affordable housing. And, you know, a tiny home is one affordable housing solution among many. But in dialogue with our community, we know that citizens are looking for a diversity of options. They’re looking for flexibility, they’re looking for energy efficiency, and the Tongass Tiny Home project allowed us to have a community conversation about what is the role of tiny homes, who do they work for and how they can fit into Sitka’s housing market?

KCAW  Yeah. And you, you found a buyer for it, right?

CO  We did, we did. The Tongass tiny home was recently purchased by a household over in Juneau, and the tiny home successfully made its way to the mainland by barge. So we’re excited for it to sort of start its next phase of existence being actively used by a community member.

KCAW  And why not sell it here in Sitka? Do you face some challenges at all or anything?

CO  Well, we were always open to the tiny home being used anywhere in Southeast Alaska, we love the idea of Southeast wood, building a Southeast home, housing a Southeast family. we would have loved to sell it in Sitka. And you know, a couple years ago, we made an initial attempt at advertising and getting the word out there. And we’ve worked with several potential buyers over the years. And this was the first one where everything aligned in terms of their needs, and what the tiny home offered and also flexibility in terms of where to put it. And so when you ask about challenges, one challenge a lot of buyers typically had was a lack of clarity on well, where is it okay to put it. If they didn’t own land themselves, how to navigate the social networks to find a safe and good spot that aligned with local regulation. So I think there were some challenges and just understanding where a tiny home on wheels specifically fit into the Sitka context. But also, we hadn’t been making the big effort to sell it in the last couple years, we were really continuing to use it as a tool for students. And when this offer came through, it just ended up working out, so we’re happy to see that sort of come full circle.

KCAW  Are there any plans to continue the project in any way? Was it meant to be sort of a pilot project at all or just sort of a one off thing?

CO  When it was initially proposed, it was a one off thing. And what’s been great to see is Mike Vieira really taking the initiative and incorporating other locally relevant construction projects into this same class curriculum. So they’ve produced many garden sheds over the years, some of which make use of this regionally sourced lumber. And those are really popular and sell quickly and get used all around Sitka. And now that we’ve sold the Tongass Tiny Home, we’re excited to have some resources available, where hopefully we can keep on investing in this great intersection between youth workforce development and regional economies. So hopefully, we’ll be continuing to source lumber and supporting this program. What gets built is a whole other question. I don’t think we’re quite ready to jump back into a whole whole new tiny home that’s constructed in a couple hours a week over the course of a school semester, but it was really a fantastic project. And people were really emotionally invested in the home. People were excited to see it roll out at the shop.

KCAW  Yeah, and just, you know, I think people might not always know what exactly a tiny home is. So what is a tiny home?

CO  Tiny Homes run the gamut. They can really be super fancy, glamorous, they can be really minimal. There’s a lot of variety in what a tiny home can be. The features that we cared about was functionality, energy efficiency, and incorporating those beautiful local woods. So the Tongass Tiny Home that the students constructed, was built on a trailer. That was I believe, 20 by eight feet wide. So that’s your footprint, and it involved a sleeping loft, and also a storage loft, a small living area, a small kitchen space, and a small bathroom with shower toilet, sink, everything you’d expect. So it’s basically what the name implies.It’s a tiny home that allows you to keep your costs low, keep your energy use low to support a minimalist lifestyle. I think we’re agreed that here in Southeast we’re so lucky to have this amazing backdoor of the wilderness to explore. So as long as you have a shed for all your wilderness gear, I think it can be a good solution for someone who’s looking for that particular lifestyle.

KCAW  And you said sort of like that this is one piece of the affordable housing puzzle. It’s not for everyone. And so I guess from your perspective, why is it that tiny homes can provide a good affordable housing option for people? Or how does it sort of fit into that puzzle? How does it help address affordable housing and community, I guess?

CO  When Sitka Conservation Society started this project, I think we had as many questions as anyone here in town about whether the tiny home was a right fit for Sitka or what the opportunities were there. But what we’ve heard really consistently from community members throughout this whole process is that it’s about the diversity of options. And that affordability, and quality are really what folks are looking for. And so the tiny home is not going to be the right fit for a lot of people. But for those folks who really want that lifestyle, it is a great option. It’s a way to invest in a home, have that flexibility, keep your footprint small. And so we’re excited about the tiny homes as one of many approaches to diversifying and making housing here more affordable, because we know that’s critical to a sustainable community. But we can’t be thriving here if folks can’t afford safe housing.

KCAW  You also mentioned regulations and people not being sure, where can I put it, where it can’t I and throughout the process that you all were working on this, the city actually changed its regulations to make more space for tiny Homes, particularly tiny homes on wheels. So just wondering how involved you were in that process? Or what was Sitka Conservation Society’s role in that, if any, and sort of how Sitka Conservation Society felt about the changes that were made?

CO  Yeah, well, I think we’ve been involved in those regulation conversations as interested community members. So we would bring forward our learnings from the tiny home project and what we were hearing from potential buyers and participate in that dialogue. But what I think is really great is that what I heard was a consistent request from community members to make more room for these types of options and to provide that clarity about where is it okay, where’s it not okay. And I am happy that I have seen the city respond to that. And I’m excited that there’s been some zoning changes to answer those questions. And I think our learning from past code changes is it takes a while for that information to get out there. It takes a while for people to understand the implications and think about how they want to implement that in their own building decisions. I’m excited to see how it can shape Sitka’s housing market over the next few years.

KCAW  So the regulation changes happened a little over a year ago now and there hasn’t been much movement around tiny homes in Sitka. It sounds like your answer to that is well, it takes time.

CO  I do think it takes time and again like we’re just talking about getting more tools in the tool belt for what people can do to make it work for them. So people canmake thoughtful decisions and take their time thinking about investing in housing. And it’ll be great to see what creative solutions come out of that. And, you know, a great project to shout out is the Sitka Community Land Trust, which has been an effort for years and years, and now you’re really seeing it take off. And so I think that willingness to plan for not just next year, but the next 20 years, and what are the options we need to have available to us is really important in housing and everything we talk about.

KCAW  Any major lessons learned to take away from this project that you’d want to share?

CO  Yeah, I think for me, a major lesson has been, it’s always worth gut checking what you can get regionally. I think there’s often a lot of assumptions about what’s feasible or what’s most affordable. But if you’re willing to have some conversations and talk to small businesses around this region, there can be some really great products out there. We got some amazing timber from across Southeast and sometimes it was shipped on a fishing boat. Sometimes it came on the ferry. So if you’re willing to do a little extra legwork, the benefits can be super huge. And I think that’s been a great learning throughout this process, especially if you’re doing a smaller custom build, like a tiny home, like a garden shed, you know, sourcing those local materials can have a lot of benefits for you personally but also for the planet.

Throughout April and May, KCAW News will be bringing you stories about affordable housing solutions every Friday as part of our “Building Solutions” series. Erin McKinstry is a Report for America corps member.

Before last year, Cathy Carlson never imagined she could end up homeless.

“I was born and raised here. And I was kind of in shock that I was homeless. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have anything,” she said.

She’d lived in public housing but was evicted for failure to pay her rent. She said she didn’t have an income, and she didn’t know where to turn.  

“‘Cause I was not on my medication. I’d had three strokes. And I have to be on antidepressants and I wasn’t, and I couldn’t say two words without crying,” Carlson said.

Eventually, the Sitka Homeless Coalition and the SOS: Lifeline group helped her find and rent a room in someone’s house. She said she’s back on her medication, and she’s re-applying for disability and public housing. All of that has been a lot easier with a roof over her head.

“I got my place, and I was able to see my doctor. I mean, I could have when I was homeless, but they always ask you where you live and it was embarrassing to say in my car, Crescent Harbor usually,” she said.

Still, Carlson was homeless for a year. If Sitka had a local homeless shelter or temporary housing, she could’ve gotten back on her feet a lot sooner. But despite decades of efforts by various organizations, Sitka has no homeless shelter. In Sitka’s 2020 Point-in-Time Count, 17 people identified as experiencing homelessness, although the number is likely higher if you include people sleeping in their cars or on friend’s couches. Gayle Young, who heads up the Sitka Homeless Coalition, puts the number of people who are chronically unhoused at around 15.

“And I think other people are probably fascinated by the fact that we’re just looking to house around 15 people when they have thousands to house,” Young said.

After trying for years to open a shelter in Sitka, the Sitka Homeless Coalition is now turning to a possible tiny home community to help tackle chronic homelessness, a project that could provide crucial support and shelter for people like Carlson who’ve faced housing insecurity. Agnew Beck Consulting completed an initial planning report for the Coalition in August, but there’s still a lot of work to be done before the project gets off the ground.

So far, Young said, there hasn’t been any pushback.

“I feel like we’re doing it in a way that’s helpful to our town, like slow enough and low enough,” she said. “We have a little thing where we say ‘enough, not more than what is needed.’ That’s what we want for the men: enough, not more than what is needed.”

Housing First

Back in 2017, Young and a friend started working to open a winter night shelter in Sitka. During her frequent walks around town, Young had gotten to know many of the people who are chronically homeless. 

“We actually fell in love with them. That’s the basic stuff, we fell in love with them,” Young said. “They tend to be humble, grateful, appreciative of anything that’s done. It’s pretty hard not to love those kind of people.”

Young started the Sitka Homeless Coalition, and went looking for a space. But the going wasn’t easy. At one point, the Coalition partnered with the Presbyterian Church but faced pushback from the neighborhood and then the church closed. Other times, it secured grant funds to lease a space but had to return the money when the place fell through.

“And no one would allow us the use of their building. They wouldn’t rent to us. They wouldn’t rent to us for just two weeks trial,” Young said. “Every answer was no.”

Young was determined not to give up. So the Coalition started a laundry and showers program to help anyone in Sitka facing housing insecurity. And as they continued building relationships with those they serve, Young started to realize that a shelter might not be the right solution anyway.

Many of the people the Coalition serves are older men. They have disabilities and substance use disorders. A lot of them are constantly in need of basic supplies because they don’t have a place to lock up their things. 

“As we got to know them more, we realized that a winter shelter would not solve the problem,” Young said. “They needed the whole home situation, not just a night six months out of the year on the floor.”

Young and Coalition volunteer Hannah Green started scouring the web and making phone calls. 

“And we were looking at big cities, small cities, rural communities like–How did you start? How did it work? What doesn’t work?” Green said.

Two pieces of advice stood out. The first was to implement a Housing First model. The idea is to get someone into housing as quickly as possible and then offer them supportive services onsite. There’s no time limit to how long someone can stay and very few requirements.

“What they found is that after someone has a place and maybe a lock on the door and all their stuff in one spot, then they can start thinking about other things in their life like a job and sobriety and reconnecting with their families and all of that,” Young said.

A handful of Alaska cities are already using the model. A 2011 University of Alaska Anchorage study of Anchorage and Fairbanks Housing First projects found that the programs had significant health benefits to people who otherwise would’ve been sleeping in shelters or on the street. The programs reduced alcohol consumption, kept previously unsheltered people housed and increased consistent use of important medications. Another study of a Juneau facility found that people’s use of emergency services reduced dramatically once they moved in.

Mariya Lovishchuk is the Executive Director of the Juneau Housing First Collaborative, which owns 64 units of permanent supportive housing for people facing chronic homelessness.

“Housing first is a model that I really like a lot because it provides housing to people, regardless of where they are in life, so no barriers to housing, and they are also no strings attached,” she said. Lovishchuk said a big part of what’s made their project successful is bringing all of the stakeholders to the table.

“It just so happened that Juneau had really the right combination of stakeholders, who really cared and also had really amazing statewide partners, who also were funders, and who really understood what was needed, and were willing to work with our community to make sure that this project succeeded.”

The second main piece of advice was to build individual units rather than group housing, so everyone has a space of their own, which can alleviate safety concerns. Young and Green envisioned a community of 12 tiny homes. Each one would have a small kitchen and bed. There’d be a communal shower and laundry facility, and an employee onsite to help connect people with services, if they want them.

The next question was where to put it.

The Land

Young, Green and Carlson dodge branches as they hunt for pink flagging in a wooded lot at the end of Jarvis Street. This undeveloped land belongs to the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. The Trust recently sent a surveyor to mark a section for the potential tiny home project.

“You see the pink ribbon?” Carlson says when they reach a flat spot. Young and Green scour the woods for the bright flagging. “Oh! There it is!” Young says. They all look around with excitement.

“That gives us an idea,” Green says. “I mean, it’s a good sized plot.”

They’re hoping to use just 1 to 2 acres of the 16-acre lot and expand later if needed. After struggling to find a good location for the project and earlier iterations, Young says she thinks they’ve finally found the right spot.

“This land traditionally has been where homeless people have had camps,” she says.

Young first set her eyes on this land when she was looking at a map in the city planning office. “On this piece of property it said ‘MH,’ and ‘MH’ to me means mental health,” she said. “And I thought, bingo, that’s it.”

The Trust serves people with mental illnesses, substance use disorders, developmental disabilities, Alzheimer’s and traumatic brain injuries. That’s why the organization has been supportive of the project, said CEO Mike Abbott.

“Although homelessness itself is not a qualifying condition, you know, in terms of qualifying you to be a trust beneficiary, it is highly likely that if you are in fact chronically homeless, that you suffer from one or more of those conditions,” Abbott said.

The Trust’s million acres of land is typically used to generate revenue for Trust programs–things like logging, mining or oil and gas development. But when Young approached them about leasing land for a project that directly benefits those they serve, they thought, why not?

“So that’s a little bit different, but it’s a welcomed difference as far as we’re concerned,” Abbott said.

Nothing is finalized. Abbott said the Coalition will need to demonstrate a feasible financial plan before they’ll consider a formal grant proposal. The Trust-funded planning report puts start-up costs at just over $1 million dollars. That doesn’t include ongoing operating expenses.

They’ll also want to see strong community support, which City Planning Director Amy Ainslie said has been an issue in the past.

“You know, sometimes finding an ideal location can be difficult. Because it’s one of those things that people can support in abstract but might have strong opinions about where is the appropriate place,” Ainslie said.

She said they’ll also need to bring utilities to the lot and meet any building code and zoning standards.

“I think this will be an interesting case from a zoning perspective because I don’t know that it neatly fits under any of our pre-defined uses that we have in our code. So, to some extent, there might need to be some interpretation about, you know, what do we classify this type of use as,” Ainslie said. “That will probably take a little bit of work, but I don’t anticipate that it would be an insurmountable barrier.”

The planning document also recommends building partnerships, securing long-term funding and creating policies and procedures for the tiny home community. The challenges are endless, but Young is unfazed. She hopes to raise the money and build the houses locally.

“Things have just worked out just in an amazing way. So I’ve learned to just not go there until it’s time to be there. And then see what’s going to happen for a particular situation,” Young said.

She said eventually they could add more services like a community garden, life skills classes, and employment opportunities. But the first priority is to get people out of the rain and sleeping on mattresses. 

Housing first.

Throughout April and May, Raven News will be bringing you stories about affordable housing solutions every Friday as part of our “Building Solutions” series. Erin McKinstry is a Report for America corps member.