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COLUMN: What to do about tiny homes in Squamish?

W hen we first moved to Squamish, my husband, nearly two-year-old daughter, two cats and myself ended up living in a bachelor suite because that’s all we could find in this tight rental market.
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Tim Sveum, owner of Howe Sound Tiny House Co., with his first tiny home.

When we first moved to Squamish, my husband, nearly two-year-old daughter, two cats and myself ended up living in a bachelor suite because that’s all we could find in this tight rental market.

What started as a temporary living situation lasted six months until we, luckily, found a bigger suite to move into. 

At first, I reassured my husband that living in close quarters would be easy. We would be really organized, throw out/donate anything that wasn’t of use and clean up any messes immediately. 

But that never happened – we kept boxes of baby keepsakes (a lot of special clothes, her first shoes, her favourite toys) and even bigger items like the jolly jumper, exersaucer, swinging seat and crib, all of which are brand new because she refused to use them. 

Even though I had boxes and boxes of stuff I just couldn’t get rid of, moving into a tiny house (see page A3) would be difficult but liberating for me. I get why people do it. They hold onto the items that are only the most important, the things they truly cherish, and let anything else go. 

Last year, I talked to a man and his young daughter who live in a tiny house in the Squamish Valley. They had to stay very organized to make sure their 200-square-foot house clutter free. 

The house has everything he needed – places to sleep, a washroom, kitchen – just on a much smaller scale than most of us are used to. 

They used their huge yard if they needed extra space to unwind in nature and, the man said, it definitely beats living in an apartment because of the independence it affords. Many of the homes, like the ones Squamish-based Howe Sound Tiny Home Co. build, are on trailers so they’re mobile and can be moved to different pads.

In the District of Squamish, there is currently no zoning for mobile tiny homes but District staff want to look into the possibility of making them legal in certain areas. A tiny home community could be one option. 

Given Squamish’s tough rental market, this would give residents another option of where to live. Once the initial investment is made (the owner of Howe Sound Tiny Home Co.’s aims to sell his first home for $50,000), the pad fee would range from $700 to $1,000 per month, according to a planner from the District of Squamish, although I have heard of cheaper prices of around $500. This is much less than a typical one-bedroom apartment rents for in Squamish. 

I say we think about giving tiny homes a try in Squamish, with the proper zoning and regulations.   

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