VIVA LA TINY REVOLUTION

All of our midsize houses (250s.f.- 800s.f.) should meet all IBC size restrictions, and the little ones should get around such building codes because they are not buildings; they are vehicles.

Laws dictating how small our homes can be were introduced back in the 70s and 80s by lobbyists from the housing industry. It had become clear that, as the number of houses being sold by the industry leveled off, fiscal growth would remain possible only so long as the size of their product was increased. Size restrictions were thus written into building code at the federal level and adopted by municipalities throughout the US. Banks quickly followed suit by providing loans only for houses large enough to warrant the cost of the land on which they would sit. Local zoning, in turn, ensured exorbitant land costs by generally demanding that each little house sit on a parcel no smaller than one required for a large structure.

It is now literally illegal to build a new small home in most populated areas of the United States. And, even if it weren’t, financing the construction of such a dwelling would still be all but impossible.

Our socialist economy cannot sustain the burden of imposed excess in the same way that we had hoped the capitalist model would. American citizens cannot be expected to buy more house than they need solely for the purpose of padding the pockets of their banks and industries then be expected to provide more padding for those same pockets when this unviable system fails. Allowing citizens to live beyond their means is one thing. Mandating that citizens live beyond their means then taxing them again to cover the inevitable damage caused by such unsustainable policy is quite another.

Americans should be allowed to live as simply as they see fit. More house than one needs means more time spent on maintenance, more money spent on a mortgage or rent and more greenhouse gasses and senseless consumption of fossil fuels and other vital resources. It also means more foreclosures and more bailouts in our future. The only entities minimum size standards seem to serve are the housing industry and the banks that pushed for them in the first place. Now, even they are reaping the consequences of their actions (albeit, consequences dramatically lessened by subsidies so generously provided by American taxpayers).

As long as the law ignores justice and reason, then just and reasonable people will ignore the law. At this point civil disobedience is not only justified, for many it is the only option. The people of this purportedly free country will live in houses of any size that suits them whenever reasonable egress and land ownership or a landowner will allow. Thousands of Americans are already living beneath the radar in structures commonly regarded as too small to meet code. These folks live largely outside the system of imposed excess, and they do so within the rights granted to all of us by the Constitution of the United States. It now remains for our banks, zoning and codes to catch up.

While it may still be illegal to live in a small house throughout many parts of this country, most areas do allow you to store a trailer in your yard. If someone wants to camp out in it on occasion, that’s fine too. Code generally makes no official distinction between “inhabiting” a structure and “napping” in it. I bought a house in 2000 and camped out in my own backyard for years with the City’s blessing. The rent collected on the front house covered the mortgage payments.

That said, most people do not advertise their campsite to the local municipality (or the rest of the world) as openly as I have. The housing departments would rather not be put in the position of upholding or refuting unconstitutional and/or unpopular laws. For most jurisdictions small housing regulation and its enforcement has become a matter of don’t ask don’t tell.

It is sometimes easier to ask for forgiveness than permission… and put some wheels on your house just in case one of our more vigilant officials starts thinking his rules trump reason.