A Need for Petite Housing

I have been contacted by various cities about building little rental units as part of the answer to affordable housing in their areas. Many city administrators now acknowledge that their towns lack affordable housing for those who work and live on the lower end of the pay scale. Those same areas often lack affordable housing for seniors, the physically and mentally challenged, and others.

Senior housing advertised as spacious and luxurious in spectacular locations amazes me. Further checking shows many cost several thousand dollars a month. Yet the average Social Security check is under $700 a month, and most retirees live on limited, fixed incomes. There is a huge senior group that has just a little bit more, but they too must struggle for a half way decent quality of life.

Most people want large houses, but if they can’t afford it, they are willing to move into a small one. A petite house is not only small, but nice. The fact is, two-thirds of all rental units are occupied by one or two people.

A solution

Monolithic Dome Cabins can help solve some housing problems. Think of them as recreational vehicles without the wheels. Like an RV park, you could build a park for rentable Monolithic Cabins, that are affordable, safe and easily maintained.

Troubled cities

The housing phenomena was really brought to my attention recently, when I was in Canada, in a city of 165,000 people. I was there making a presentation for a large sports arena. The presentation went fine, everyone was properly impressed and the meeting was dismissed. After the meeting, the city mayor came over and sat down beside me. He said that he had just reviewed Monolithic’s DVD that showed the Monolithic Cabin (see Monolithic Rentals). His city had a huge need for such cabins for its low-wage earners. He asked if I would consider coming to Canada and building the cabins.

I told him that Canada was a long way from Texas, and I wasn’t sure that I could make it work, but the mayor persisted. He said that he would like Monolithic to build, own and operate 500 units. As an inducement, he offered to donate the land, the water, the sewer systems and good paved roads. I asked if he could come up with five places with 100 units per locale, and he said that would not be a problem. I then reiterated that his city was a long way from Italy, Texas, and I would have to think about it.

Since that visit to Canada, we have started building and shipping more of the cabins. It occurred to me that the solution for that Canadian city might lay in shipping the cabins and placing them into a cabin camp or RV park. That would serve their needs and ours.

More recently, a major city here in Texas asked me to consider what could be done to provide affordable housing. I suggested a cabin camp. So far it is just talk, but we can see that this would be a really good answer for many cities throughout the US and Canada.

Successful rentals

One of my friends in Florida started with just four little units that he rents for $150 a week, utilities included. He said that they are working spectacularly well for him and that his city’s administrators have offered to make all kinds of concessions if he will build more. So, right now he is working on building another 140 units.

Another friend in central Mississippi, 18 miles from the nearest town in either direction and 7 miles from the freeway, built a twenty-foot dome on his property. He immediately rented it. He said he was totally surprised that he was able to do it. He then built three more and they quickly rented. He is now in the process of building six of the portable Monolithic Cabins.

These cabins are solving problems. Let’s all consider building a RV park or a cabin camp to help those members of our community who struggle to keep a roof over their heads. The need is absolutely great.

Read more about the Monolithic Dome Cabin including information on homeless housing.

March 25, 2009