BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) — Tiny homes have become a national trend over the last couple of years. The movement has been spotlighted on popular HGTV shows.
"The customer likes it, it saves them money, and they can travel when they want to - to me, that's appealing," said Jesse Collinsworth, owner of Tiny Idahomes in Caldwell.
Tiny Idahomes is a certified travel trailer manufacturer. They make custom tiny homes on wheels for people to travel in. Collinsworth says they have clients from coast to coast, but about one in 10 are local customers.
Most of their clients live in the tiny home RVs permanently.
"I would say it's probably closer to 90 percent of my customers are looking for a full time residence," said Collinsworth.
Most customers are military families that travel year-round in them. However, he says there are customers that want to permanently park their tiny home and live in them full time. Those customers can run into legal issues.
"The challenge is when often times in a situation like this it is someone parking in someone's side yard or driveway," said Mike Journee, City of Boise communications director.
Mobile homes are allowed in RV parks, but not residential lots according to Boise city code.
Journee says when people permanently live in tiny homes parked on someone's property, it becomes a health and safety issue.
"Often times, they're getting their water from a garden hose, or their power hook up is an extension chord or the aesthetics don't match what zoning codes would require," he said.
Journee added that it's also an issue if they aren't paying taxes. However, he says this is becoming a national conversation. He plans on eventually presenting ideas to the city council about how to accommodate tiny homeowners in the future.
Collinsworth thinks more tiny homeowners need to speak up if they want to see codes change.
"It takes a big group of people to stand together to say listen, we want to be in a neighborhood with small houses, we want to be small we don't want to pay a lot for power, electricity, all this other stuff," Collinsworth said.
Those interested in buying a tiny home, can build their home on a foundation, they would just need to follow their city's housing laws. However, the tiny home trend seems to be homes on wheels, so they can be mobile.
Photos:Caldwell 'Tiny Idahomes' make way for big travel, compact living
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