The Solution: Legalize trailers and tiny homes to incentivize millions of inexpensive rentals.

The Reason: Allow people to live simply so they can simply afford to live.

How it Works: A new federal property rights bill could grant owners of more than one acre of land in any rural or suburban area to bypass local zoning and permitting regulations to own and rent out up to five safely constructed trailers or tiny homes costing less than $100,000.

Only properties of more than one quarter of an acre would be eligible. Properties with more than a quarter acre but less than 1 acre of land would be limited to two simple homes.

Like RV’s in campgrounds, the new simple rental units enabled by this federal law would be required to pass basic safety inspections, and either be connected to septic systems or have a hold and haul program for waste. They would also need to be fenced from public view. Only property owners who lived on the land would be eligible, and 

No Airbnb or short term rentals would be permitted. 

The law would incentivize millions of trailers and tiny homes which could be profitably rented out for just $500 to $1,000 a month, providing the most affordable housing in the country to the rent-strapped lower income Americans. Tight rental markets in nearby cities might face competitive pressure, causing a lowering of rents at the bottom end, and greater housing affordability.

A boom in truly affordable simple housing would cost the government nothing, and democratize the housing market by bringing billions of dollars of new income to middle class property owners, many of whom are restricted by local and state laws to rent simple housing even to friends and relatives.

A successful campaign changing the law to enable affordable tiny homes and trailers in Sonoma County is described here.