A tiny house community is a form of intentional living where multiple small-footprint homes share land, resources, and infrastructure within a specific geographic area or local municipality. Residents tend to believe in voluntary simplicity, content with fewer possessions. A tiny house does away with the excess, giving you just enough space to live, while the majority of your time can be spent outside of the home and in your community. With housing affordability in crisis, and people yearning for connection, perhaps it is time to build a tiny house community! Read on to learn how to start a tiny house community of your own.
How to Start a Tiny House Community
1. Build a Founding Team First
Avoid launching your project entirely alone. Before purchasing property, utilize the Match for Free link in the header above to identify and connect with local cofounders who share your timeline, budget, and vision.
2. Verify Local Zoning Laws and Infrastructure
Research local regulations to ensure tiny houses are permitted in your target municipality. In many states, tiny homes on wheels are legally classified as RVs, which face strict parking and storage restrictions. To bypass expensive infrastructure costs, search for existing mobile home parks or RV parks for sale that already feature built-in electric and sewage hookups.
3. Establish a Formal Legal Entity
Form a corporate structure to protect members and manage land ownership. If your community plans to rent spaces to short-term travelers alongside permanent residents, structure the group as a corporation where the core members are both shareholders and tenants.
4. Implement Professional Business Accounting
Set up your financial tracking system in collaboration with an experienced business consultant. Register your new corporate entity for all required state and federal taxes to ensure long-term financial compliance. Check the Consultants list below to find those in your area familiar with tiny homes.
5. Secure Permits, Licenses, and Insurance
Obtain all necessary municipal permits, operating licenses, and business insurance policies. If local regulations are restrictive, advocate for new tiny house permitting by presenting your project to city or county officials as a viable, proactive solution to the affordable housing crisis.
Examples
Tiny house directory has over 300 communities listed with prices and international hosting.
Tiny Tranquility community on the Oregon coast has shared amenities that include an indoor garden, exercise room, mail room, yoga area, tv room, laundry room, private storage area for residents, game room, library, outdoor barbecue, large shared kitchen with an ocean view, and a few rentable spaces for small businesses.
Dream River Ranch in Idaho hosts and advocates for tiny houses. It also provides equine therapy.
Delta Bay Tiny House Resort, between San Francisco and Sacramento, has resident amenities including a bathhouse, clubhouse, tennis courts, volleyball court, lawns, and fishing docks.
Tiny House Community Consultants
ICmatch can connect you with consultants who have deep experience in projects and living environments that thrive on close, sustained cooperation. These professionals are experts at guiding groups through the unique opportunities and challenges of communal living.
The consultants listed below have subscribed to be featured on this page. For even more consultants with interest and expertise in this type of community, visit the consultants page linked in the header.
Members Interested in a Tiny House Community
ICmatch can connect you with communitarians who have similar interests and values. The members listed below have subscribed to be featured on this page. For even more members with interest in this type of community, visit the Match for Free page linked in the header.
Resources
The Village Collaborative: A map of projects and people interested in tiny homes villages for homeless people.
In Our Hands is building small energy-efficient houses on a South Dakota reservation.
SquareOne has a toolkit that includes sample tiny home blueprints, models of affordable village setups, and much more.
Where to legally put a tiny house? Regulations can vary by city and county/province.
British Columbia site: Lists tiny home rental space, sometimes for work/trade.
In the U.S. the following states are listed in order of tiny home friendly ordinances: California (San Diego, Fresno), Oregon, Texas (Spur), North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Washington, Arizona, New York, Utah, Georgia (especially Atlanta), Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Kansas (allows tiny homes on foundations not wheels).
Microhousing rezoning could be an easy sell to local governments where housing costs more than most people can afford.
Mobile home parks: These are simply a larger version of the same concept, but “trailer parks” have a bad reputation.
Legal definitions can vary by jurisdiction. Tiny homes may be considered RVs. Know the between a mobile home park and RV park.
ROC USA, LLC helps resident-owned U.S. corporations buy their manufactured home communities or mobile home parks from private community owners to make resident ownership possible nationwide.
Help the cause: Sign a petition. The International Code Council (ICC), in collaboration with the Tiny Home Industry Association (THIA), is developing a new standard, ICC/THIA 1215, initially intended to standardize tiny houses on wheels and advance Appendix Q provisions for tiny homes. However, the standard’s focus has shifted significantly to encompass “Small Residential Units” (SRUs), defined as dwellings 1200 square feet or less, potentially making tiny houses a subcategory. Tiny home advocates believe this is important to oppose because they fear the SRU designation, an undefined and unenforceable term, will dilute the specific needs and regulatory progress made for tiny houses. They argue that the ICC’s actions violate ANSI essential requirements for fair, open, and balanced standards development, citing concerns about dominance by certain interests, lack of transparency regarding substantive changes, and an imbalanced voting committee, all of which could hinder the appropriate codification and acceptance of tiny homes as a viable housing solution.
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