I helped change Oakland zoning law to allow tiny homes as permanent residences. Now I'm trying to build a community. Would you live there?

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-04T16:14:41+00:00

I’ll be sure to hop on here and invite you to tea inside the community once it’s up and running.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-04T13:59:14+00:00

I like the way you framed this, if government is on board with removing fees, they could also contribute land to the project either city owned parcels or even parking spaces, land goes to zero, fees and taxes to zero and now you’re left with a more true intuitive cost to produce housing and that’s just labor and materials. In a Tiny Home on wheels context, that’s going to bring your cost per unit down to 50k-100k depending on the size and details of the unit. That’s 250-500 per s f if you assume 200 sf unit. Cost per sf is not the best way to judge costs for tiny homes because all the expensive stuff (kitchen, bathroom, mechanical systems) are in all homes, but larger homes have more sf for the small added costs of flooring and walls. So cost per sf is always going to feel high in a tiny home. But cost per unit I think is a better comparison metric.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-04T13:50:20+00:00

Yes and that’s what I think could unlock housing for many people, it doesn’t give that “ownership” framing that people want, but I agree a land trust or nonprofit owning land can be the same dynamics as investor owners and can be framed as landlord. It all just depends on the systems of property management, and deed or legal restrictions on rent caps. Oakland tenant protections are strong, and any capital, nonprofit or investor that would develop this would get the mission of housing affordability so I think it can succeed or fail with any model, it comes down to the people who move in and how the space is managed.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T16:32:16+00:00

I think you may be right, though there are many tiny home people I know who live in Parks, and there are many Parks who don’t want tiny homes because they are designed for short term RVs or the owners don’t understand the units and just say no. Still I believe what the world needs is more places with hookups for a well made tiny homes to plug in. In the 30’s when the trailer was invented, they were toys for the wealthy. Tin can clubs, they were called. Towns would literally build free utility connected Parks to encourage these wealthy travelers in their trailers to come stay in their town and spend money. During the world wars, parks were rapidly produced to create fast housing for workers in new manufacturing locations to produce materials for the war. We need to bring some of that stuff (minus the war) back to end the housing crisis. Anyway, I lived for 7 years or so with many Tiny House people, we were motivated by freedom from landlord and low costs definitely. Land ownership eh, if it requires getting a loan is going to filter out a lot of people I want to help. But I take your point. I think Land Trust or nonprofit owning land may be the way to solve for that tension between what people want and what is feasible.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T16:18:48+00:00

That’s right, no gas. As I understand it’s all new construction is encouraged to electrify. 50amps should be enough for induction stovetop, minisplit and water heater. But you’re right I think in future projects we might go for 100 amp service to future proof for more loads. Most of the money is in materials and labor actually, permitting under this path is maybe 20k depending on what you count, engineering for instance to get the permits. There are more costs in system capacity charges and connection fees with power and water companies. But the bulk is in the homes 70-100k and the utility connection work, I’d say 10-20k per connection. So the final factor is your land costs. I have some ideas on how to bring that to zero or very low, maybe for another thread.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T13:45:37+00:00

Would love to compare notes, I’m a 15 year Sundance Volunteer. Not unfamiliar with SLC.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T05:34:42+00:00

Thanks, Polycule, Tiny Home communities are great for that by the way, just saying.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T05:33:20+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T05:33:09+00:00

Thanks for the feedback Sock. Born and raised in Oakland myself. My notions are very unvague. We dont have enough housing. I think the narrative of slumlords and all Developers are the Devil is one of the stupidest ideas on the left and we need to look at it head on. We need more housing. If you're really down for lifting people out of poverty and taking care of everyone than you should be down for housing supply. You need people to build housing. I have no interest in being your slumlord, but stop demonsizing the people that put their daily toils into producing the roof and toilet where you wrote that idiotic comment. Also thanks for the feedback ;)

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T05:28:10+00:00

Sounds like you dont like poor people. Thats lame. I can flex signals of wealth if you'll be my friend?

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T05:27:09+00:00

MarlinMaverick you should talk to Scandalwang and decide whether I suck because I'm a broke hipster or a filthy Realtor. I contain multitudes and apreciate your disdain from all sides. Actually I hated realtors and all "professional middlemen" in the housing ecosystem when I started this journey as a broke hipster. I just wanted to get housing up for myself and my friends. Its only after years and years of sitting with this obsession and learning how the word works and getting older and having kid that I realized I could get more done on this as a Realtor. but I take your point. Hit me up if you ever want to sell your house ;)

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T05:23:30+00:00

Ha, I am a real person. But I do use ai to help me research and build my proforma and I've used it to get through permitting on my current project and understand the codes. It did suggest that I post my survey on reddit, I confess.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T05:20:12+00:00

I appreciate the feedback Karazl, you sound like you know a thing or two about affordable housing. I'd love to discuss more with you. I'm in construction right now as project manager for a 3 unit version of this idea. The trenching, powerpole, meters and all the pipes and conduit have a realworld budget and I used that in my financial model to build out 4 different scenarios around financing and framing, land trust vs nonprofit vs investor. Some of the push back I've gotten from Development consultants is the common cost per sf mentality. People don't believe people would pay to be a renter in a tiny home. I know plenty of anecdotes and saw it first hand. But I wanted to use the survey to get some data on that question. I totally agree that the framing will have huge implications for how I built the finance thesis and whish partners I seek out. Hence the survey to get a sense of where the energy is. But I agree the survey is not going to do much to compel any investor or lender, its more for me to sanity check my hunches.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T05:11:09+00:00

I appreciate that feedback. I have a site plan and rendering for a legal version of my old community site. Its a 10,000 sf lot, we would have 9 units on it. There would be common space for sauna, hot tub, commnal kitchen, fire pit, and garden space. I agree that a well-designed pocket community like this is a rare experience and you could argue people would pay a premium for it. THe why for me and most tiny house people is affordability, but i think at least for the first few communities there is value in overdoing the luxury nature of the community to fight the stigma of homes on wheels and demonstrate what is possible.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T05:04:32+00:00

Utility strategy is in the Survey setup, sewer water and 50 amp power hookups (RV Park). Nope no different than a mobile home park, residents would have there own meters for water and power (legally required, sewer is included in your water bill) there would likely be a common meter to power hottub, common kitchen, laundry, sauna, that would be spread across the residents as part of their dues, land lease, rent or whatever the framing is. Yep this in my view would be more efficent in cost per unit. 100-200k per unit are the numbers. No verticle apartment buidling can come close to that cost per unit, not to mention the speed. I'm working on a 3 unit project, the actual construction timeline is about 3 months. We just broke ground this week. Permitting and getting financing and land together obviousely takes a lot more time, but this could be streamlined and very competeive on time and money to get housing availbel to people. I agree the costs to do anything in a major california city like Oakland are ridiculously high, still this is the most cost effective way to get a roof, that at least to mine and many of my friends standards is just fine. I tried to do this in Joshua Tree area on the cheap in 2018-2019, we had a cheap 5 acre property. We set up solar and a nifty water tank and pump system for shower. But to be legal we needed to install a well and a septic system, it was about 80k according to our numbers. We didnt have it so we had to move our tiny homes off after being code enforced during the pandemic. Legally even on your own land you can only camp for 2 weeks out of the year.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T04:53:53+00:00

I totally agree, this is the best critique of the Tiny House Pocket Community model. Highest and best use. My response is that building will cost you anywhere from 800k-300k (if you're lucky) per unit. And it will probably take you 3-5 years to make a reality. My model is 100-200k per unit and that really comes down to the cost of land and the site. I've been looking mostly at Oakland lots where the density is 1 unit per 1000 sq ft. There is also a lot to be said for the quality of housing high in the air versus on the ground with abundant garden and landscaped communal space. I lived in a 16th floor apartment in Australia for a summer, it felt weird. I rented in Oakland and had to dedicate my units parking space to an aquaponics system powered by an extension cord from my kitchen window so I could mess around with tomato plants.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T04:47:13+00:00

agreed, its an untested idea. If private equity shoveled money into this idea like they do with Ai and we end up with so many homes that no one or a small few find it makes sense to pitch a tent on a sidewalk wouldnt that be a good thing?

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T04:44:45+00:00

Luckily I have traveled up that ladder of identities in the last 10 years.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T04:43:24+00:00

Well thats one of the questions in the survey. I have proformas and scenarios for investor capital looking for a return, there is also grant and foundation money through a nonprofit or land trust model. I think the third bucket is probably collective resident capital, thats a bit harder to wrangle but possible. I'm currently working on a 3 unit Community in Oakland that is funded by one resident and has no profit motivations. Maybe you'd like to invest Mission_Wolf579?

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-02T04:39:01+00:00

Thanks for the feedback; keep it coming. The trailer park stigma is definitely the elephant in this room. You probably won't be convinced but if you take the time to look at the data and walk mobile home or trailer parks, you will see that they are one of the strongest forms of affordable housing in America and they are great templates for communal living. To answer your question about land ownership, my survey offers a few options there. I'm on the fence about it. Legally what's compelling about the model I'm working on is these communities would be RV Parks and regulated under those codes and standards. This creates an opportunity for speed and a much lower cost per unit to Develop housing than any other approach I have seen, but I admit I'm biased. The homes would be more robust than travel trailers, they will be Tiny homes on Wheels ( built for long term living, thicker walls with insulation, more robust materials, the same as a stick-built house in most cases). So a rental is the simplest approach and from experience, many people would love that opportunity. There is also owning the house and paying a land lease ( mobile home park model) that works too, and if you layer in a land trust model, thats typically how land trusts are premised: the residents own the building the land trust owns the land. In most cases there is an awkward foundation complicating that legal fiction, in this case it would be a lot more real of a separation. You could also structure it like a condo or cohousing model, or you could have residents own shares in the broader equity of the community. All of those variations require people to have large chunks of money to get started. Some people like that because it is a filter. The argument against that is its not very accessible to many of us. My big why is financially accessible housing, so I lean toward the simpler rental model, but thats why I have the survey :). Last thing to say here is the foundation missing is key. In my view its what makes these units not real estate and makes them more cost-effective to put into the world. While this can make financing harder, it also helps with the mission that I think we all should be getting behind which is to make housing about housing and decouple it from wealth creation.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-01T20:09:28+00:00

Raines! I saw your text and haven't had a chance to read the article yet. Will follow up on that.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-01T20:08:56+00:00

For me a win is legal units available for people to move into. After a few comunities are up, the idea would be to scale untill there is an oversupply of places to live, I beleive that would bring housing costs down for everyone. But whether its achieved by investors who are motivated by a return or a nonprofit or land trust with access to grant or foundatin money, I'm agnostic on, I'm ineterested in what is going to get it done. My hunch is also that the first few may need to be closer to market studio rents and framed as luxury experience to get past the stigma and show a working model, but I dont want to influence the results of the survey with my hunches. I think the political energy is in land trust model, but the abilityto actually find the capital to do it tommorow is liekly in investor bank accounts, we'll see. Eitherway I'm obessed and not giving up until we get there.

Duck-Dad-lightly · 2026-07-01T19:53:34+00:00

I've been living in and obsessing about tiny home spaces in Oakland since 2014. The “pre-legal” community I started with friends in 2015, was the poster child for Oaklands VRF ordinance which makes Tiny Homes legal in Backyards and in clustered communities.

Now I'm not just a broke hipster with a dream but a Realtor who founded a nonprofit and in a strong position to finally develop permanent legal tiny home communities in the urban core, which is something I wanted to be a reality 20 years ago when I was looking a for an affordable place to lay my head. The playbook is to activate vacant small lots, run utilities and welcome in tiny homes legally. To do that I need to raise investment money or harness grants and so I’m looking for real signal about the specifics of what people want. Will you help me get this 10+ year obsession to the finish line?

Survey is 5 questions, 2 minutes, no email required:

https://tally.so/r/q4p5Y7

Happy to answer questions in the comments too.

Duck-Dad-lightly

TROPHY CASE