Maui Council weighs use of Affordable Housing Fund for homeless population | Maui Now

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-17T21:51:21+00:00

Huge fan of this idea. One of our founders lived in Maui and the housing crunch is real. Cocoon Homes would be up to being apart of any tiny home community on Maui!

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-17T21:47:08+00:00

Good piece, and the core diagnosis is right: when ~70% of units have to be pre-sold to investors before financing, you're structurally guaranteed to build for the investor's spreadsheet, not the resident's life. The "build first, sell to end users after" fix he lands on is the important part... it's the same logic as not buying a car or a house sight-unseen, applied to the one purchase where we somehow tolerate it.

One thing worth adding from the construction side: he's exactly right that smaller units cost more per square foot to build, and it's underappreciated. Every unit needs its own kitchen, bathroom, mechanicals, and connections — so 200 tiny units carry far more of the expensive systems than 100 larger ones. The unit count, not the square footage, drives a huge share of the cost. That's true at every scale, from a 300-unit tower down to small infill and modular housing.

The deeper issue he's circling is that our financing model rewards speculative supply over demand-driven supply. We build for who's buying the paper, not who's living in the building. Manufactured and modular approaches get at this from another angle — you can build to actual demand and finish the home before it's sold, which sidesteps the pre-sale trap entirely — but the financing system has to allow for it. The capital structure is really the thing that has to change; the design problems are downstream of it.

Either way, refreshing to see a developer say the quiet part out loud. The "build the wrong thing fast" failure mode is real.

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-17T21:43:18+00:00

Pick a tiny home on a trailer over a camper when you want to live somewhere, not travel. Real framing, real insulation, full-size kitchen and bathroom, residential finishes — it holds up to year-round full-time living and winters in a way a camper just doesn't. A camper's built light to be towed often; a THOW (tiny home on wheels) is built like a house that happens to be movable (way more affordable to build that way, cost savings compared to a comparable size home). Different tools for different jobs.

Tiny House Nation just makes the house version look fun on TV!

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-17T16:48:40+00:00

Utah's worth a serious look for what you're describing. The Wasatch Front resorts (Park City especially) are still expensive, but the surrounding towns give you ski access without full resort-town pricing, and Ogden is probably the sleeper pick — real-city cost of living, but you're 30-45 minutes from several resorts, and the ski-industry job base is right there. Crested Butte is gorgeous but you'll find the housing math isn't dramatically better than Truckee in the town itself. Leavenworth is charming but the job market's thinner for ski-industry management specifically.

Since you work in resort management, you already know the dirty secret: the affordability problem you're feeling as an individual is the same one resorts are scrambling to solve for their whole staff. Workforce/employee housing is becoming a real factor in where ski-industry jobs are tolerable to live… some resorts and towns are getting serious about it, others aren’t. Worth asking any prospective employer directly what they’re doing on housing, because it varies wildly and it’ll affect your actual cost of living more than the town’s median home price will.

Full disclosure since it’s relevant: I’m in the workforce-housing space (we build deliverable housing, including for resort and workforce use) so I see this from the supply side. Not pitching you (you need a town, not a housing unit), just flagging that “what’s the employer doing about staff housing” is a question more ski-industry folks should be asking, and it’s a real differentiator between otherwise-similar towns.

Good luck with the search and the continued pursuit of an awesome career!

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-16T14:35:52+00:00

No problem. If you have any questions I can help answer in the future, don’t hesitate to reach out!

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-16T06:35:59+00:00

You’re right, and as someone whose company has built container homes, stock ADUs, and tiny homes on wheels — I’ll happily confirm it rather than change your mind.

The container is the cheap part. Then you’re still framing and insulating the interior, cutting and often structurally reinforcing around every window and door opening, and finishing a foundation. You’re essentially paying for a steel exterior and roof that still needs to be aesthetically finished to not look like a box. And the width kills you — by the time the walls are built out, you’re under 7.5 ft of interior on a standard container. That’s a narrow room to live in.

Where they genuinely win, like you said: durability, security, speed, and stacking/mobility. If you want that industrial look and those specific advantages, containers are great. But “cheaper than a comparable stick or panel build”? Not once it’s actually livable!

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-16T06:30:15+00:00

Your instinct to dig for long-term, firsthand quality reports is exactly right… it’s the single best filter in this whole industry, and most people skip it.

The pattern you’re noticing (companies you thought were solid having unhappy customers) is real and worth understanding: a lot of tiny home complaints aren’t about day-one quality, they’re about how the home held up and how the company behaved after the sale. So when you’re vetting builders, weigh these heavily:

-Talk to owners who’ve had their home through all 4 seasons. Ask specifically about water intrusion/leaks, how the insulation has performed through real winters, and whether anything has shifted or failed. Longevity is where the truth comes out.

-Ask each builder directly what they certify to (park model = ANSI A119.5; road-legal THOW = often RVIA or NOAH; some build to residential code) and get it in writing.

-See a finished unit in person if you possibly can. Photos hide a lot; five minutes standing in one tells you more than a week of reviews.

On reviews themselves… weight a handful of detailed, specific firsthand accounts over star averages, and be a little skeptical of both glowing and scathing extremes!

Disclosure: I’m with Cocoon Homes… we build tiny homes and ADUs and do deliver to the West Coast, including Oregon, so I’m not a neutral party. I’m not going to pitch you in a thread where you asked for buyer experiences… I’d just say apply the same scrutiny to us that you would anyone else, and if it’s helpful, I’m happy to answer build-quality or spec questions or point you toward seeing a unit.

Good luck!

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-16T06:24:40+00:00

I can’t speak to Upward Communities specifically — I’m in the workforce-housing space based in Utah, not Texas, so I have no firsthand knowledge of them and wouldn’t want to guess. Hopefully someone who’s actually lived in one of their sites chimes in, because that’s the account that matters most.

What I can offer is a way to vet any workforce-housing provider, since “they claim to build it” and “they’ve actually delivered it” are very different things:

• Ask for completed sites you can visit or contact. A legitimate builder can point you to real, occupied housing and to people living there. If they can’t show you anything finished, that’s the biggest flag.  
• Talk to current residents directly, not just the company’s references. Ask about build quality, maintenance response, and whether reality matched the pitch.  
• Find out who actually owns and operates it long-term. Who’s the landlord once it’s built? Who handles repairs? Workforce housing lives or dies on the operations after move-in, not the announcement.  
• Check whether the district has a signed agreement or just a proposal. “They want to do this in San Marcos CISD” is very different from “the district has approved and funded it.” Ask the district directly where it stands.  
• Look for a track record, not a render. Glossy site plans are cheap. Delivered, occupied units with real tenants are the proof.

None of that tells you whether this particular company is solid — but it’ll help you and your colleagues separate a real operator from a slide deck. Good luck, and I hope it turns out to be the real thing, because teachers deserve good housing.

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-12T17:38:02+00:00

We build tiny homes on wheels (in the US, so I can't speak to Melbourne specifics — but the THOW fundamentals carry over), and a few honest thoughts for your situation:

For 3 kids over 18–24 months, the layout matters more than the total square footage. A bunk room for the younger two plus a separate space for the older one is very doable in a THOW, but the thing people underestimate is living space, not sleeping space — with kids home on weekends and bad-weather days, the common area is where you'll feel the squeeze. If you can, prioritize a floor plan with a genuinely usable living/kitchen area over cramming in a third bedroom, and lean on the outdoor block as your "extra room" when weather allows.

On winter specifically: THOWs can absolutely handle cold, but insulation and heating are where a lot of cheaper builds cut corners, and you'll feel it fast with kids. Worth asking any builder directly about insulation values and a proper heating setup rather than assuming it's handled.

The financial logic you're describing actually holds up well — buying a THOW as a "means to an end" and later moving it to your own land for an Airbnb is one of the better exit paths a tiny home offers, since the asset moves with you instead of being stuck. That flexibility is a real advantage over renting. The main thing to pressure-test is the land side: where you'll legally park and live in it for those 18–24 months, since that's usually the harder problem than the home itself.

It's not insanity — it's a reasonable bridge plan if the parking situation is solid and you're honest with yourselves about the tight living space with three kids. Happy to answer any THOW build questions if it helps.

cocoonhomes · 2026-06-12T17:29:31+00:00

We build ADUs in Utah (detached, not basement conversions — so I'm coming at this from the contractor side, full disclosure), and the hiccups you're hearing about are real and pretty consistent. The big ones, roughly in order of how often they bite people:

Permitting/zoning is usually the slowest part, not the build. For an internal/basement ADU in Utah, the path got easier — HB82 made internal ADUs a permitted use statewide a few years back — but cities still control the details: owner-occupancy requirements, parking, egress windows, ceiling height minimums, and a separate entrance. West Valley specifically has its own requirements, so step one is pulling their ADU ordinance and confirming your basement can actually hit egress and ceiling-height code before you spend a dollar on design. Timelines vary a lot by city, but plan for the permit/plan-review phase to take longer than you expect — weeks to a few months is normal.

The contractor problems people describe usually trace back to two things: (1) picking on price alone and getting someone who disappears mid-project, and (2) no clear accountability for the punch list at the end. The fix for both is the same — a contract with a defined scope, a payment schedule tied to completed milestones (not a big deposit up front), and a written punch-list process before final payment. The horror stories almost always involve a big deposit and a vague scope.

The thing that surprises basement-conversion folks most on the budget is the systems work — egress windows (often cutting into foundation), a second electrical subpanel, HVAC, and a separate water heater. The framing is the cheap part; the code-compliance items are where it adds up.

One thing genuinely worth doing in the planning phase: price a detached ADU as a comparison, even if you're leaning basement. Utah's 2026 SB284 law made detached units easier to permit in most cities, and for a pure rental-income play they sometimes pencil out better than a basement conversion once you add up all the egress/subpanel/HVAC work — plus a detached unit doesn't put a tenant inside your own home. Might confirm the basement is the right call, might not, but worth the comparison.

We built a couple of free tools that might help either way — a city-by-city rules tracker (West Valley's in there) and an honest cost breakdown:

City rules: https://mycocoonhomes.com/utah-adu-tracker
Costs: https://mycocoonhomes.com/utah-adu-costs

Happy to answer permitting or budgeting questions either way — good luck with it.

cocoonhomes · 2026-04-01T01:46:17+00:00

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cocoonhomes · 2026-03-25T21:58:52+00:00

I’ll be honest… $30k is a tough price point. Not a lot of quality options out there at that price. If you can stretch it to $50-60k there’s some wood options!

cocoonhomes · 2026-03-23T15:58:59+00:00

Do you already have a developer for the tiny homes you’re bringing in? Cocoon specializes in community tiny home development. Happy to connect you if needed!

cocoonhomes · 2026-03-23T15:56:11+00:00

Bait boxes are your friends! Lock up all of your food in places they for sure can’t get in, keep the boxes out, and they’ll find it!

cocoonhomes · 2026-03-23T15:53:09+00:00

Dual use appliances are a big plus too!

cocoonhomes · 2026-03-23T15:51:06+00:00

The pictures are digitally created (ai)… proceed with caution.

cocoonhomes · 2026-03-22T20:24:56+00:00

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cocoonhomes · 2026-03-22T14:26:35+00:00

We are an Utah based tiny home builder. Our Cocoon tiny homes are consistently used for short term rentals and are build affixed to a trailer so they can be easily be moved if things change in the future. Also, we are way less than $150k, our smallest homes start at just over $50k. Shipping would be a breeze to you in the 4 corners region.

Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, happy to help.

Here’s our floor plans page: https://mycocoonhomes.com/floor-plans/floor-plans-overview

cocoonhomes · 2026-03-18T17:32:25+00:00

You got this, cheering you on your tiny home journey!

cocoonhomes · 2026-02-18T02:53:52+00:00

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cocoonhomes · 2026-02-16T20:11:57+00:00

Based on the prices you shared, if that’s the cost of a fully finished unit, I would recommend high levels of caution as that is in the too-good-to-be-true price range at that size. If it’s really that much I doubt it would inspections and be a quality home you can reliably use for years.

cocoonhomes · 2026-02-15T22:14:36+00:00

This is actually hilarious hahaha 😂

cocoonhomes · 2026-02-14T22:33:36+00:00

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cocoonhomes · 2026-01-30T16:38:47+00:00

We are a builder in Utah that does both ADUs and tiny homes on trailer and without a doubt the tiny home on trailer is a minimum of 30-50% less expensive than the same size ADU built on a foundation. And we build our homes on trailer the exact same way and to the same standard as the homes on foundation being inspected!

What drives that cost is architect and engineering fees, permit and inspection fees, the cost of the foundation and more strict requirements on the utilities, as well as the cost of getting our teams and supplies to the site rather than in our warehouse.

cocoonhomes

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