Recent state legislation has made it easier to allow tiny homes as infill housing in residential areas. W ith the housing shortage creating challenges for communities across California to affordably house their residents, state elected officials grapple for solutions to mitigate the crisis. One strategy has been to ease certain building restrictions in order to add much-needed
and any other regulations that would in any way hinder, delay or impede their ability to address the crisis,” Funk says. Funk says that building codes and zoning limitations mean the average cost to build a single unit of permanent housing for the homeless is now around $850,000 per unit. Tiny homes, however, are pre-built and can be purchased at a fraction of that cost. The bill gained unanimous bi-partisan support and Funk sees that as a good sign. “State officials are intent on allowing local governments the broadest possible set of tools to address this crisis with the determination that a crisis requires,” she says. Addressing homelessness and disasters One company hoping to address the crisis by building tiny homes is Homes 4 the Homeless, a Fulton-based nonprofit focused on modular units for the homeless. Steve Schneider, the founder and CEO of Homes 4 the Homeless, was inspired to start the company following the 2017 North Bay wildfires, which left his family temporarily homeless after the Tubbs fire destroyed their Fountain Grove home. “I lost my house at a moment's notice and I thought, if this could happen to me, it could happen to anyone,” says Schneider, who had previously run a successful electric-vehicle business. “I changed my whole world and became very mission driven on trying to create affordable housing for people in need.” Schneider initially envisioned providing inexpensive homes
housing stock. California Senate Bill 1395 took effect at the beginning of the year with the intention of streamlining approvals for temporary housing and ensuring their rapid deployment. One type of housing SB 1395 supports is tiny homes, prefab units of limited square footage—typically below 600 square feet—that can be purchased individually and delivered to a site by vehicle, fully built. SB 1395, also known as the Interim Housing Act of 2024, was introduced by state Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) and sponsored by San José Mayor Matt Mahan, with support from former San Francisco Mayor London Breed, as well as such regional public policy organizations as the Bay Area Council, the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association and DignityMoves, a nonprofit advocate for housing solutions. Elizabeth Funk, founder & CEO of DignityMoves, says SB 1395 is a pivotal piece of legislation. “It embraces interim housing as a valid state program and extends the key pieces of existing legislation that interim housing relies on,” says Funk. SB 1395 recognizes “homelessness as the crisis that it is, and allows local municipalities to cut red tape, waive local zoning
30 NorthBaybiz
March 2025
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