SA Affordable Housing January - February 2019 // Issue: 74 | Page 23

CONTRIBUTORS
Are tiny homes the answer?
By Iqbal Hirji, founder of Rural Waste Poverty Alleviation Solutions (RWPA Solutions)
P
roviding decent homes for people of lower income
brackets is a challenge around the world, and one that
is increasingly being met with innovation and
creativity. In South Africa, however, we still seem
determined to limit ourselves in terms of what we call a
home, and who gets to have one.
Anyone who has visited South Africa is aware of the vast,
sprawling informal settlements where homes are cobbled
together out of available materials, built on land that has no
infrastructure and even less planning. Often little more than
single rooms of corrugated iron, these homes are rarely wind and
water proof and are also prone to being burnt down in horrifying
conflagrations caused by just one tipped over paraffin stove.
Sadly, while there is plenty of talk of getting people in
these settlements into formal homes the costs involved are
often exorbitant and land is considered difficult to find, and
as a result these settlements keep growing instead of
shrinking. Faced with a lower income housing problem in the
US legislators were initially reluctant to legalise what they
colloquially refer to as ‘tiny homes’ but as time goes by and
the need grows larger, they are forced to acknowledge
something housing campaigners have known for ages –
these tiny homes are an incredible solution.
Tiny homes are smaller than what has traditionally been
built as housing and comprise just one room with an
attached bathroom and therefore take up less space. As
such they are able to fit comfortably onto land that has not
been considered for affordable housing before and are
closer to work and important amenities. They are also
significantly cheaper, easier and quicker to set up and –
importantly – are extremely sustainable.
Running a small home costs almost nothing. From lower
costs on rates and taxes, to fewer heating bills in winter,
these well-built, safe, secure, fire, wind and water proof
houses are being snapped up around the world – not only by
the poor – but by people who see downsizing their lives as a
valuable contribution to their wellbeing and towards
preserving the environment.
In South Africa it is extremely difficult to argue that
people should continue living in dangerous informal
settlements rather than give them the opportunity to live in
well-ordered and well-built, Agrément certified homes, just
because we as legislators, builders or economists are still
stuck in the past when we think about what a person needs
to be comfortable. ‘Tiny homes’ may just be the answer,
indeed the solution, we are looking for.