Millionare Builds 99 Tiny Homes To Reduce Homelessness In His Community

Vanessa Blanch/CBC

In New Brunswick, it seems like everyone is talking about little houses.

Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin, Social Development Minister Bruce Fitch, and businessman Marcel LeBrun shared the platform to announce $1.4 million in forgiving loans for the construction of 96 tiny homes close to the northside Walmart.

A non-profit group called LeBrun's 12 Neighbours Inc. plans to build 100–200 affordable homes in Fredericton, which is a sizable population.

It is planned for the first 36 residences to be operational shortly. Rent payments by tenants will not exceed thirty percent of their income, which is the CMHC's affordability threshold. The provincial rent supplement program will make up the difference in rent.

Govt of New Brunswick

Although some people may find tiny homes to be a cheap housing option, this model is not without its drawbacks.

Limitations that should be carefully considered as the housing situation worsens and tiny dwellings become more and more fashionable. 

Following the 2008 recession, tiny homes became popular as a (perhaps not so) green and minimalist alternative to suburban sprawl in the 2010s.

Municipalities, primarily in the US, are using tiny homes to house those who are homeless. Communities across Canada have begun adopting this strategy lately, Fredericton being the most recent example.

LeBrun's residences have some advantageous aspects. They will have insulation and be linked to the city's sewage and electricity systems, which is an essential component that is absent from many tiny home towns across North America.

12 Neighbours Inc.

A group of social workers, counselors, and other specialists would provide residents with wrap-around services as part of the project's goals.

Nevertheless, LeBrun stated during the press conference that these homes are not intended for families with little children and can only accommodate one or two people at a time.

This implies that tenants in the 12 Neighbors neighborhood who plan to start a family or move in with their kids will probably have to vacate the property.

Women will be disproportionately excluded from this model since they often do a greater amount of the parenting job. 

Nonetheless, the province has some of the highest percentages of overpriced housing for single mothers. In general, prejudice against parents occurs in the rental market.

In fact, according to the province's 2021 rental market survey, almost 20% of tenants claimed that their inability to obtain a home was a result of having children.

Vanessa Blanch/CBC

Additionally, there are health hazards associated with living in small places, one of which is the potential for psychological issues. A person's life is difficult to fit into a 250-square-foot box. 

An inhabitant of a "micro-apartment" gave a fairly bleak impression of what living in a tiny house can be like in an opinion piece for the New York Times. The author, Gene Tempest, stated, "Even smell takes up space here."

These restrictions imply that the project is a transitional housing project rather than a Housing First project. However, it has been placed under the empirically supported Housing First theory, which promotes permanent housing as the first step toward ending homelessness right away.

It should come as no surprise that prominent authority on homelessness and Obama White House advisor Barbara Poppe encouraged Seattle not to support small homes (which they did), contending that the funds would be better used for long-term housing.

Likewise, "any social housing project using the [tiny homes] model would have to...offer it as an option only to those who would be interested in that kind of living," according to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.

It is unclear if LeBrun's proposal will be able to withstand the difficulties that other small home villages of this kind have encountered. His development is addressing important issues with its links to sewage and power.

According to studies, tiny home initiatives have the potential to reduce homelessness if they can maintain a vibrant community, garner support from the general public, obtain money with little conditions attached, and provide cheap housing for residents when they move out of the tiny home.

When residents leave LeBrun's tiny homes, where will they go?

The goal of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) and other predatory corporate landlords is to maximize their rental income from the highly deregulated real estate market in New Brunswick. Just one REIT intends to remove 1300 affordable housing units from the market and convert them into high-rent complexes.

While there are still close to 6,000 households waiting for affordable housing, we are hearing about outrageous rent increases almost every week.

As academics have noted, the primary issue facing New Brunswick is not a scarcity of housing but rather the financialization of housing. With programs like rent supplements, governments can throw as much money as they want at the issue; nevertheless, in the absence of strong rent controls, these initiatives merely transfer wealth to landlords, who have little incentive to maintain low rents.

Furthermore, as sociologist Kristi Allain of St. Thomas University has noted, eliminating the so-called "double tax" is an oversimplified but popular solution that will not work.