The mayor of Essex is building a Tiny Home in her own backyard.
Sherry Bondy is partnering with Laneway Homes to build this home, which is another form of an Additional Dwelling Unit (ADU).
These are being used as a solution to help ease the pressure on the housing market.
ADU’s, particularly in the form of tiny homes, offer numerous benefits such as boosting property values, providing affordable rental options, preserving neighbourhood character, and offering homeowners an additional source of income.
Laneway Homes offers a range of models for the tiny homes that range in size, price, and design. The least expensive model starts at $159,000, with the most expensive starting at $278,000.
She says this is a way she can contribute to the housing stock.
“As mayor and as a member of our community, I always like to lead by example. And this way I can explain to residents how you go about a process of putting an Additional Dwelling Unit, known as a tiny home, in your backyard.”
Bondy says she chose the second smallest tiny home model.
“I’m busy, I have night time meetings, so the reason why I went through with this is I’m looking to see if I can find somebody to help me with my children in a nanny type role in the future once it’s built. So I’m going to do an advertisement for that, and an application process.”
She adds that this is a way to address the housing crisis.
“We know we also need to have different types of houses. Generally speaking, the single-family home is not attainable for everybody anymore. A single-family on a single lot, that’s just not something we’re going to continue to see. We need more rentals. We need more homes turned into duplex’s, so this is something that I can do to contribute to the housing stock.”
Bondy says she selected the second smallest model, which is 430 square feet, starting at $169,000.
At this time, the foundation and plumbing is completed, and Bondy says she’s hoping the home will be done by September.