Thinking 'Small' to go Big on Innovative Ways to Tackle Urban Housing

The following blog post is part of the City Accelerator initiative supported by the Citi Foundation. The City Accelerator, in collaboration with Living Cities, aims to speed the adoption of local government innovations to improve cities and the lives of their low-income residents.

The small house movement in the United States is slowly gaining attention under the realities of changing lifestyles, an aging population, and evolving financial priorities. Some cities are looking to "tiny homes" as an innovative way to approach urban housing. One example is in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where the Citi Foundation is supporting a project that is promoting "out-of-the-box" thinking to help young people become successful and independent by age 24. Many of the ideas coming out of that program relate to housing, and specifically small houses. A typical tiny home might be one-tenth the size of a conventional home and a corresponding fraction of the cost. The idea is that these smaller homes can be used to address two components of the emerging housing issue: sustainable housing solutions for the older population and affordable entry-level homes for younger generations.

To read the entire post by Ron Littlefield, please visit the City Accelerator microsite.