Happy New Year, Los Angeles area tiny house enthusiasts and housing advocates!
Is increasing affordable-by-design housing options in your area on your new year’s resolution list? With many positive developments in this area, this could be a realistic goal – but we need your collective energy to achieve this. Here are some updates and ways you help can make Tiny Living in LA happen this year!
NEW ADU ORDINANCE FOR LA
The City of Los Angeles is proposing a new Additional Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance that will comply with the State’s new legislation for ADUs. This is positive, as the State requires municipalities to remove certain barriers to ADU development, allowing this to become a more accessible option.
We would like to see Tiny Homes be considered and addressed within this ordinance!
Now you might be thinking to yourself – this is a long shot. The City of LA would never go for an idea like this. Well, allow me to treat you to a healthy dose of optimism. Fresno, California was able to include Tiny Houses on Wheels within their ADU ordinance last year with the right people in power to support this. We recently met the City of LA Planner who is leading charge of the ADU ordinance and discovered he is a huge fan of tiny houses and would like to see them addressed within this ordinance, but lacks support from his colleagues! There are also other City planners who believe in tiny houses as a legitimate housing options, but we need to build support among city council.
We will be contacting key people within the Mayor’s office as well as determining which Planning Commission members and City Council members are most open to addressing tiny homes within the ADUs. We will also be contacting neighborhood councils and asking them to submit Community Impact Statements – as this is extremely helpful and an effective way to get our desires communicated to City Council and Planning Commissioners.
Do you have connections to anyone on a neighborhood council? If so, please reply to this email ASAP!
We need YOU to help us reach local neighborhood councils across the City as NOW is the time to take action!
Keep your eyes peeled for future ways you can help, including…
- Showing up at local neighborhood council meetings if they agendize this issue so that you can make a public comment in favor of supporting tiny houses in your neighborhood. We will get the word out to you regarding any neighborhood councils that agendize this issue so keep reading these newsletters.
- Attending Planning and Land Use Management meeting (PLUM) / City Council Meeting and making a public comment.There is no date announced yet, but keep reading this newsletters. It will be very helpful if you are able to make a public comment in support of tiny homes as ADUs.
- Subscribing to the Council File for this ordinance by clicking the email button on this page. This way, you get notifications anytime something new posts.
HELP BUILD TINY HOUSE DATA
Having research to cite and legitimate data on tiny houses will substantially help tiny house advocates making a convincing case. Do your part – help Nikolas Summers in his efforts to publish academic research on tiny houses. All you need to do is fill out this quick survey.
CONNECT IN PERSON
If you want to be a real part of making change as a tiny house advocate, meet up with other change makers and tiny house enthusiasts in person Sunday, January 22nd as the Tiny Advocacy Network connects at Coffee Connection (now at Gloria’s Café 10227 Venice Blvd) 2 pm – 4 pm. Click here for event details.
NO TO MEASURE S
In short, this proposed initiative puts a moratorium on housing development. Many organizations who are actively trying to improve housing initiatives, especially for homeless populations, suggest that measure S is very detrimental and ask that we vote NO to measure S. You can read more from this local paper that covers both sides of the story.
Abundant housing LA is a great source of knowledge and are advocating against measure S. You can attend their next meeting on Thursday January 19th @ Mercado la Paloma for more information on measure S.
UPCOMING TINY HOUSE EVENTS
- Thursday, January 19th , 8 pm – Online video chat on legal structure & paperwork for forming an intentional community. For information, click here.
- Sunday, January 22nd – Tiny Advocacy Network meetup 2 pm @ Gloria’s Cafe
- Friday February 3rd 7pm – Tiny House pre-build Party @ the CAFAM Friday, February 3rd 7 pm . Tickets available here, but first
check out LATCH Collective’s giveaway for 2 tickets to the event!! - February 3rd, 4th and 5th – Relax Shacks hands on tiny house building workshop. Check out details here.
Stay tuned for…
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Workshop series for learning essential DIY Tiny house building skills
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How you can be a part of bringing the new Tiny House appendix in the IRC to Los Angeles
Cheers!!
*If you have an event or a news item that you would like included in this newsletter, please Contact tinyadvocacynetwork@gmail.com with your information.
Teresa Baker (who also responds to Tessa, Tesmanian Devil, and That Tiny House Lady) is passionate about increasing options for affordable housing in the Los Angeles area, specifically small and tiny houses! She is the California-LA State Chapter Leader for the American Tiny House Association, and is the Co-Founder of LATCH Collective – an organization empowering people to build their own affordable-by-design housing. She also manages the social group Tiny House Enthusiasts on Meetup and Facebook, which are wonderful places to make connections with others, as well as organizing the Tiny Advocacy Network of LA. Teresa lives in Los Angeles with her wife Shaina and pitbull Waffles, but is originally from Saskatchewan, Canada where she studied Regional and Urban Planning as well as Indigenous Studies. She and her wife will be building her own tiny house at LATCH Collective this year!
Tiny Advocacy Network 