Kitchener sees an interest in tiny home permit applications but Waterloo sees none

The City of Kitchener has seen some interest from people who want to build a tiny home on their property, but it's not the same story in Waterloo. 

There have been 37 permit applications for tiny homes in Kitchener. Not all have been approved yet, however Richard Kelly-Ruetz, a senior planner with the city said that so long as applicants follow zoning regulations, permits will be granted.

"We have seen an uptake in building permits for tiny houses and support adding new dwelling units in this way," Kelly-Ruetz said in an email statement.

He explained that Bill 23, the provinces "More Homes Built Faster Act" that was passed last November has streamlined the process, removing one of two steps from the application process. A site plan approval isn't needed any longer. 

"Application for tiny houses can proceed directly to building permit," he said. 

A spokesperson for the City of Waterloo, on the other hand, said that additional detached residential structures aren't preferred.

"Currently, the preference is for additional residential units within existing buildings or as additions to existing buildings, not [detached second residential units]," Tony Iavarone with the city said in an email statement.

Numbers in Cambridge may be higher than in Waterloo. Last year, the city issued three permits for detached residential structures, but it's unknown if any were tiny homes since they don't track them, a city spokesperson told CBC News. 

Four of these permits were also issued in 2021 and two the year before that. 

Bill 23 has streamlined the process to build tiny homes in Waterloo, Cambridge, and all other municipalities across the province.

A viable option to address affordable housing crisis

John McMinn, an architectural professor at the University of Waterloo, believes that tiny homes will make a significant impact in addressing the affordable housing crisis in the next five to 10 years.  

"The fact that they're small, they're relatively cheap to build, making them relatively quickly deployable," said McMinn who worked on a tiny home prototype with the City of Cambridge, and is currently working on a tiny home project with Cambridge and the Region of Waterloo. 

"If you can move a tiny home, you could set up a tiny home or a cluster of them on a piece of land that maybe undergoing a development process but might not be utilized for say five years or something like that."

He said that there's an abundance of private and public land in that would fit into this category. 

"So putting in some services — some plumbing, sewage, and electrical — is a relatively small cost," he said.    

He sees tiny homes as a solution not only in addressing housing affordability, but it can help with homelessness too. The research project he's working on with Cambridge and the region is looking into transitional housing community for people experiencing homelessness. 

"I would say that tiny homes aren't necessarily a replacement for permanent buildings, they're another piece in the toolkit that can help to address the homelessness crisis," he said.

"There's lots of different ways in which they can be used and the idea that legislation is starting to open up and allow these, I think is a great idea," McMinn said.