Housing Toolkit Promotes ‘Infill Micro-Housing’

A Homelessness & Incremental Housing Toolkit recommends designs for “small, proximate, private, and dignified housing” that could be built on existing residential lots to create a new source of affordable housing in Hamilton County, Tennessee. Robert Steuteville describes the report on the Congress for New Urbanism site, noting that “The small individual buildings allow for privacy—and for housing to fit into existing neighborhoods.”

According to the toolkit’s authors, “The focus on infill at a manageable scale avoids concentrations of poverty.” The proposed housing types include studio cottages, duplexes, one-bedroom cottages, and small, two-story multifamily buildings. “ The units are designed to be attractive (“dignified”) yet inexpensive to construct. The building forms are simple, with inexpensive roof lines and foundations, and efficient plumbing and utilities.”

The homes are designed to fit into existing neighborhoods and access existing transit and other resources and infrastructure. “This toolkit is targeted to ways to increase housing supply in a way to maximize benefits while limiting resistance to traditional homelessness housing responses,” the authors explain.