TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Fareed Alshami has lived in his tiny home casita for about a year. It’s located in the backyard of the property he owns.
“It makes current living spaces more functional than just having giant yards that nobody uses,” Alshami said.
He’s hoping to build more casitas in backyards. He said the City of Tucson only allows people to build them up to 12 feet high, but he said he’s hoping they change the regulations.
“If we were able to do a 13th foot, it would add to a lot more comfort to the spaces in the loft area,” he said.
He’s also hoping to build neighborhoods of tiny homes, but he said on parcels that can fit tiny homes, the City has strict rules on how many drainage outputs can go out to the sewer.
“If we can work on regulations to allow a little bit more, you can fit a tiny house in places where they currently don’t allow permits for,” he said.
Alshami’s home falls under the City’s first of three categories which includes a small home on a permanent foundation that has to meet zoning and building codes.
A second category is for a small home on wheels with rules similar to mobile homes and RVs.
A third category is for sleeping pods that are treated as a shelter.
Kris Olsen-Garewal, the CEO of the Homing Project is building homes under the third category.
However, she’s hoping the city adds another category for transitional housing.
“That there’s an expectation of what they can be and that as long as that’s met, there’s no need for a variance,” Olson-Garewal said.
Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik is hoping to make it easier to build tiny homes. He’s hoping to make the rules in each category similar to each other.
He said he’s also hoping to get rid of rules that say tiny home villages have to be built under commercial code.
Oolson-Garewal is hoping to build a village, but because her tiny homes can’t be within 500 feet of an actual home, she’s hoping the City allows her to not need a variance.
“They do essentially query the neighborhood and ask them how they feel about this,” she said.
That’s why she’s hoping to change people’s minds about tiny homes that she builds mostly for the homeless.
“They just want some place…a place to live,” she said.
