

Hemloft: Egg-shaped Treehouse in Canada - Mz
http://laughingsquid.com/the-hemloft-a-secret-tree-house-in-the-canadian-woods/

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Mz
I am aware this is basically a duplicate and was submitted 16 days ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3815764> plus a related article was
submited yesterday: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3883202>. But neither
post generated any discussion at all. I actually tripped across it on
Metafilter today.

I find it intriguing in part because he built it while homeless and I am
currently homeless. I also find it intriguing in part because the sort of
housing that would work best for me and my health issues is more like this
small structure and, like this structure, is all but outlawed in the U.S.
today. In fact, Tumbleweed houses were put on wheels to circumvent American
laws about minimum house sizes. I don't need much space. I need something
small, made with a lot of natural materials, which I can keep adequately clean
for my needs. That sort of thing is nearly impossible to find and creating it
takes more resources/ingenuity/whatever than most people can come up with, let
alone most poor people.

I have had a class on homelessness and public policy some years back through
SFSU. I think the degree to which we have outlawed small, simple structures is
part of why there are so many homeless and a growing divide between rich and
poor while the middle class shrinks away into nothingness.

Thoughts?

~~~
pinko
Can you provide any more background on the illegality of small houses? (To be
clear, I'm not skeptical, just curious--it's new to me.)

~~~
Mz
I think that is typically legislated at the city level and the intent is to
prevent slum housing, but I could be wrong. I just recall reading an article
about Tumbleweed houses where he stated that was why he put it on wheels. In a
former life, I wanted to be an urban planner but life gotin the way. So I have
some pasing familiarity with things like that, enough to mention anecdotally,
but not really detailed knowledge. Another anecdote: Some places, like Apple
Valley CA, also have quite large minimum lot sizes. This is frquently done to
try to preserve rural character but the typical result is that it becomes an
uber rich suburb. Apple Valley is quite expensive and driving through there is
an exercise in touring neighborhoods filled with mansions, some of which
literally belong to famous movie stars.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

