Add this to the mix of the weird and wonderful. I signed the contract to be a Communications Consultant for a non-profit devoted to providing housing for the rest of us. Island Roots Housing

“Island Roots Housing is a homegrown nonprofit advancing affordable housing options for generations to come. An offshoot of Goosefoot Community Fund, we are creating affordable housing that enhances the vibrancy and livability of Island County for everyone.“

Happy to help. I’m a fan of Island County (search through this blog for Whidbey Island or Island County). Really, I am a fan of not being in The Big City, or Greater Suburbia (money and other things making it all negotiable, of course). Rural counties have special needs. I think urban models have difficulties when they encounter the land of septic tanks and roads that never saw a grid.

Search through this blog for Tiny House, Tiny Home, or Affordable Housing, and find years of posts about tinies. Spread out into work I’ve done for Curbed/Seattle and 360modern.com and find more. Finally, I get to move into one. I get to meet my material in reality. (recent post)

The kicker is that I am moving into a Tiny House that is Not in Island County. And the reason for that is money. (Is $1700/month a good enough reason to move?)

Irony is having fun with me, and I suspect it isn’t done.

Island Roots is not building tiny houses. They’re more conventional because creating any housing is a big enough challenge. NIMBY happens.

Parts of the US economy are doing stellar. Wealth is obvious in tourist towns. Notice, however, how many of the baristas are bicycling in out of necessity, not choice. Notice the parking lots a bit removed from the stores and see cars that look forward to some maintenance, that may be deferred because the rent must be paid before a ding is pounded out.

Island Roots Housing is starting small. I am only now learning if they want to grow. I do know, that regardless of its size, millions of people are hunting for solutions that work in this era. We’re far removed from 1954. Things have changed and old approaches are no longer solutions. I cheer anyone who is organizing such efforts. I also cheer anyone who has the resources and skills to frugally build their own sustainable house sustainably.

Hmm. Maybe that’s next after the My Tiny Experiment? Nah. I’d contract it out. But who knows? I’m me and I don’t know what I will do. You are invited to stay tuned to me, Island Roots, and anyone trying to find new solutions within the anachronisms that somehow persist.