Fighting the good fight for Kiwi Tiny Homes
Colin Wightman - Eco Cottages
Meet Colin Wightman. Colin runs Eco Cottages a Tiny Home building business based in Rangiora, North Canterbury. Colin is a passionate advocate for affordable housing for all New Zealanders and is an active campaigner for Human Rights around housing.
“I’ve just returned from a major Human Rights protest at Parliament where as one of six speakers I spoke on the subject of a sharp rise in homelessness and the lack of affordable housing. I even brought a homeless chap back from Wellington returning to Christchurch where he told me the story of a 39 year old friend of his who died in New Regent Street, just along from where he ‘lived’.
Sounds like a crazy life I lead but only 4 days after the protest I presented a submission to a Parliament Select Committee in regard to MBIE’s failure to accomodate specifically for TINY HOUSES in legislation, to give a clear pathway to their evolution. I used the 39 year old as an example of where Government was failing. They didn’t like it because the 600% increase in emergency housing spend this last 3 years makes current Government look like they don’t know what they are doing when ‘their’ solution is leasing 3,200 motels rather than looking to answers & solutions such as TINY HOMES, something that is truly affordable long term.” - Colin
I asked Colin how he finds time for all this and does it effect his business Eco Cottages?
“Things are crazy busy for us here at Eco Cottages right now, the busiest winter we have ever had for reason that COVID19 has seen the return of 60,000 plus KIWI’s back home which has put great pressure on the housing market and essentially making more people homeless as many are losing their jobs and rentals are becoming unaffordable. While Eco Cottages has lost business to the tourist segment we have seen a huge growth in demand for mobile Tiny Houses for extended family where elderly parents are selling their homes to the offshore arrivals and downsizing to a Tiny House at their daughter or sons place, consolidating family assets at such an uncertain time.” - Colin
Check out Eco Cottages to see the beautiful Tiny Home Solutions coming out of Colin’s business HERE
I wish you well Colin and if Kiwi Tiny Home - Lifestyle Magazine can help with promoting any of your campaigning for Tiny Homes here in New Zealand we will do our best to help.
Tony Cutting
for Kiwi Tiny Home - Lifestyle Magazine
www.kiwitinyhome.com
Tiny Homes as affordable solutions
As well as run Kiwi Tiny Home I keep an eye out for news on the worldwide Tiny Home movement and most recently I have noticed a lot of news especially from the USA where cities and towns are starting to embrace Tiny Homes as an effective, affordable and respectful solution to help people.
Here are some recent articles (with links)
Tiny House Villages in Seattle: An Efficient Response to Our Homelessness Crisis
Take a look inside Community First Village. Austin.
Tiny houses multiply amid big issues as communities tackle homelessness
Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On
San Jose debuts tiny house community for the homeless
10 Tiny House Villages for Homeless Residents Across the U.S.
Tackling Homelessness with Tiny Houses: An Inventory of Tiny House Villages in the United States
These are just a few examples of hundreds of projects starting up. I truly believe New Zealand needs to be proactive and start looking at Tiny Homes as an affordable housing solution. We will help to fight the good fight and support Colin with our magazine when we can. I am personally looking for options to build a Tiny Home village in the lower north island and would love to hear from everyone going Tiny so we can promote your project and help drive more momentum to create a better country with real solutions for affordable living.
Tony Cutting
for Kiwi Tiny Home - Lifestyle Magazine
www.kiwitinyhome.com
