Age Friendly Tucker: Tiny Homes in Tucker?

Dr. Lois Ricci

Tiny Homes have been around a long time. As far back as 1000 BC, yurts, small, mobile, tent-like structures covered in animal skins or felt, were used by nomadic tribes in Mongolia. In 500 BC, Native Americans used tipis, small, conical tents that were not only portable but also waterproof and extremely heat-resistant. In the 1800s, “Shot Gun Houses,” so called because their linear design and small square footage allowed a bullet to easily pass through from front to back, gained popularity in New Orleans and other Southern cities.

In the 1970s, the average home size was 1,700 square feet, but now in 2021, the average home size is 2,500 square feet. Tiny homes have always been around, but their popularity has soared over the last decade, thanks to top cable shows like “Tiny House Nation” and “Tiny House, Big Living.” A tiny home is defined as one with 600 square feet or less, but small houses, bungalows and cottages have also increased in sales, with sizes up to 900 square feet.

Imagine walking in the door to your home and being able to see your entire living space. Before you are the bedroom, the kitchenette, the bathroom, and a small living room. Every item has a specific purpose and place, and you own nothing that you don’t use, need or want. Cleaning your home from top to bottom takes less than an hour. When you look at it this way, living in a home that’s less than 900 square feet sounds simple, frugal, and blissfully stress-free. Living in a tiny home does have compelling benefits, but it is not without its challenges as well.

Realtor Guy Van Ort leads the Lifelong Community Committee in its search to find housing that anyone can afford. The team visited the Cottages on Vaughn, the tiny home community in Clarkston, to see what you can get for around $200,000. The eight cottages sit on a 3/4 acre lot, with underground utilities, mini split HVAC systems, and solar roof panel options. All but one have 700 square feet of living and storage. The yards are small but there is a community area with permaculture landscaping. The original goal, prepandemic, was to sell these homes in the low $100s, but the selling price for the last two homes was $201,000. The community is fully occupied, a great place for those who can live in a small space.

The concept worked in Clarkston, attracting buyers looking for small affordable homes. Can it work in Tucker? The need for affordable housing has become a major concern in our city. Can you afford to buy? Can you afford to rent? With low mortgage rates, the monthly cost of a tiny home can be less than paying monthly rent, with the added bonus of ownership. In 2018, about 78 percent of tiny home residents owned their home.

After a big rezoning win in 2018, the East Point city council approved the Eco-Friendly Cottages, the first cottage community of its kind in metro Atlanta. The community was built on 7.69 acres and has forty eco cottages on permanent foundations. Each house will range from 500 – 1000 square feet and will have access to community areas and green space.

Local developers are reviewing plans to build and make available small home rental communities, community housing where people who are not related can live at reasonable rents. A program along these lines is Silvernest, a combination of AirBnb and Match.com for empty-nesters, who would like to rent out a room for money, chores or both.

Van Ort says that although housing continues to present a challenge in Tucker, he is hopeful that the tide will soon turn towards more affordable housing. A lot of community resistance is based in ‘NIMBY-ism’ (not in my backyard). Everyone talks big about how fair housing is needed, but no one seems to want to build it in their own community. We are talking about homes, apartments, and arrangements that will provide housing for essential workers, single homeowners, and the middle-income family. We’ve been conditioned to believe that low-income housing, including Section 8 housing, brings crime to the area and will bring our own home values down. This is not true.

Can Tucker be open to the small home concept? Will residents support moderately priced housing? The Lifelong Community Committee will look for ways to make housing available and equitable for everyone.

Dr. Lois Ricci is a longtime resident of Tucker, where she chairs the Tucker Civic Association Lifelong Community Committee. She serves as an adjunct faculty member at Kennesaw State University, where she teaches gerontology courses and the Professional Development in Gerontology Certificate Class. Ricci also serves as an official representative for American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), co-facilitator for the Rosalyn Carter CareNet, and on the board of the Atlanta Regional Commission Advisory Committee on Aging.

Art Wood

In previous columns, I have written about a bunch of ways to help you make or save money, but this month, I decided to focus on how you can help “the little folks” out there. I have always been a proponent of community both in the way I conduct my business as well as the way that I spend my money. I feel like I get much more “value” when I can spend money in my community. Here’s why I think it is important to shop local.

1. Customer service is unparalleled when you shop in your community.

Why? Because to your local businesses, you are more than just a number.

Personally, I have built my entire business around my community. I cannot go anywhere in Tucker without running into a client. I am motivated to be excellent all the time because I can’t hide out “after the sale.” I have always mentioned this when people want to use online or out-of-state lenders. If something goes wrong, then that virtual lender or unfamiliar entity can just stop communicating. They are not motivated to

“do the right thing” because they have no personal connection or feel no responsibility to you. When you shop in your community, businesses are highly motived to do the right thing so that they are glad to see you in public - not embarrassed. Just look how popular our Tucker Facebook Groups are.

If we do a bad job, everyone will know and that matters to us. 2. Shopping local is so much more convenient and predictable. Now, I am not going to lie: Amazon Prime stops at our house every day, and that is fine for basic necessities. What I am taking about are more customized products or services. How many times have you bought something online, and the return process was awful, and you had to fight to get your refund? And shipping now is never on time. It is so much more reliable to hop in your car and pick something up in person that you can feel and touch, and know that you won’t have to return it. I had an older client do a mortgage with me a couple of years ago, but he really wanted to use the out-of-state bank with which he had done business for forty years. After all was said and done and we closed on his house, he thanked me profusely for my help because it had been so easy. He never would have been able to figure out how to scan and upload files to the out-of-state bank, but he was able to drop them by my local office several times during the process.

He would have been miserable dealing with an out-of-state company. 3. Let’s keep the money local. Keeping our money in our community benefits everyone within the community. The more successful the business owners are in the community, the more money is spent, and the more investment is in the community. 4. It just feels good! Maybe it’s just me, but I LOVE to make people’s day and that is how I feel whenever I shop local. When you shop local, your business means so much more to the business owner than when you shop at a big box business. Your dollars go so much farther with the small business owner. It HAS to make you feel good when you know you are part of their success story, or when you know that patronizing that local business may help their child go to college. I have never gotten that kind of happiness shopping online.

Local businesses are the backbone of our community and deserve our support. If we choose to ignore them, the “soul” of our community goes away and will not come back. Eat at Hot Betty’s. Get your trophy at Pinehill Trophies. Get your car worked on at Wilkinson Tire. These are just a few of the businesses in Tucker that I support, and it makes we feel good. Art Wood (NMLS #118234) is the branch manager of The Art Wood Mortgage Team of Goldwater Bank, located at 2341 Main Street in downtown Tucker. “Tucker’s Mortgage Guy” for fifteen years, he is a former Tucker Tiger (Class of ’92), and co-founder and organizer of Taste of Tucker. Family guy, community guy, and definitely not your typical mortgage guy - it’s all that he does that makes Art Wood who he is. Contact him at 678.534.5834 or art. wood@goldwaterbank.com