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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Building together : tiny house villages for the homeless : a comparative case study

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Tiny homes, no larger than a parallel parking spot, are an emerging trend in housing for those uninterested, unwilling or unable to participate in traditional housing markets. Five groups across the United States have harnessed this minimalist movement to provide free or extremely low-cost housing for those experiencing homelessness. This thesis is a comparative case study of two such tiny house villages: Dignity Village in Portland, Oregon, founded in 2004 and Occupy Madison Village in Madison, Wisconsin, founded in 2012. This work explores issues related to zoning, NIMBYism, financing, governance, sanitation and building quality and both celebrates the independence and ingenuity of tiny house villages and makes the case for greater municipal regulation of the structures.

Degree

thesis:*
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2015

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Mingoya, Catherine Ariel
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Phillip Clay.

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98940
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/98940

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Mingoya, Catherine Ariel. Building together : tiny house villages for the homeless : a comparative case study. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98940