This post is a followup to our guest post yesterday, which stirred up a little controversy but brought out some great ideas and suggestions.
One person suggested that we need to discuss the real negative issues and work them out. A blog is not the perfect place to have an active discussion, a forum would be the best area for this type of discussion. It is my goal to get a forum up and running on the THB this year but it is not available yet.
In the mean time let’s use the blog as best we can. I need your help in answering this question. What are the real obstacles and how can we deal with them? Just to get you started here is one: Minimal Building Requirements. How do we handle this and what can we do to change them?
Post other obstacles in the comments section and I will build a post so that we can discuss how we can go about making some changes to make tiny houses a reality and not just a dream.
Thanks John Chapman for the poster below.
” A blog can, however, be an excellent place to ‘Start’ a conversation, and I look forward at any attempt to foster such an experience. In particular when it pertains to ‘Tiny Houses’ and/or intentional community. What is the smallest number of people it takes to be totally ‘self sufficient’ ?
Eric,
What is the smallest number of people it takes to be totally ’self sufficient’ ?
The smallest number is the largest too. One.
Anything else is interdependence. Total self sufficiency is a myth or maybe a temporary situation. You know.. get the gun, tent,poles, seeds go into the coastal range of British Columbia, have fun feed the bears.
Seriously, I have heard about 1000 people is what it takes to have a viable society. (doesn’t include Nutella)
I would love to live in a small, not necessarily tiny, home. However, as someone who is disabled, I require a home that is wheelchair accessible. Most if not all small/tiny house designs do not accomodate those of us who are physically challenged. I would love to see small/tiny home designers give some thought to options for people like me. That would mean homes with a single level, ramps instead of stairs, no lofts, wider doorways, etc.
I am not disabled, but I want a tiny house I can grow old in, so I too am looking for universal design/accessibility. I LOVE the look of the Tumbleweed houses, but my dream does not include leaving my dream house for a nursing home someday…. My dream home is single-story and accessible/adaptable to deteriorating physical ability.
Any time I seriously contemplate building a tiny home the 2 biggest obstacles that come to mind are the expense of getting my utilities hooked-up and the expense of solar panels. Does anyone have any ideas as far as simplifying the utility issue? i.e. – is hauling water really so horrible? Do solar panels really work? Simple, safe ways to stay warm and cool as needed?
The other biggest obstacle I see is – let’s all say it together – finding land to actually put the house on. Here in Central Illinois a house must be 1,500 square feet at minimum and since I would be looking for a quiet, private, rural location I would have get proper zoning, etc.
I know that these ordinances are put into place to keep states from turning into giant RV parks and keep tax revenue flowing – and those are legitimate concerns – but, boy oh boy, it is so disheartening!
(Yes, yes, I know – you can rent land from farmers or people with large amounts of acreage – but what if they turn out to be creepy little weirdos?)
I wish there was a clever land solution that was appealing to to tiny house people and fair to other residents.
If I come across any good information that addresses the problems that tiny house builders face I will be sure to pass it along.
Kathleen
Many of the people who contact us about our homemade yurts tell us there is nowhere to set them up where they live. I’ve noticed towns in England where residents are actively changing local ordinances to include alternate dwellings, but haven’t heard of anywhere in the US doing it yet. I’ll research it more to see.
Where we have our home now there is no local municipal or county/borough government. This means the land in our area of the Copper River Valley is tax free and subject to zero ordinances. There is private land for sale here.
Years ago I spent a couple days working with a Crime Mapping Consultant working on implementing the COMPASS program in San Bernadino, CA. He wanted me to understand that as towns and cites sprawled, the demands on the infrastructures, as in water, sewer, fire, police, electric, gas, etc, made it impossible to run a city without building a structure similar to the former USSR and China. Under community economic development programs, the govt assumes the responsibility for providing “safe and affordable housing.”
It doesn’t make sense that tiny houses, which fit so well with the stated goals of global sustainable development, aren’t already part of UN LA21 plans. Designating spaces and land for tiny house options obviously need to be rewritten into local land management plans, as part of the local’s vision for the future.
People shouldn’t have to move off the grid in order to live in a house of their choosing. It’s a lot of work to provide all your own services, and many women my age would never even want to. The very concept of a govt with the authority to require a minimum 1500 sq ft house is what opens the door to designating an area with a maximum of 1500 sq foot too. And, land leases that offer a minimum of public utilities would not be a burden on the main power grid.
Most RV Parks I’ve contacted in the Mat-Su Valley were open to my putting a yurt up in one of their spaces. No matter how podunk we think RV parks are, my experience has been that they are perfect for my lifestyle and have provided me with the freedom to live my life on my terms. Plus I like having electric and a place to fill my water jugs.
@Mary P
http://accessahut.wordpress.com/an-overall-view/
and
200 sq ft cabin for disabled
http://www.countryplans.com/contest.html
@Eric
“Totally ’self sufficient’” is an illusion. you will always need inputs unless you are willing to live a stone age life. Some people do live a stone age life (at least part time). Everyone else has to “go to town” or order online. Sure, maybe not a lot of things but total self sufficiency is total.
Social self sufficiency depends on your psyche. A week, a month, a year w/o meeting anyone else. How long is too long for you?
Smaller dwellings is a goodthing, resulting in less taxes is a goodthing; having your toilet in the livingroom/kitchen is just a bad thing. Where or how can we arrive at a middle ground with these concepts? I couldn’t fit my clothes in 100 sq. ft.
I think the biggest issue is storage! In a world where we are surrounded with a ton of things, a tiny house dweller has to be willing to live outside that dynamic.
I am a fan of the tinyhouseblog, read it daily, but will probably never live in a tiny house. I like to cook and entertain, and tiny houses don’t lend themselves to these activities. What I like about the tinyhouseblog is that it has gotten me to consider how much is enough. How much space, how much stuff do I really need. I’ve started a list of the things I use on a regular basis and am beginning to dispose of the stuff that doesn’t make the list.
One thing about tiny houses that I would like people to consider is they celebrate the United States’ emphasis on the individual. How about turning our focus to community. Instead of living in a tiny house why not share a larger house with others? There is a subtle prejudice to adults living as roommates in the United States. It has a loser connotation, and on a coolness scale is only slightly above living with your parents. Advertising insists that successful people have their own home, and that sharing a home with anyone but a lover, spouse, or children is the sign of a loser. Why, because the more households there are the more stuff they can sell. They don’t want single adults sharing coffee makers, washing machines, etc. That would cut down on their sales.
There are many benefits to living with friends, outside of sharing expenses; companionship and security for starters. Sure there will be compromises, but there are compromises to living alone. In the end Human Beings are social animals. We need community.
Bob-
So true. Social pressure pushes people to live alone unless they have a family of their own. Is sharing a 800 sqft apartment with another person not better than each person having a 400 sqft “tiny home” alone?
Even worse is the social view of people who live with their family/parents, they are viewed as complete failures. I guess better to allow the space and energy they were previously using go to waste?
Living without a mortgage is great but giving up the ability to loan on your investment is terrible.
Also, what about resale value? 40k seems cheaper than 100k until you go to see your neighbors selling and enjoying the value of their house growing while you find out that the small pool of buyers makes your 40k investment wasted.
Buildings, whether on a foundation or a trailer, depreciate over time. It is the land that appreciates in value over the long term.
My question would be in regards to the moisture content in the air. With it being such a smaller volume than an average sized house, it would be much easier for moisture to hang in the air from persons breathing, cooking etc.
Woops I should have added, how would you combat the extra moisture in the air?
I live in an RV, and condensation is a major problem. This is our first winter as fulltimers, and we’re discovering we need a dehumidifier and some silica packets to tuck away into drawers and closets. Mildew develops easily.
MJ,
yes, cars/vehicles have a different requirement for “breathing”. Most homes have a air infilitration requirement, while cars are ideally sealed units. As an engineer, it is quite an interesting problem to solve.
The main obstacle to me living in such small spaces as I see normally on this blog and others is that I do not live alone.
For me, I would need something more in the small range, 500-700 sq. feet, to live comfortably and happily with one other adult.
This is based on my twelve years of experience living as a family of four in a 700 sq. foot house. Always a challenge, but it became Very Challenging as the kids became teens.
getting a small house is like getting sterilized. you greatly limit the possibilities for a future with a spouse and children if you do not already have them.
Wow, Stephanie, that’s a serious thing to say. Living in a tiny house is like an irreversible surgical procedure? I can move out of a tiny house–or better yet, park another one a few feet away with a happy strip of garden between them! –but I’m not moving out of my body anytime soon.
Gee, I’d totally go for a woman to share a small house and build a family with.
Provides opportunities for additions to the home later. 🙂
I think you can live in a small house with a spouse and kids. It’s all what you want to do. My hubby is not on board with a tiny house, though.
One commenter indicated that zoning laws exist to prevent cities from becoming “big RV parks.” The truth is that RVs are one way around these zoning ordinances. If your structure isn’t deemed permanent, it can skirt around these minimal building codes. Of course, other laws exist to dictate where and how long an RV can be parked and whether it can or cannot be attached to any permanent structures (like decks or porches). As long as you live in an incorporated area (and most of us do), you’ll have to deal with zoning issues.
I do live fulltime in an RV, and while I think it is a lovely idea to have a stick-built tiny house, it’s not economically feasible for me and defeats the purpose of living in an RV which is to be mobile.
Another poster mentioned storage and having “stuff.” We got rid of most of ours when we bought the RV, and frankly we don’t miss it. What I do miss given our current situation is the ability to have a vegetable garden. If I owned my land, I could do that, but I rent, and because of local ordinances, we can have nothing that gives the appearance of permanent dwelling, so no gardens, decks, skirting, etc.
My little place near the beach had quite alot of restrictions.
The place could not be less than 500 sqft. Had to withstand wind loads, mudslides, earthquakes and of course, fires. There were also restrictions because it was a steel home (alternative material).
I can list them all, but it takes quite a few lines to do.
I always thought it would be great to have a data base of laws, like lists of laws and what to ask who about tiny living in your area. If you had a list of what to ask and what to look fir this would help people make changes/decisions. Unfortunately types of laws are not standard and this would take a lot of work from someone with training in fields like law.
@Kathleen,
Regarding utilities–the situation is simplified if you plan ahead a little. For example, use a composting toilet and drains are vastly simplified. Many folks are using graywater draining to nearby vegetation, for instance. Many people also use a fairly simple hose bib for water supply using a garden hose, as one example. As for solar–the key is reducing your use substantially so a small and relatively low-cost system becomes feasible.
Why tiny houses are huge
A Poem
The beauty for me has always been
the natural setting.
The tent on the Truckee River.
The Wall Tent in Tuolumne.
The Boulders in Yosemite Valley.
The cave in Joshua Tree.
The cave in Finale Ligure
The old Bradley Hut.
The tent and pier on Tahoe.
And all the vans.
Friends in Vans.
Friends in Tens.
Friends at Camps.
Lucky me.
Now I’m grown with work. Married. A Boy. A Dog.
When Big Mama passed in Alabama
I bought a trailer in Illinois
and bought a windfall cherry tree
and some big old timbers.
Now that trailer has a little house on it.
Its a hard working little box.
It has a curved roof ,a window
and nicknames
like Shed-Tow or Crystal Beth’s Espresso Taco
Its cool. You’ll see.
And…I have a Shed.
We have a Shed.
On our acre.
It’s not quite finished.
When the snow melts
You’ll see.
Before the Shed
The Bear came every night.
And one night
The coyotes surrounded the dog
and us in the tent.
I loved it.
In the fall
I added a shipping container
It will be a kitchen and Bath.
I’ll make it nice.
Someday I’ll have a green built home on a rehabilitated parcel in town in complete compliance with
recycled oak and windfall cherry
Its what old men do.
And it will have little shed or two.
and a cave and some wall tents.
And all my friends
will come back to the mountains.
And our kids will sled.
And have an outlaw cabin in the woods.
I like the fact that this forum is open enough to post opposing views, and smart enough to turn on the brain light for solutions. This is how problems are solved, and questions answered. There is a magical quality about this site and the people attracted to it that makes us feel ANYTHING is possible, any pipe dream, no matter how “odd” can be realized by us “little” people of lesser means than the bling-bling rolls royce driving, mansion dwellers we are led to believe are the top of the heap of humanity, put me in a room of THB’ers ANYDAY!
I feel that those who respect the environment and the earth should live according to their philosophies. A home should the size of only what you NEED. It is like buying a computer, buy only that which you are going to use. To go without a bsthroom for instance wouldn’t be good for me, what others in the USA would call basic necessaties. Mission only what you NEED!!and the Golden Rule and your all set for life.*
For anyone considering going the RV Park route here is an interesting income generating idea that was e-mailed to me:
A Traveling RV Service Business
I once cleaned the carpet of an Recreational Vehicle in a park (carpet cleaning is one of the dozens of jobs I had early in life). This got me to thinking about all the other services that RV owners must need. I asked around a bit, and found that this is a market which is sometimes neglected.
Some of the residents spend months at a time in their RVs, after all, and they need their vehicles washed, bathrooms cleaned, and more.
There are power-wash units that are portable enough to travel with. They can be pulled behind any vehicle on a trailer. RV owners will pay $30 to $50 to have their vehicle/home washed with a high-pressure machine.
It can take less than an hour, so there is money to be made doing this.
What makes this an unusual business is that you can travel the country in your own RV while making a living cleaning others.
It is a lifestyle and a way to make a living. You stop at a nice park for a week and start offering your service. Clean seven or eight units daily, four days per week, and you’ll make a gross income of about $4,000 to $6,000 per month. It does require a major investment to get started, however.
RV Window Washing
About the cheapest way to build a business servicing the needs of RV owners, is with window cleaning. It costs less than $50 to get started.
We’re into our fourth year living in a travel trailer in British Columbia. First one was 119 sq ft, now we have a “palatial” 240 sq ft. Two adults (ages 64 and 69) and a *large* cat. We spend *most* of our time at home, so we need a place that isn’t just a narrow hallway between shelves and cupboards.
We have a w/d, and a dishwasher, since we both have significant health challenges. A dehumidifier is a must if you are in a cold climate where you can’t open windows daily for several hours. Ours holds 20 pints. We set it at 37%, which means it cycles between 35-40%, and we often have to empty it daily. It costs about a dime a day to run.
What we learned is that floor plan is crucial. Our present unit is 35′ long, which is bigger than most of the “Tiny Houses” being built, but I cook a lot, garden and preserve and lot of food. We don’t like crawling over each other to get in and out of bed and we didn’t want a loft bedroom.
Older RVs, 80s and 90s, have better floor plans than the newer ones which have fancy gee-gaws but forget that you need more than 12″ of counter space to prepare a meal, and that it isn’t convenient for guests to have to go through the main bedroom to get to the toilet, especially at night.
As far as energy is concerned, design to use the least possible. INSULATE – minimum of R 20 in walls and R 40 in ceilings. Make sure there’s no air leakage and install a heat recovery ventilation system. Put in double pane windows with insulating curtains or covers. A six gallon RV propane fired water heater is all you need. We have never been short of hot water, assuming you shower. Undercarriages should be insulated but still accessible, should (God forbid) plumbing work ever be needed. RV toilets use less than 1/2 water per flush, or install an electrical composting toilet.
I’d love to have a “custom” Tiny House built with what I’ve learned living in one. I don’t see many that are that practical for more than one person.
We are in an RV park and love it! Stereotypes abound about trailer parks and RV parks, but for the most part that is just what they are. I know all my neighbours and while we respect each other’s privacy, there’s always someone around when you need a helping hand.
We have a community garden, a private beach, a newsletter, pot lucks, and informal daily meetups as we go about our business. We sometimes shop together, or shop for one another. In 25 years in our big suburban house and two successive condos we got to know one neighbour and there was no sense of community.
As far as “solving the problem” of where to put a Tiny House, why not get a group together and buy an RV park that is for sale? I’ve seen several advertised that were less than $200,000. Parking for 30 or more Tiny Houses.
Just make sure there’s not a municipal ruling against extended stays or permanent residency. They often have showers, laundry, hot tubs, swimming pool, clubhouse, etc. The sites have power, sewer, telephone and usually cable (for TV/Internet).
If you don’t want to be “packed together” use every other site. If you need income to help pay the mortgage then run the park as a non-profit business, save one section to use as overnight/weekend rentals and let what is earned reduce expenses. Non-profit doesn’t mean you can’t earn money and pay salaries, just that profits go back into the “corporation”.
End of novel! LOL
Deb by the lake in beautiful BC
These are some great suggestions!
I lived in a small town for 20 years, raised my daughter in 800 sq feet, and was happiest I’ve ever been. Community was very strong in my small town, and I’ve recently learned that science suggests we are happier living in smaller spaces (really? duh!).
Now I have s 250 sq ft vintage trailer (1955) next to a creek on 3 acres. It’s not my land – I house/pet sit for the retired owners when they travel. Just finishing up a 4 month stay in the “big” house (2K sq ft) and I am sooooo looking forward to getting back to my tiny home!
There are so many advantages to living in smaller spaces I can’t even begin to get into it all here.
However, with more people retiring, if you can find a situation where you can set up your Tiny Home on land with a big house and pets that need caretaking, that’s a win/win for everyone.
Thanks for starting this comment thread – learning a lot!
Ilana
I just got back from visiting my son in Santa Cruz CA and was struck by the AWESOME sites all the trailer parks have…virtually on million dollar beachfront. So tiny living does not have to be a punishment. Our biggest obstacles so far are utilities…water and electricity. We’re going to try and tap into a spring this summer with nothing much more than a little mortar and a lot of flexible pipe. The solar has to be done also. 7,300 ft is NOT for year round living, but it is GREAT to be free from “stuff” for two days a week. I am saddled with a big house and big mortgage and often dream about a tiny cottage by the sea. Maybe the reality would be less pleasant than I imagine.
Let me restate what I said on the previous post: I have no objections to posting of opposing viewpoints. What bothered me was the guest poster’s clumsy dumbing down of his comments. His own blog doesn’t look like that. If we are to overcome objections we need to be prepared, and his “rant” did nothing to help us.
That is all.
I’m very fond of the idea of having a small, possibly off-grid space in a more rural setting. Maybe something to have for the future and retreat and ultimately retire to. I presently live in a city and have a pretty small space to begin with. I am a very much for a strong community. A tight knit community has a myriad of benefits for everyone who is a part of it. That said, I find local municipalities to be quite limiting and over regulated when it comes to building “tiny homes” and off-grid concepts. Of course this is all about money and not for the benefits of the land.
Personally, my husband and I love the idea of “tiny living.” We live currently with his parents in a house that is way too big and hope to some day move out into our own RV (for mobility) or a tiny house, and it makes me sad to think that there are so many laws actually preventing small housing. I would think that cities would jump at the chance to fit more houses in a small space so that they could sell more houses. If they figured out how to fit a tiny house in the tax bracket I’m sure they would (greedy bastards).
We don’t want to escape taxes, we just want to escape the junk and clutter. At 25 and 20 respectively we already have way too much crap and, fortunately, have realized it before we had a chance to glom up more. We live in a little over 1000 sq feet (the size of the room we share at his parents house. It was meant to be a porch) and it’s really too much, but still we have stuff in the attic and his old bedroom. How is it the more space you have the more stuff you feel you need?
As for resale value of a tiny house/RV, try typing “Is a house really an investment” into google sometime. The results might just surprise you, they did us, and then the tiny house/RV thing doesn’t seem as nuts.
Imagine a big forest with a road that leads into it. At the end of the little road there’s a group of houses. Not a mini sprawl of tiny homes, but a few apartment houses. Each of the apartments are small but sufficient. Around the houses there is nature in both cultivated and wilder forms.
The apartments would be small enough to coexist with nature and yet the houses would be big enough to build according to regulations.
But how densely populated would a society need to be to avoid sprawling nature to death?
After reading all the comments, I see that living in a city or a town in southern Ontario is next to impossible. I do not drive, I walk or ride my bike. I think it may not be everyones idea to live in the middle of nowhere in order to be able to live in a small house. I am also quite sure that in Ontario you may not live in an RV, which if i am not mistaken tumbleweeds and others like them would be considered. SO changing laws would be the top of my list (good freaking luck, that could take quite a while). Now how to go about it would be the bigger question. One of the previous comments is what I would like to know as well. How do you change laws, who do you start with, what questions do you need to ask, what laws do you need to tackle, what exactly are the laws you need to find? and more importantly where the heck do you start???
Why not allow kyosho-jutaku style houses? The very idea would be perfect for you, Carol. Making use of tiny urban lots should be possible in your country as well.
One way to change the law would be to have a minimum percentage of a site occupied by a building, and using that percentage in cities only.
“A building built according these tiny house regulations needs to cover more than 62 percent of the ground area of the site.”
Hi Carol, I live in Kitchener and I do think there is some movement toward sustainable and smaller dwellings or at the very least, increased density. Which isn’t to say that there’s not a lot more to be done. I have a friend in Ottawa who has invited me to build my tiny place in her yard. Municipal bylaws vary by community and Ottawa is very forward thinking. The city is actively encouraging in-law units and secondary dwelling space be they additions, basement or free standing. The basic rule for a free standing structure or addition is that it not exceed 40% of the original structure’s floor-space and that there be no full basement foundation.
Given that most houses in the city exceed 1,000 square feet, you have at least 400 square feet to play with. At that point design and cleverness are your tools. The arrangement we made is that I will foot the entirety of the bill for design and construction. In exchange, I will help finish her basement (where I will reside during construction) and upon completion of the unit I will pay any increase in tax assessment and insurance as well as my own insurance and utilities. Beyond that I live rent free with the proviso that if she decides to sell the property I have first dibs and should I not be able or willing to buy her out, I recover the costs of the building materials and construction. Any profit on the property beyond that go to her in lieu of rent.
That slashes my monthly bills once materials and construction are paid for and since I intend to do as much of the labour as possible my outlay will be minimized. In the long term it means that I will need to earn less to live just as nicely, therefore more of my time belongs to me. I don’t relish the idea of piddling away my years in a job I don’t like to pay for a box to sit in when I can do creative things and enjoy life at much lower inconvenience, time and toil cost. Ontario isn’t a total right off nor are all urban areas out of the question, just need to dig a little. Don’t give up!
Hey Carol and Lindsey,
I wish I could email you, I am building a tinyhouse in Ottawa here. I’m sure we could gain a lot by comparing notes and stuff. If you see this let me know : len lafalge @gmail dot com.
I see the owner of this site asks for the email of posters, if you see this do you think perhaps you could connect us? If you just send my email addy to Carol and/or Lindsey I don’t think that would be imposing….
If stopping sprawl is our goal, then UP is the only way to go. High Rise, small apartment dwelling located adjacent to greenspace, retail services, etc. is the best plan for the planet. Finding affordable housing in a metropolitan area, where one can shed their car is difficult. Sure, you can rent rooms, studios, rundown property. But, there are quality of life issues in some cases that are not negotiable(i.e. crime, poverty, etc.) At the risk of sounding snobbish, I’m not willing to take cheap housing when my neighbor is smoking crack, etc. If I were betting on the real estate market and had some cards on the table, I’d say gut high rises in urban cores and build small condo/apartments for sale/rent. Push for tax abatements/credits, so that people are incentivized to purchase. There’s no reason these cannot be ADA compliant as well. Community gardens near these buildings could provide greenspace and food opportunities too. Energy usage on stacked units is so much less too. As much as some of us want to get away from it all, what we really need is to get back together and work as a community like so many others have stated. Besides, when there’s no lawn to mow, siding to fix, housekeeping, et al, one is free to head for the outdoors and enjoy life.
we need make counties and cities accept this lifestyle. there is no real justification for not allowing this type of home. i really cant think of why its a bad reason. with the economy the way it is and all the concern for the environment, you think some cities would embrace this movement. we need to push for new laws so its easier to live in these things.
What makes this so confusing is the new way Tiny Homes challenge assumptions. Most Zoning codes I researched cite protecting the “safety, health, welfare (and some even use the term ‘morals’) of the public: Now because many tiny homes are not ‘residential structures’ we enter the RV realm. Then comes the issue of habitation – What exactly defines habitation? Sleeping in it? More than one night? How do they enforce limiting sleeping? With video surveillance? Good news and bad is that Tiny Homes may cause fear and confusion in neighborhoods, and confused minds always say no.
Here is Baltimore County Code:
(a) Purpose. This Code is adopted to protect the public health, safety, and welfare in residential structures and premises by:
(1) Establishing minimum maintenance standards for:
(i) Basic equipment and facilities used for lighting, ventilation, heating, and sanitation of residential structures and premises; and
(ii) Safe and sanitary maintenance of residential structures and premises;
(2) Establishing minimum fire safety requirements for residential structures and premises including:
(i) Means of egress;
(ii) Fire protection systems; and
(iii) Other fire safety equipment and devices;
(3) Establishing the responsibilities of property owners, operators, and tenants of residential structures and premises;
(4) Providing a hardship assistance program to assist the owners of owner-occupied property who are unable to pay the cost of repairs or alterations; and
(5) Providing for administration, enforcement, and penalties.
(b) Intent. This Code shall be construed liberally to protect the public health, safety, and welfare as affected by the continued use and maintenance of residential structures and premises.
(1988 Code, § 18-66) (Bill No. 46-96, § 3, 1-1-1997; Bill No. 25-01, § 2, 7-1-2004)