■ In a housing crisis it would seem sensible to support cash-strapped people with the energy and initiative to find ways to house themselves. Yet, Whakatāne District Council’s onerous and inflexible rules make building a tiny home unnecessarily stressful and expensive, writes Whakatāne Housing Action Reform Enthusiast (WHARE), Ruth Gerzon, in this second of a series of articles.

Local councils have pivotal roles in ensuring housing is fit for purpose, safe and sanitary but in our district and across the country, regulations and the approach of those enforcing them have not kept up with the evolving needs of the community and the depth of the housing crisis we find ourselves in.

Typically, people seeking to build a tiny home do not have the deep pockets of some developers. Hiring consultants to decode local and national government regulations adds considerable costs to the already fraught process of building a home in these straitened times.

In mid-2023, councillors and council staff attended a public meeting along with over 100 local citizens affected by council rules.

Three people bravely recounted the difficulties of grappling with the inflexible system and lengthy delays to their builds. One councillor apologised for how people had been treated and the following day the chief executive emailed the facilitators to thank them for bringing these issues to the council’s attention.

Changes began to look possible and some skilled and experienced people set up the informal group WHARE: Whakatāne Housing Action Reform Enthusiasts to work alongside council staff.

In June 2023, the council community development team took the initiative and held workshops for staff and interested locals on housing issues and strategies. This was facilitated by Zola Rose of Common Ground and she subsequently wrote an excellent report with sensible recommendations.

Fifteen months later, our hopes died. The time and energy of WHARE members resulted only in improvements to information on the council’s website. There were no changes to regulations or processes to make it easier for people to build tiny homes.

People continued to find that what might have begun as a hopeful and affordable project, quickly become financially unviable due to compliance costs, delays, and additional requirements. As well as the stress of the building process, one retiree then had to return to work to pay these unforeseen costs.

We need to strike a better balance between protecting community standards and supporting people seeking to house themselves. Streamlining consent processes, reviewing zoning rules, and tailoring requirements to the scale and context of small dwellings could reduce unnecessary costs.

For example, a tiny house weighing less than your average truck requires the same expensive foundation design as a brick home. They also have to be within 20 metres of the main house in rural zones if placed as a secondary dwelling.

While this was fine for intergenerational living, our housing system means that these secondary dwellings are often occupied by non-family members who would prefer their own space.

The required proximity is also not always possible due to the terrain, such as a house on a hill without enough flat space for a tiny home nearby.

Times have changed and there needs to be flexibility in the system. In June 2024 Whakatāne council staff prepared a paper on tiny homes that had an option of increasing flexibility in siting a tiny home (or minor residential unit) but it was never adopted. These rules are also inconsistent across regions with some councils being more flexible than others. Hope of consistency from new nationwide planning definitions has not yet provided clarity to those who wish to pursue tiny house living.

Councils can also be more supportive and proactive. Some councils give automatic approval to certain brands of composting toilets, so builders of tiny homes can be certain of meeting requirements.

This saves staff time and costs to the builder.

The idea of having a dedicated staff member with expertise in tiny houses and consents to work with tiny house builders was put forward but never came to fruition.

People trying to house themselves deserve such support. Each one who succeeds means one more person in a warm and dry home, and fewer people on housing waiting lists.

We now have a newly elected council so WHARE is planning another public meeting on housing issues: This will be on Thursday, April 9, at 5pm in Knox Church, 83 Domain Road, Whakatāne.

Do come and bring others interested in tiny homes and other ways of ensuring everyone has a warm, dry home. If you’d like to join our informal group or have a story that will illustrate the issues tiny home builders are facing, email us at [email protected].