Moving with your Tiny House community
Tiny House residential projects are sometimes temporary: the houses may be allowed to stay in a location for five, ten, or fifteen years where residential use would otherwise not be permitted. This allows municipalities to utilize unused land temporarily and experiment with new forms of housing. However, for residents of such projects, there is an expiration date on their living situation. When that time comes, what happens next?
The residents of Tiny House Hengelo have gone through this process: they lived on a brewery site for five years and then found a new location where they are allowed to stay for ten more years, with room for a few extra houses. What can we learn from their experience?
Start looking in time
If you are allowed to live somewhere for five years, it’s not wise to wait until the last minute to start searching for a new location. The residents of Tiny House Hengelo began searching for a suitable follow-up location in the third year of their project. You might think, “Isn’t that the municipality’s responsibility?” But it’s smarter to take responsibility yourself, be proactive, and not rely solely on the municipality. The members of the Tiny House Hengelo cooperative all suggested potential locations, and the most promising ones were presented to the municipality. The municipality then assessed which of these locations could be adapted for a Tiny House project. The winning location: a plot on Seringstraat, surrounded by trees and owned by housing corporation Welbions.
Addressing objections
It’s not uncommon for neighbors to object to the arrival of new homes, and this also happened with the Tiny House project. Due to a neighbor’s objection, the plan for the new location had to be adjusted so that the houses would be further away from the existing homes. This reduced the available space, but a solution was found: a nearby sports field, owned by the municipality, could be incorporated into the project. Welbions now rents that land from the municipality, and Tiny House Hengelo rents both plots from Welbions. There is now room for fourteen Tiny Houses, four more than at the previous location.
Moving four times
The entire process, from starting the search to obtaining the environmental permit, took two years. It became quite tense; the permit arrived just in time before the houses had to leave the brewery site, where a new residential area was being built. The agreement with the owner of the site, Ter Steege Vastgoed Beheer, was that the land could be used for five years. When construction of the new neighborhood began, Ter Steege would move the Tiny Houses. Since the new location was not yet finalized, but construction had already begun, some residents had to move their houses three times within the brewery site to places where construction hadn’t yet started. The residents speak highly of how Ter Steege Vastgoed Beheer handled these relocations.
The fourth and, for now, final move to the new location on Seringstraat was organized by the residents themselves. Some of the Tiny Houses are on wheels and were moved by tractor, while others were transported by low loader. Dierdre, one of the residents with a THOW (Tiny House On Wheels), laughs as she says, “The move went smoothly. I had forgotten to remove a watering can filled with water from a ledge, and it was still there after the house was moved!”
New neighbors
There are four additional spots available at Seringstraat compared to the first location. The Tiny House Hengelo cooperative organizes the recruitment and selection of their new neighbors. They reached out for applicants via the Register of (aspiring) Tiny House residents and have already received several responses. The process goes as follows: interested parties are asked to write a motivation letter, and the group selects whom they’d like to meet. A first meeting is planned at the candidates’ homes, followed by a second meeting at the residential project. Dierdre says, “We’ve noticed that you get a better sense of who people are when you talk to them in their own environment.”
About Seringenlaan
There are now twelve Tiny Houses spread across the two fields that Tiny House Hengelo will call home for the next ten years. It’s a beautiful green spot with many trees and a small forest area with a path that connects the two fields. In the middle, there’s an open area with picnic tables, where meetings are also held. Each Tiny House has its own plot of 250 to 500 m² with all necessary utilities. There’s a shared washing machine in a small shed, a communal wheelbarrow, and the public green space is maintained collectively.
Earlier this year, the group organized an opening event at the new location for neighbors and invited guests. Dierdre: “We wanted to thank everyone who helped us get here, like the municipality, Welbions, the director of Ter Steege Vastgoed Beheer, and Tiny Housing Twente. Some of the neighbors also came, and we now have good contact with them.”
Thank you so much for the warm welcome and delicious lunch, dear people of Tiny House Hengelo! Congratulations on your lovely new place, and we wish you ten very happy years on Seringenlaan!
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