We are in the midst of a housing crisis. The Bureau of the Census has determined that more than forty percent of this country’s families cannot afford to buy a house in the U. S. Over 1,500 square miles of rural land are lost to compulsory new housing each year. An immense portion of this will be used for nothing more than misguided exhibitionism. We clearly need to change our codes and financing structure and, most importantly, our current attitudes about house size.
Minimum-size standards are slowly eroding as common sense gradually makes its way back onto the housing scene. Where negotiation and political pressure have failed to eradicate antiquated codes, lawsuits have generally succeeded. But these measures all take more time, money and patience than many of us can muster. To make things worse, local covenants prohibiting small homes are being enacted more quickly than the old prohibitions can be dismantled. These restrictions are adopted by entire neighborhoods of people needlessly fearful for their property values and lifestyle.
The process of changing codes and minds is slow, and the situation is dire. As long as law ignores justice and reason, just and reasonable people will ignore the law. Thousands of Americans live outside the law by inhabiting
houses too small to be legal. Some of them cannot afford a larger home, while others simply refuse to pay for and maintain unused, toxic space. These people are invariably good neighbors: they live quietly, in fear of someone’s reporting them to the local building inspector.
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Williamsburg, VA (facing page) and Klamath, CA (above) |
