Developers in Bangor have found a new way to bring more housing to a region that desperately needs it.
Last month, contractors finished a neighborhood of 30 tiny homes at 1337 Hammond St. in Bangor, making it the city’s first tiny home park, according to Louie Morrison, one of the developers behind the project. Since then, more than 100 people applied to rent one of the 320-square-foot houses in Morrison’s development.
And in October, Bangor city councilors offered Dignity First, a local nonprofit, the opportunity to lease roughly 7 acres at 55 Cleveland St. The organization hopes to use that land, which is currently home to a homeless encampment, to create 60 tiny homes for people who are homeless.
While the two projects have stark differences, the goals of both are to quickly provide housing for people who need it. That ease and flexibility, experts say, is what makes tiny homes a model that more developers could replicate in the area to solve Bangor’s vast housing shortage.
“Generally, tiny homes are another option for developers to be able to place more units on a property than a traditional house lot development,” said Anne Krieg, Bangor’s economic development director. “They are a good option for developers who typically build free-standing single-family homes or townhomes and don’t construct multi-family apartments.”
Monthly rent for the tiny homes at the development on Hammond Street is $1,300 per month and each house has one bedroom, a full bathroom and kitchen but no laundry facilities. Thirteen tenants have moved in so far, Morrison said on Friday.
The swell of interest in Morrison’s development proves there’s demand for that type of housing in Bangor, Kreig said.
City leaders approved a set of rules for how tiny homes can be built in Bangor in October 2022 when Morrison was developing his project, according to Perkins.
Creating rules to allow tiny home parks in Bangor, Krieg said, gives developers another option for creating more units when other types of housing, such as an apartment complex or single family homes, aren’t viable due to space or cost limitations.
However, the miniature houses aren’t a replacement for those other housing formats, because families have different needs. Instead, tiny homes are part of the solution.
“Generally speaking, tiny homes are part of many different approaches to helping us with housing,” said Reese Perkins, chairperson of the Bangor planning board. “In the end, what we’re getting is more housing, and that’s what we need.”
Morrison said he would “absolutely” build another tiny home park in Bangor based on the overwhelming success of his first, because it allowed him to address the need he sees in the region.
Furthermore, Morrison’s development improved the property that previously held a mobile home park, Perkins said. Several mobile homes in the park were dilapidated or vacant, making the space both under-used and an eyesore.
Now that Morrison’s project is complete and there’s demand for the homes he built, Perkins suggested that other local mobile home parks that have fallen into disrepair or are largely vacant could adapt to something similar.
While Morrison’s project provided tiny homes available for rent at market rate, the proposal from Dignity First would cater to a much different population, also in need of housing.
If successful, Dignity First’s village would be built on land that now holds Bangor’s largest homeless encampment. The city plans to close the encampment soon and has been trying to find permanent housing for the dozens of people living there, but safe, affordable housing in the region is increasingly difficult to find.
The proposed project is modeled after a development of 500 tiny homes in Austin, Texas, called Community First! Village. Jamie Beck, founder of Dignity First, aims to build a neighborhood of 60 24-by-12-foot tiny homes that would have space for a bed and small living area along with a full bathroom. There would also be room for some food storage, a mini fridge and a microwave instead of a full kitchen.
The development, called Homeful Village, would also have various community centers with large shared cooking stations, laundry facilities and gathering space where residents can eat together, enjoy activities and socialize.
When it comes to the initiative to build a tiny home village specifically for people who are homeless, the founder of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, the organization that created the Community First! Village, said he’s certain the model can be replicated in Bangor despite the environmental differences between Texas and Maine.
“All you have to do is take our plan and build walls and insulate them,” said Alan Graham, founder and CEO of Mobile Loaves & Fishes.
Graham said the tiny home village model can be easily copied because the most important element of the project is fostering community rather than merely providing shelter. In his community, Graham said this is best achieved by residents sharing meals, as it’s an easy way for people to connect.
“Homelessness is a growing problem in all of our communities and it’s not going away any time soon, so you better get on top of it,” Graham said.
