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Essex ‘tiny’ home seen as part of solution to housing shortage

'Everything you’d expect in a house.' Cheri Robbins cuts the ribbon to her new tiny home, the first built in the Town of Essex, on Friday, March 24, 2023, as Mayor Sherry Bondy and others look on. PHOTO BY DAX MELMER /Windsor Star

When gazing at her tiny new home, Cheri Robbins sees a future for herself, not just a place to comfortably spend her golden years.

The 538-square foot home in her son’s backyard in Essex was designed by Petite Homes to ensure the 73-year-old Robbins, who is battling advancing rheumatoid arthritis, will be able to manoeuvre a wheelchair around comfortably should things come to that.

“The biggest surprise about the home was how it made me feel,” Robbins said. “I feel a sense of security. A sense of being able to afford a home, be mortgage-free.

“I can remain independent, but I’m close to my family if I need help. If I end up needing a wheelchair, I’m not worried now.

“It also looks like a million bucks, but it costs a lot less.”