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Government overhauls housing policy to get new homes quickly constructed

Cheri Robbins is pictured in her son's backyard in the Town of Essex where the construction of her tiny home is taking place, on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. PHOTO BY DAX MELMER /Windsor Star
Cheri Robbins is pictured in her son's backyard in the Town of Essex where the construction of her tiny home is taking place, on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. PHOTO BY DAX MELMER /Windsor Star

From windsorstar.ca

Despite doing all the research possible and feeling comfortable making the leap to building her own tiny home, Cheri Robbins had no idea of the number of hurdles she was about to encounter leading up to construction.

After a frustrating property search, Robbins had a conversation with her son and the two agreed she would build her tiny home in his sizeable backyard in Essex. She hired Petite Homes as her contractor, picked a design and work recently started.

“You sign a contract because you think you did the research and everything will be fine,” she said. “It’s not until the city workers come out and say ‘you can’t do this or that.’ They are not accommodating the ability to move forward on this housing shortage. You have a high percentage of seniors out there and nowhere to put them.

“This was the perfect solution for me, but people should be made aware of all these issues. I’m very happy with my contractor, but everybody is a pioneer at this (tiny home building) — including the contractor. There are pros and cons to being a pioneer. Hopefully, (the new rules) helps everybody all around.”