Shared Goal

Akron residents have greater access to safe, well-maintained, and affordable housing.

Outcome

More Housing for All

The Problem

Some Akron residents struggle to find stable housing, including people experiencing homelessness, seniors, and people with disabilities.

Emergency shelters can provide temporary safety, but they often involve shared sleeping spaces and limited privacy. And traditional apartment developments designed to provide supportive housing can take time and significant funding to build.

Because of these challenges, some cities and advocates have explored smaller housing developments that can be built more quickly and at a smaller scale.

One example is a tiny home community, which includes small individual homes clustered together on one site.

In tiny home communities, residents typically have a small private home while sharing common spaces such as a community building, laundry facilities, or outdoor gathering areas. Support services may also be available on-site or nearby.

However, Akron’s current zoning rules make it difficult to build  this type of housing development.

One idea for addressing this issue is to update zoning rules so that small supportive housing communities built around tiny homes could be permitted in the city.

This proposal focuses on changing zoning rules so that a tiny home supportive housing community could be allowed in Akron.

The Community Proposal

This proposal would update Akron’s zoning rules so that a small community of tiny homes designed for supportive housing could be built in the city.

A tiny home community typically includes a group of small standalone homes arranged around shared spaces such as community buildings, gathering areas, or service offices.

Residents live in their own small homes while having access to services that help them maintain stable housing. These services may include working with a support staff member—often called a case manager—who helps residents connect with housing, health care, benefits, or job opportunities.

Housing programs that combine housing with support services are often called supportive housing.

For example, a tiny home village might include 10 to 20 small homes, along with a shared community building and on-site staff who provide services to residents.

These communities are often designed to serve people experiencing homelessness or others who need stable housing with additional support.

This proposal would not require Akron to build a specific project. Instead, it would update the zoning rules so that this type of housing community could be considered and approved in the future.

Possible Approaches

Tiny home communities are a newer and less tested approach, and there are real questions about whether they are the most effective use of limited land and money.

If Akron updated its zoning rules to allow tiny home supportive housing communities, local officials would decide how the program operates. Possible approaches could include:

Allowing tiny home communities through zoning approval
The city could create a zoning category or approval process that allows tiny home supportive housing developments in certain locations.

Limiting the size of early projects
A small pilot development—such as a community of 20 to 60 homes—could be used to test how the model works in Akron.

Including shared community facilities
Tiny home villages often include shared spaces such as community buildings, laundry facilities, or gathering areas where services and activities take place.

Partnering with nonprofit housing providers
A nonprofit organization could operate the site and provide services such as case management, housing support, and connections to health or employment programs.

The specific approaches would be determined later if the proposal moves forward

Benefits & Tradeoffs

Every proposal involves possible benefits and tradeoffs. The points below highlight several that Delegates may want to consider.

Possible Benefits

More stable housing with privacy
Tiny homes can offer residents a private, lockable space, which some people may find more stable and comfortable than traditional congregate shelters.

Housing combined with support services
Supportive housing models connect residents with services such as case management, health care referrals, and employment assistance that may help people remain housed.

Smaller projects may be easier to start
Tiny home communities can sometimes be built at a smaller scale than apartment developments, which may make pilot projects easier to launch.

Possible Tradeoffs

Finding appropriate locations may be difficult
Locating the right land with access to utilities can be challenging and tiny home developments will be competing with private developers for the same pieces of land, which means costs can be high. 

Operating costs can be significant
Even once a site is found, running the development would require ongoing costs for staffing, maintenance, property management, and social services for relatively few people. 

Tiny homes may feel too self-contained
Tiny home communities can end up feeling separate from the surrounding neighborhood.

View the Sources

Updates from Delegates after their first round of deliberation

Additional Benefits: What Delegates Added

Here are additional benefits the Delegates saw in the proposal

• Affordable housing for more people. Tiny homes could serve a wide range of people — not just those experiencing homelessness. This includes young adults, recent college graduates, people who want to live simply, and people who can't afford larger homes — especially if zoning isn't limited to supportive housing only.

• Dignity and independence. Having your own space has real value on its own, beyond just solving a housing shortage.

• A path toward owning a home. A tiny home community could be a stepping stone to homeownership, not just a place to get back on your feet.

• Using vacant lots. Akron has a lot of empty land that already has roads, water, and sewer service nearby. Tiny homes could be a faster and cheaper way to put that land to use.

• Accessible housing for seniors and people with disabilities. Single-story, ground-level homes can be much easier to navigate for people who can't use stairs.

• Community self-sufficiency. Community gardens and jobs within the tiny home community could create economic activity alongside stable housing.

• Akron as a leader. This proposal could put Akron ahead of the curve on a housing approach that other cities might follow.

Additional Tradeoffs: What Delegates Added

Here are additional trade-offs Delegates saw in the proposal

• Outside companies could take over. Looser zoning could let private companies buy up land, raise costs, and profit from the idea in ways that hurt the original housing goals.

• Vouchers may not be available. The Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA) doesn't currently have the ability to issue vouchers for a new program, so it's not clear how residents would pay for their units.

• Concentrating people with similar needs. Grouping people experiencing homelessness, disability, or other challenges in one place risks creating an isolated community — similar to the problems seen in older public housing projects.

• Neighborhood opposition. Nearby homeowners may push back against tiny home communities being placed near them. This pressure could result in communities only being built in already-struggling areas.

• Support services may not last. If the community depends on ongoing funding for support services and that funding dries up, residents could be left without the help that made the model work.

• Impact on nearby property values. Concentrating need in one area could further lower property values in neighborhoods that are already struggling.

• Limited impact at scale. Tiny home communities may be too small and complex to make a real dent in Akron's housing needs compared to other options like duplexes or small apartment buildings.

Delegate Guidance

Here’s a summary of the guidance ideas from Delegates 

• Don't tie tiny home zoning only to supportive housing. Zoning should allow tiny homes for everyone, with supportive housing being one option — not the only one. This was the most common suggestion in the survey.

• Allow tiny homes on existing residential lots. Homeowners should be able to build a tiny home on their own property — for a family member, elderly parent, or adult child — without needing to create a full community development.

• Place communities fairly, not just in struggling areas. Tiny home communities should have a real chance of being located in well-resourced neighborhoods with good access to buses, grocery stores, and health care, not just in the areas with the least resistance.

• Prevent short-term rental use. Tiny homes built under new zoning rules should be clearly off-limits for Airbnb or similar vacation rental platforms.

• Limit corporate developers. Rules should restrict who can build under the new zoning to keep out-of-town investors from taking over the concept.

• Start with market-rate housing. Piloting tiny home communities at market rate first could prove the idea works and build demand before adding the supportive housing layer.

• Create different community types for different needs. Rather than one model for everyone, there could be distinct community types for singles, families, seniors 55+, and people in transitional housing, each with the right design and services for that group.

• No scattered, one-off developments. Instead of approving individual projects one at a time with no overall plan, create designated neighborhoods or zones for tiny homes as part of a broader city strategy.

• Be clear about who owns what. The rules should spell out who owns the land under the tiny homes, whether residents can eventually own their unit, and what protections exist if the community is ever sold or repurposed.