AMITO TINY HOUSES

2ndMID ASSIGNMENT
ENTREPRENEURSHIP(BUM-CC-322)

SUBMITTED BY
AMIT YADAV (Y20282006)

SUBMITTED TO
DR. ANIL KUMAR KASHYAP SIR

DEPARTMENT OF BUSSINESS MANAGEMENT

DR. HARI SINGH GOUR UNIVERSITY, SAGAR

1
Description of Project Proposal
You find housing in a high-rise apartment building. You were put on disability to help you
have an income to pay for your housing. You have nothing meaningful to do. You sit in your
apartment. You get depressed. The medicine of the streets is everywhere. Healthcare is harder
to find. You live in a high stress environment. You begin to use the medicine from the streets
just to cope. You are lonely. You are afraid. You wake up feeling bad every day. No one needs
you. You don’t feel like your life matters.
You have an amazing celebration of your son’s 8th birthday. You have transferred from one
public housing complex to another because of an issue with harassment. You moved to the first
housing complex off the streets. You hope the second complex will be better. You return home
from your son’s birthday party to your apartment. Just before your children’s bedtime, gun fire
rings out right in front of your apartment.
Imagine a place that truly feels like home. A place where you feel safe in every way. A place
where you can breathe. Imagine a place that is building community—people helping each other
raise their children, people growing food together, people sharing rides with each other, people
sharing resources together.

Introduction:
“Tiny House Movement” which was started in United States was to encourage simple life in
smaller spaces. With a large home comes larger expenses and cost of living becomes much
higher. As in India, with increasing population there is a huge demand for living spaces and
Tiny houses by incorporating sustainable materials in it will solve huge problems like
environmental issues of global warming, less impact on earth of harmful materials and minimal
wastage. Sustainable materials as the name suggest materials which will sustain for a longer
period of time and also they are eco-friendly. Using sustainable materials for tiny Houses could
be the small and most effective solution for many arising and existing problems, reducing waste
consumption, and cost of living. Nontoxic materials are less harmful and non-hazardous with
no chemicals in it. Sustainable materials like bamboo, cork, wood etc. can be recycled and
reused. Tiny Houses which have person very less belongings and help owners to remove all
the unnecessary items and pair down to only necessary things. Tiny houses also help people
connect with outside world, nature, and help person to live more enriched and fulfilled life.
Tiny Houses which are basically 1/10th of an average home make spaces for multifunctional
and minimalistic. In India tiny house concept will work because of the main reason which is
affordability. Because tiny house requirement is to go tiny by reducing extra things it will help
owner to DE clutter and it will help owners to cut down the cost. Tiny Houses also works on 3
main core concepts which are Independence, Responsibility and Connection.
The Tiny House Movement (also known as the Tiny Life) encourages people to downsize their
lives, and especially their living footprint. The goal is to help those who partake to redefine
what a house is, and hence what as house means, to them. People join the movement for various
reasons including environmental awareness, personal freedom, affordability, and a willingness
to change their lives.

2
Sustainable Materials in India:
As the name “Sustainable” itself suggests that sustain for longer period of time, sustainable
materials are chemical free and sustain for long duration. In India, there is a need to use more
of sustainable materials because of lot of existing health problems, pollution, landfill waste,
factory waste, there is so much load using sustainable materials not only reduces cost in long
term also uses less harmful components hence helping in conservation process. As all are aware
that buildings are the major source of releasing carbon dioxide in the air, sustainability is the
only choice to decrease the same which also helps in choosing right kind of materials,
construction methodologies, and improve performance and decrease the burden on
environment.
For choosing materials that are specifically sustainable following parameters are to be
considered:
1. Toxic emissions that is going to generated by materials.
2. Pollution and waste being generated during the manufacturing process of material.
3. Locally available materials.
4. Environmental impact.
5. Transport cost.
6. Health considerations.
7. Energy required in manufacturing cost.
8. Thermal efficiency.
9. Use of renewable resources

Some common examples of sustainable materials that can be used in construction are lime
plaster replacing the cement, eco-friendly tiles replacing the conventional tiles, bamboo for
roofing and cladding purposes as well as for interior purposes, Natural materials like rice husk,
banana leaves, coconut husk from agriculture industry can also be readily used as insulation
and other purposes.

Less space more Experience:

The above statement “Less space more experience” suggests that having fewer things to worry
about provides extra time and money to experience more in life and also utilizes less resources.
Simplication of things lead to minimalism and decrease in living a suffocated life. Living in a
tiny house lowers home bills and provides more free time. There are certain ways in which a
tiny house can be used multi-functionally hence providing that extra little space for utilization.
The methods during construction and designing of a tiny house can be considered are follows.

3
 1. Use Fold down Options
2. Use walls efficiently
3. High Ceilings for extra height
4. Windows for extra light
5. Lighter colors for more expansion of area.
6. Mirrors for increasing the visual size.
7. Utilizing more Sliding walls
8. Multifunctional Furniture
9. Usage of space under Stairs.
10. Loft beds.

Benefits of Living in Tiny House:

 Less Expensive: A tiny house takes a lot less than building a full sized house hence
reducing the expenses and overall cost of the living.
 Lower energy use: Various bills of water consumption, electricity usage, fuel
becomes conveniently very less due to less consumption.
 Maintenance: With less space to clean and very few appliances tiny houses uses less
time on daily chores and more on personal things, hence reducing the maintenance of
house.
 Simpler Life: What is great about tiny house is there is almost no stress to worry
about living in tiny house with very less stuff, less appliances and electronics, only
essentials are brought to tiny house which makes living a lot simpler.
 Other benefits also include such as energy efficiency, de-cluttering, environmentally
friendly.

Disadvantages of Living in Tiny House:

 Zoning Rules: Zoning laws of a country makes difficult for tiny house owners to park
tiny house accordingly.
 Less Storage Space: Because tiny houses require lot of things to be rid of, it requires
person lot of prized possessions also to be given away as of very less storage provided
in a tiny house.
 Limited entertaining capability: Whenever there are guest arriving a your house you
don’t have much options for extra bed, or extra seating at dinner table, so there is a
space for less people inside a tiny house.

Case study of Tiny House in India:

The Bunkhouse shown here is comfortably designed with adequate ventilation and is
hygienic and meant for prolonged use. The structural details including the furniture &
fitments, is based on our proven experience of similar bunkhouse in operation all over India

4
and can withstand all the stress and strain of rough handling, lifting & shifting not only at
desired sites but also on rough terrains. These units can be moved/shifted by means of cranes
and trucks/trailers. Maintaining the highest structural stability, earthquake proof, weather
proof, leakproof and faultless operation under extreme climatic conditions. Supply of
prefabricated bunkhouse for desired end uses. The life of the bunkhouse is expected to last
more than 25 years. The company BuyIndia.biz manufacturers and sells these homes.

Buildings Materials Used to Construct a Tiny House:

Roofing: Tar, Paper, Rain and Wind Shedding, Metal Roofing.
Walls: Structurally Insulated Panels,
House Trailer: Plywood, Wood, Lumber, Interior and Exterior Siding.
Insulation: House tapes and wraps.
Paint: Paint and stains, Construction Adhesive.
Flooring: Hardwood flooring, tiles, Mortar, Thinnest Adhesives.
Millwork: Exterior door, Interior doors, windows

Project Vision/Description:
Amito Tiny Home Village seeks to be a new approach to looking at and building affordable
housing focused on empowerment, equity, community, and sustainability.
We are seeking to join neighbours (making 5000-1,000 a month in income) in building their
own housing and community village so that they can “put down roots” in the place that they
love and can begin to truly call this place home. This will directly impact their health and the
health of our community.
This Tiny Home Village will seek to build low, low-cost housing (deeply affordable at
approximately 30% of Area Middle Income-AMI) in places that people want to live, using
sustainable building practices, exploring new housing models, and sourcing supplies through
recycling/donation. Village residents will build equity in their homes and will organize and
lead the community themselves. Residents will also co-create the kind of community amenities
that they need (see below) to thrive.

Amenities/Programs:
Community members will be involved in the designing of the kind of home they wish to live
in. They will build the amenities that they want/need including community gathering space,
community kitchen, and community gardens. Village residents will share meals regularly, can
share childcare, can grow food together, can share community vehicle(s) and bicycles for
transportation, and more. Community members will organize themselves through regular
residents meetings. The Street Medic team will also utilize the community gathering space to
teach classes in community wellness and healthcare. The street medic team is a national model

5
where homeless and formerly homeless people are trained as street medics to offer acute care
in crisis situations and to tend to the health/wellness of people while they are on the streets.
The medic team can utilize the community land to help grow medicinal herbs and healthy foods
to be shared with the greater community. The medic team is also beginning a worker-owned
cooperative making their own herbal teas, medicinal tinctures, and body butters. This work
could also be incorporated into the design of community spaces and could be an avenue for
community participation and income/job creation. The village can also raise food to share with
our Amito free farmers markets for elders at the Senior Centre and Battery Park Apartments,
with children and families.

Which social determinants of health will your project impact:

 Education
 Transportation
 Housing
 Community Safety
 Income
 Job Creation
 Healthy Food
 Childcare
 Family Support
 Medical Care
 Environmental Quality

Project Impact:
The project will provide housing that is deeply affordable and create a model for building this
type of housing in our community. The community will impact income in that people will be
paying less of their income for housing (thus increasing total income) and utilities
(sustainability). The village will create a natural environment for family support as families
will be living with each other and will have community space to nurture relationships and help
each other including sharing childcare. Villagers will grow healthy food in the community
gardens and the medic team will help community members learn wellness, prevention, and
basic care. Community vehicles and bicycles will help with transportation (and we hope to be
located near bus lines). The village will provide a healthy and sustainable environment in which
to live and will be a teaching lab for sustainable living/housing.
Community safety will come with living with people that you are in deep, supportive
relationships with and will be an ongoing topic of community meetings. Worker owned
cooperatives springing from the Root Down Village will create jobs and income.

Desire at the Heart of Project:

Simply a place to call home…that feels like home. Many of us have woken up in a community
that we no longer recognize. Too many people have lost everything due to crisis: job loss,
health loss, loss of a vehicle, a sick child. Our city is being over-run by development that most
of the people in our community don’t want and could never afford: big hotels and luxury
condos. Too many are being pushed out of our neighbourhoods. Too many are being forced
onto the streets. Our housing situations,
6
our homeless situations are causing our health to suffer, are causing pre-mature death. These
same situations are straining our city/county resources and making our economic, housing,
healthcare, courts and job systems unhealthy. We need housing that works for us as community
members instead of housing systems that work for profit.

Community-Driven:
The project originated out of Amito Homeless Voice group. This group is a place where people
experiencing homelessness work to collectively organize and create projects/campaigns to
support the homeless and formerly homeless community. We have talked extensively with
community members that we have created deep relationships with over the past 15 years most
of whom are formerly homeless and housing insecure. There is much enthusiasm for a
community village of truly affordable housing that works for the needs of the community. We
are working with people who are interested in living in the first Amito community village who
will develop every aspect of the community itself from the organizational structure, design of
the homes, community values, types of community spaces the village needs to have, etc. It is
clear that the idea of Amito Tiny Home Village with homes/communities that we create
ourselves is bringing hope and excitement.
Outcomes/Sustainability Proposed results:
● Create a new model of housing that is community-cantered and truly affordable
● Three years from now, we hope that the first Amito Tiny Home Village is in place and
thriving with the planning and preparation of the second village on the way
● Potentially having worker-owned businesses coming from the land (herbal products business
and recycling construction waste business (from sourced construction waste not used for
building Root Down houses)

Business Plan:
Create the first Amito Tiny Home Village which will have 12 units that are approximately 400
sq ft. Units will run for $250-300 month (or 20-30% of AMI). The residential community will
make decisions about the values, vision, and organizational structure (cooperative ownership,
land trust, or lease with

equity) of the community. The goal is that these units will be deep affordability that will remain
forever affordable.
Amito Tiny Home Village will use mostly volunteer labour of future residents and community
supporters and use recycled/donated supplies for construction.

Projected Income Needed:

Though we are still researching, we project that we will need approximately 840,0000 to build
the first village. The cost variables are land prices (depending on location) and the potential of

7
donated land. We are looking for land in the 4-acre range with existing water and sewer. We
estimate land purchase to be our greatest expense.
Homes are being estimated to cost between 700,000 each based on national norms. We are
currently working on a model and cost estimate based on our City and County zoning laws.
We will work to create the most affordable homes.

Cash Flow:
Amito has been gifted an acre of land by Land of the who also believe in the vision and urgent
need for real deeply affordable housing. We have some small seed money already secured. We
will begin to source and store materials as soon as land is secured. We have been working with
a civil engineering firm, Civil Design Concepts to develop our site plan. Our land survey was
conducted by Blackrock Survey. We have architectural drawings from Wilson Architect. We
hope to break ground in future. We will have sponsorships of the project and have created
sponsorship levels to support the purchase of land and building houses.

We hope to roll out a major fundraising campaign in late winter sharing with the community
that we have completed Phase 1 on development which is the Planning Phase complete with
proof (site plan, architectural drawings, building materials list, unit cost breakdown, etc.). At
the event, we will launch Phase 2 which is a community fundraising campaign leading to Phase
3--the construction of the Village. We will have early supporters on hand at this event to
publicly support the Village as well as our “trailblazers” who are early identified Village
residents who can speak to both the need for and the difference the Village will make in their
lives and in the community. We believe that we can leverage our funding goal through
community sponsorships of each home to be built (faith community, civic or business partners).
As soon as a sponsor is acquired for a home, we will break ground on that home.
We also believe that we can acquire a large quantity of donated building materials for the
project and also utilize a large amount of donated labour by skilled volunteers in our
community.

Payments from residents will do three things:

 support the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the village;
 a good portion will go into an equity fund for each resident;
 a small portion will go into a “pay it forward fund” which will ultimately be used to
purchase land for the next village and help others come home. This will kick-start
replicating the project.

Partners in Collaboration/Existing resources that could be leveraged:

Amito has been very active in our City and County for many years. Our roots run deep and we
are able to leverage resources in this way.

8
Faith Communities and Civic Groups: We have many existing faith community
partners. We hope to create a model where we have faith communities and civic groups
sponsoring a house. They will help raise funds for the building, work alongside the residents
in construction, and form deep and long-lasting relationships with the people living in the
Amito Village community.

Builders and Building Supply Companies: We have contacts with several local
builders to begin pilots on sourcing recycled materials from construction sites (saving these
materials from going into landfills) as soon as land is in place to store the materials. We have
just made contact with the Chief Financial Officer of a building supply company with four
locations and are engaged in serious talks with them about sourcing donated building
materials.

Realtors: We are working with a realtor to look at available land. And we have multiple other
realtors interested in helping us leverage resources for funding the Root Down Village.

Community Leaders: We are currently meeting with community leaders from across
many different sectors who can help us leverage more resources and support project
planning/funding.

Visits: We will be doing team visits with other communities who are doing similar projects
to learn from the ongoing work that is happening for low-cost housing development.

Marketing:
We are creating promotional materials now. We have a logo drawn. We have a photo book and
a rack card/brochure describing the project. We will be adding this information to our E-mail.
we will have a promotional video and a marketing plan for the project.

Audience to be Served:
People in Sagar who are homeless or housing insecure with a focus on people with
disabilities, elders, families with children, people with credit/background struggles, people
without papers, people of color, queer/transgendered people, etc.
Aspects of the Project Appealing to Potential Funders

● Huge community need given our housing crisis with a focus on deeply affordable
● Deep community engagement
● Agency/Empowerment of people directly impacted
● Housing as Health

9
● Community as Health
● Broad range of support
● Impacts on multiple social determinants of health
● Creating a model
● Produces equity for residents

The project is located:

● In the City limits
● On a City bus route less than ¼ mile from a bus stop
● On a major thoroughfare that is close to jobs
● Space onsite for a community garden
● Village model will allow residents to create a natural support system

10