Housing challenges stretch beyond water and borders into rural communities in British Columbia. There, two First Nations tribes have begun to use tiny homes as a creative answer to their housing crises. In Hope, B.C. (pop. 6,181), the Yale First Nation has launched a project to build a dozen energy-efficient tiny homes that will be accessible to the whole community. Their efforts aim to meet the needs of the community as a whole, Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Even with protected affordable rents, the units will create a stable new income stream for the tribe.
In the Bella Coola Valley (pop. 2,010), members of the Nuxalk First Nation also saw tiny homes as an answer to their housing shortage. Their project, with four housing units and one shared unit, will target single homeless men. The group came up with the idea when they noticed that many applicants in need of housing are single men, but that there are few resources available to them in the community, which has a transition house for women and prioritizes housing for families with children. Each tiny home costs the tribe about $50,000 to build and the tenants will pay affordable rents for the space.