- September 12, 2024
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As housing costs continue at a level making it difficult — if not impossible — for many Floridians to afford buying a house, there is a small community in Hillsborough County where you can buy one for less than $100,000.
No, that’s not a misprint. In late July the community had a house listed for $95,000.
But the key word in that first sentence is small.
The house is in Escape Tampa Bay Village, a community of tiny homes on the east side of the county on a rural stretch of land as you leave the city.
It is the brainchild of developer Dan Dobrowolski, 65, who began building small homes in Wisconsin about 25 years ago. Dobrowolski has also become an affordable housing advocate of sorts, arguing tiny houses are a good alternative governments need to embrace to address, or deliver positive change, to the housing affordability issue.
The reason for that is these tiny homes provide residents with the benefits — their own space, modern design, environmental protections — usually not available in more traditional affordable housing properties. Or, as Dobrowolski says: “There's no reason affordable housing has to be as ugly as it is."
“When you think affordable housing, a lot of people think Section 8, they think concrete block bulkers. (The politicians) think it's better. We reject that. We think that affordable housing should be beautiful.”
Dobrowolski was raised in Chicago and spent years in Florida after his family moved to Sarasota in the mid-1970s. He graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in meteorology and worked at WFLA -TV in Tampa for a bit before heading back to the Midwest.
The history of Escape Tampa Bay Village starts in Canoe Bay, Wisconsin. Dobrowolski bought property there in the early 1990s and began building small cottages, mostly under 600 square feet.
He calls Canoe Bay “an unusual, let's call it a resort.”
One of the things that’s unusual about it is the distinctive architecture, Dobrowolski says. “We got a lot of notoriety for it. The design of the buildings, the style of the buildings, etc. People were always fascinated.”
“So, we came up with the idea to make the buildings portable. People could literally buy the architecture. That’s what started it. We started building them on wheels and it just kept evolving.”
The company then moved into development, believing it could set the course of what a neighborhood in the 21st century could — should — look like.
And that neighborhood is Escape Tampa Bay Village. The community sits on a 1-acre parcel at 11008 U.S. Highway 301 in Thonotosassa. He paid $400,000 for the property, a former mobile home park.
A tiny home is, as the name implies, small — usually no more than several hundred square feet. But, as Escape Tampa Bay Village says on its website, the homes are designed to feel open and spacious with large, wide windows, full kitchens, large bathrooms and bedrooms. The units, the website says, come with washer and dryer units, LED lights and storage.
The idea is to create a place with all the benefits individuals want when they look for a house in a neighborhood.
Of course, many, if not all, the amenities are available in apartments. But what makes a tiny home community different is the absence of communal living space and the individuality that comes with having a standalone space.
And that’s what bothers Dobrowolski about communities in desperate need of affordable options for residents not considering tiny houses as an option. “They don't think you can have whole neighborhoods of this on a very small property that has fairly high density,” he says.
“But people want to have space. I like green. I like to be able to walk outside and have room and I don't want to go into a hallway with dozens of other people walking out and I’m in a concrete bunker. To me, that’s fairly inhumane. Why not give people the option of owning a house, and cheap?”
Dobrowolski has spoken to officials in various communities about the tiny home option. But he says he has faced nothing but resistance from people who are reluctant to change what they are doing.
In comparison, Escape Tampa Bay Village has fit 13 buildings onto 8/10ths of an acre. Of those buildings, 10 are homes and the others are common buildings.
The vast majority of the acreage is green space and lawns. He says you could put 15 buildings into the space and still not be crowded.
That’s done by having all the homes face forward, which both maximizes space and creates that neighborhood or subdivision feel.
As for who lives there, it’s a cross section of America, Dobrowolski says. There is a man with two small children, recent college graduates, retirees and professionals.
“They're efficient. They're green. You got plenty of space. It's your own house. You’ve got a park, you’ve got a front yard, you’ve got beautiful landscaping,” he says.
“It's a great alternative. The only the only barrier is that the cities don't endorse it.”
