Stacked converted shipping containers under the Gardiner Expressway, a community of tiny homes with solar roofs, and rows of mini shelters in city-run parking garages.
These are just a few of the winning ideas from a recent competition to identify the best designed tiny home to help ameliorate the city’s homelessness crisis.
Elizabeth McIsaac said the idea for the competition came from exasperation.
“Year after year, we have been writing opinion pieces and calling out the fact that we have too many people living in tents,” said the CEO of Maytree, a progressive think tank and charity behind the competition.
“So, the thought was: We need innovation.”
In partnership with the local newspaper West End Phoenix, Maytree put out a call for concepts for tiny homes that could house 1,000 homeless people city-wide. Nineteen designs were submitted — and in December, five shelter experts selected the winners.
Designs came from a recently graduated electrical engineering student in New York, a Hamilton-based storage facility owner, and a pair of seasoned Toronto designers.
Who won? And will any of these shelters ever see the light of day?
Location, location, location
Submitted by an architectural design duo, the winning entry designed more durable shelters for places where people have already established tent-based homeless encampments — parks, parking lots and underneath the Gardiner Expressway.
“There appears to be a consistent preference among unsheltered individuals for setting up tent encampments in specific city spaces they find vacant,” designers Robbie Suehiro and Karolina Grujic said in their submission.
Through their design, the team proposed to "eliminate the major safety concerns” of existing encampments, enabling unhoused people to stay in areas where they already feel secure.
The team’s modified shipping container units would cost about $80,000 each and are equipped with kitchens, single beds, bathrooms and WiFi.
A rendering shows a cluster of stacked units under the Gardiner Expressway, where an encampment was cleared in 2019 but tents remain to this day.
Asked whether the city would consider the use of tiny homes under the Gardiner, City of Toronto spokesperson Elise von Scheel did not provide an answer in an emailed statement.
Instead, she noted that staff continue to explore a “range of options” for a variety of different types of shelters in collaboration with community partners.
City delayed on tiny homes report
For many years, tiny home proponents have said the portable structures should form a core part of Toronto’s interim solution to homelessness, but the city has so far remained reluctant.
In 2021, the city sought an injunction against local tiny home builder Khaleel Seivwright, barring any more of his wooden shelters on city property because of fire risk.
That year, there were as many as 100 of these tiny wooden shelters on city property and one person died in an encampment fire involving a wooden structure.
Some city councillors have continued to push for expanded use.
Last summer, city council directed staff to report back through the 2025 budget process on the possibility of using tiny homes more widely in supporting people who are homeless.
The city missed that deadline, however, and von Scheel said staff are now planning to provide an update on this work in a forthcoming infrastructure report.
A working prototype: Steel Cabin Communities
Competition finalist Dan Postma acknowledged that tiny homes can be a tough sell for cities, in particular for councillors who have to pitch constituents on the mini structures.
Still, Postma said teams like his have designs worthy of consideration.
Postma’s group — which included a Hamilton builder, a designer and himself, a storage business owner — created modified steel cabins that cost as little as $18,000 per unit.
The team has a working prototype of the model, which they’ve showcased in submissions to several municipalities’ procurement processes — so far, with no takers.
The steel cabin units could be moved into place in Toronto within two months, Postma said, noting they are portable, durable, and compliant with existing energy, building and fire codes.
Such compliance will likely be an essential ingredient for any company looking to provide the City of Toronto with tiny shelters, should the city opt to procure such units in the future.
Future of tiny homes?
In January, five tiny homes were set up in St. James Park, at the corner of King Street and Jarvis Street.
Created by Tiny Tiny Homes, the small shelters have provided a respite for several Torontonians who were sleeping in the cold. They have also, however, drawn the ire of concerned citizens and local Coun. Chris Moise.
Asked whether the homes will be removed, von Scheel did not respond directly.
“City staff have spoken to the owner of Tiny Tiny Homes and outlined the expectation that the company, and all Torontonians, only engage in activities that respect the municipal bylaws,” she said.
McIsaac said locals who want to see the tiny shelters locally should not put all of their frustration on city staff, however.
“I think it’s also political,” she said. “Find the city councillor that's going to say in my ward, let's set it up here.”
She said the competition was intended to help push the conversation with the city, but also to help Torontonians imagine new possibilities for temporary housing citywide.
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CORRECTION: This story has been changed to correct an earlier error stating 16 designs were submitted to the Maytree design competition. Nineteen designs were in fact submitted.
This copy was also changed to correct mention of a 2021 death in tiny home outside Lamport Stadium. It is not clear where the death, which the City of Toronto said involved a wooden structure, took place.
