Allow me to be the first to welcome you to TinyHouseNC.

Perhaps the first of its kind, TinyHouseNC is a site dedicated to the tiny house movement in the state of North Carolina alone. Before I go on though I thought some interesting NC facts might be fun. For instance:

• The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill is the oldest State University in the United States.
• North Carolina is the largest producer of sweet potatoes in the nation.
• The first English colony in America was located on Roanoke Island. Walter Raleigh founded it. The colony mysteriously vanished with no trace except for the word “Croatoan” scrawled on a nearby tree.
• Grandfather Mountain, highest peak in the Blue Ridge, is the only private park in the world designated by the United Nations as an International Biosphere Reserve.
• Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run in Fayetteville on March 7, 1914.

But at the same time let me point out the following as well:

• Over 1 million households do not have and cannot afford a safe, stable home in NC.
• $764 is the fair market rent for a two-bedroom unit.
• There were 34,950 housing units with foreclosure filings in the state in 2015.
• On any given night in the state there are a reported 10,683 homeless men, women, and children.
• The median cost for a newly constructed home in North Carolina was $151,900 in 2015.

The need for change in the housing industry is as present in North Carolina as anywhere. From the beaches of the Outer Banks to the Appalachian range, there are individuals and families struggling to afford housing. Whose fault is it though? Is it society’s? Have we grown too big for our proverbial britches in terms of need -vs- want? Is it our government? Are we being taxed to death and bringing home less income than needed to survive? Is it our own? Do we make poor choices when it comes to finances? No matter the case there is a growing trend within the larger tiny house movement and that is a greater understanding and consciousness of our rights and opportunities at the state level.

TinyHouseNC exists to help us better understand what is available to us and what we can do to incite change across our state. Sure there are opportunities to be lookie-loos and just dream at the pretty pictures. Yes, there is room for conversation about the best heater to put in a tiny house. But more than anything there is now a space to showcase tiny house builders, dwellers, and dreamers in the state of North Carolina as well as being a vital resource to them, and you, in their, and your, path to a tiny life.