🌿 Privacy is Dignity: Tiny Homes Can Be Beautiful Urban Suburbia
By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
While I applaud efforts to help people who are unsheltered, we must be honest about what real solutions look like. Shared bathrooms and institutional layouts are not homes. They’re temporary shelters disguised as permanent housing.
Let’s imagine something better. Because we deserve better.
🏘️ Tiny Home Villages: A Real Vision
Imagine a peaceful, green neighborhood of tiny homes, each with:
✅ A private washroom
✅ A secure door
✅ A quiet space for healing
✅ A small kitchen or kitchenette
✅ A garden in front, art on the walls, dignity in the design
These aren’t shacks or dorms. These are beautiful, thoughtful micro-homes—just scaled down. Designed with love, pride, and privacy in mind.
We call this “Urban Suburbia”—a new way to imagine the city. It's affordable. It's eco-friendly. And it's possible.
🌉 Remember Granville Island?
In a recent blogpost, I dreamed out loud: what if Granville Island had tiny homes on barges or along underused corners? It would mix art, culture, nature, and housing—a vision of a truly inclusive city.
People want to live near water, light, art, and community. Tiny homes can deliver that without the $500,000 price tag of a condo.
💰 Let’s Talk Cost
Right now in BC:
- Condos are $300,000 to $700,000+
- Modular shelters (without bathrooms!) still cost $100,000–$150,000
- For the same amount, we could build actual homes—with full amenities
Why are we spending millions on stopgaps when we could be investing in lasting housing?
🧘 Healing Requires Peace
You can’t rebuild your life without privacy.
You can’t recover from trauma without a space that’s yours.
You can’t feel safe if you're forced to share a bathroom with strangers.
We must shift from “just get them off the street” to “build homes where people can thrive.”
🌱 Design It With Heart
Yes, let’s include:
🎨 A community art room
🍲 A shared kitchen for optional meals
🪴 Garden spaces and native plants
🎭 Events, support, laughter—but only if people want it
Give people the choice to engage, not the obligation.
💜 This is the Vision We Need
What’s being built in Duncan is well-intentioned—but let’s be real: it’s not the final answer. People need real homes, not just shelters dressed up with buzzwords.
Let’s build Urban Suburbia—tiny homes with big dignity.
Let’s stop settling for “less bad” and aim for “truly good.”
If we can dream it, we can build it.
Let’s stop managing poverty and start ending it.
✍️ Written by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
🌐 http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.com
📸 Artist • Activist • Advocate
#TinyHouseRevolution #UrbanSuburbia #HomesNotHuts #GranvilleVision #DignityIsPrivacy #BCPoli #ZipolitaWrites
