The City of Greater Sudbury is working on ways to make it easier for people to develop tiny homes, in part as a way to address affordable housing needs in the community.

Last week, city councillors approved a number of actions that should encourage development of alternative forms of housing — including tiny homes.

"It is something that we've heard from the community that there is interest in," said senior planner Melissa Riou.

Riou says city staff are not aware of very many tiny homes within the city, but she believes that could change, with the right actions from the city.

A report on tiny houses was recently presented to the planning committee, created after council asked staff to conduct a review last year.

Riou says a tiny house would typically be between 100 and 400 square feet, while a small house is defined by the Urban Land Institute as less than 1,400 square feet.

Under the city's current zoning bylaw, a tiny houses on wheels is considered a travel trailer, which doesn't fall under the provincial building code, and is not permitted. However Riou said there's nothing stopping someone from building a tiny home, as long as it is on a permanent foundation.

Based on the consultation done for the report, Riou believes for many people, that requirement wouldn't be a problem.

"Speaking to those that are interested, their primary concern is more affordability than having an option that is more of a transportable typical tiny house on wheels that you hear about often on TV," Riou said.

Part of the city's efforts going forward will be an education and outreach program, which would include a user guide for tiny homes and alternative housing.

"One of the things I run into the most is, different business owners and developers, despite our great efforts, don't know about the programs, or they don't understand the programs," said Coun. Geoff McCausland.

"And so I think that some education and outreach to help ensure that we're getting all this great work that's being done out there is an important part of the process."

According to the report, nearly 10,000 rental households in Greater Sudbury spend more than 30 per cent of their gross income on housing.

Staff say the need for affordable housing extends beyond the households that qualify for subsidized housing — and tiny homes could help to address some of that need.

"We're hoping that we can encourage the development of more affordable forms of housing throughout the city and potentially really have an impact on reducing our social housing wait list and provide more affordable housing for that component of our community which is fairly significant," Riou said.

Riou says over the last five years, the city has done a number of things to make it easier to develop tiny homes, such as increasing the areas where shared housing is permitted and introducing secondary dwelling units, which allow up to three units per property, among other things.

Now that council has approved the report and action items, city staff have a number of new tasks in their 2021 work plan.

As well as the education program, staff will also do a deeper dive looking into what barriers to development might currently exist, and looking into possible adjustments to zoning bylaws and maximum density requirements.