This.
When I first started in this business 40 years ago, getting permits was a fast process. We could start a project in November and have it built by the following November.
Fast-forward to today and it takes a minimum 18-24 months just to get all of the permits required. I've had projects where almost 30 permits were required by various agencies - many of which are redundant and contradict each other along the way.
It's a joke and it's why I no longer practice heavy civil engineering. It's not fun anymore.
Sounds like the immigration problem. Legal ways to do it take FOREVER.
I'm all for building your own structure. Instead of inspecting work during/after the fact, just have citizens get certified training to build safe residential structures, then you can do it yourself.
I'm mulling over the idea of getting a cheap-ass piece of land in the middle of nowhere and building a simple camping cabin on it. Unofficially, of course. Because if it's larger than 10x10 and you want to live there, you have to spring for a septic tank and/or well, which is like $10-20,000.
And many places don't allow off-grid or tiny homes. They want you needing what's provided and paying for it.
But my larger point is that this tiny home thing is a step we now need due to a disappearing middle class and absurd housing costs.
The poor are still poor.
The utlra-wealthy are getting richer, and it's at the expense of the middle class.
There's no such thing as a 1-income family anymore (by and large, enough with your exceptions).
But I'll forever get push-back because somehow believing housing is a basic human right is a far-left idea.
