Now THIS is my idea of truly affordable housing.

Houston, TX-based Dan Phillips builds homes out of recycled and salvaged materials. The homeowner participates in the construction, under the guidance of a professional builder. The homes are small and no-frills but (from what I can see in the photo) sturdy and cozy. The base size is 240 square feet, with an additional 100 square feet for each additional person.

Writes Vicky Wolf in the article on CLEAN Houston:

“The houses are small – 240 square feet for one person with 100 square feet added for each additional person. There are no amenities such as dishwasher, trash compactors and king-sized beds. ‘When you are poor, you can’t afford a lot of space,’ Phillips says. ‘Building small means building efficiently with energy efficiency.’ Energy efficiency includes such things as lots of insulation, tank-less hot water heaters, and rain barrels that provide water for toilet flushing.”

I’d prefer to live in this kind of house even if I were rich. This option would actually make it attractive to me to become a homeowner (something that is not attractive to me right now; I have no desire to be weighed down by a conventional big house and mortgage).

Wolf writes: “A person making a minimum wage of about $900 a month can have a seven-year mortgage for under $300 a month, one-third of the household income. ‘If the breadwinner has a minimum wage job, he or she can afford a house and afford to live,’ Phillips says.”

I’d love to see lots, lots more housing like this in the United States. And I think there’s a big need for it.