Looking for a Spot to Park Your Tiny House? Here's Where to Find One

The dream of financial freedom and living a simpler life is one of the biggest draws behind the tiny house lifestyle. With a wide range of prices from affordable DIY options to snazzy, upscale, and hi-tech builds, there's a tiny house design for everyone.

But one of the biggest and less-talked-about drawbacks is finding a place to park a tiny house near you. In many places, tiny houses exist in a legal grey zone where they might be built to fly under the radar of local authorities. In most cities, most tiny houses on wheels are treated as recreational vehicles, so most regulations allow them to be parked on one's property but prohibit living in them full-time. Alternatively, if they are built on foundations, they often have to meet local regulations for accessory dwelling units (ADUs), which vary from place to place.

However, this confusing state of affairs is slowly changing as more municipalities and even the International Code Council are rewriting regulations to accommodate the growing interest in tiny houses. As enthusiasm for tiny living continues to grow, so too is a growing list of resources below that can help find a place to park that tiny house—either on a short- or a long-term basis.

RV Parks, National Parks, Campgrounds

If you have an RVIA (Recreation Vehicle Industry Association) certified tiny house, it's possible to park it anywhere it is legal to park an RV. However, these are more short-term options, as all of these do not allow for long-term stays.

Online Classifieds and Meetups

Besides the usual campgrounds, one can also try to find short- or long-term parking spots via websites such as Craigslist or Meetup. Often, homeowners looking to open up their driveway or backyards to visitors will post something to advertise their available space. Depending on local regulations, it's one way for tiny house owners to park their homes temporarily. Alternatively, tiny house owners can attend tiny house Meetups or other similar gatherings to discover and pursue potential leads for parking their homes.

Move to a Tiny House-Friendly City or Community

Another possibility is moving to a city, town, or new subdivisions and developments where tiny houses have been legalized. The roster of such municipalities is expanding—from Fresno, California to Spur, Texas; Portland, Oregon, and Lantier, Quebec, many cities are waking up to the fact that tiny homes are one potential way to densify their neighborhoods and offer more affordable housing options. Some of these are taking the form of ADUs or even tiny co-housing communities in someone's backyard.

My Tiny House Parking

My Tiny House Parking is part of the Tiny House Network family of websites, offering listings for private parking, parking spots on farms or tiny house communities, and RV parks, all conveniently shown on an interactive map.

Tiny House Hosting

Tiny House Hosting is a Facebook group dedicated to connecting owners of tiny houses to land for rent or sale. It also allows members to post about tiny houses for rent and listing opportunities for starting up tiny house communities.

Tiny House Map

Created by tiny house builder Dan Louche of Tiny Home Builders, Tiny House Map features a searchable, interactive map that includes communities renting out land, as well as posters who are starting to build their tinys and are looking for more information or a place to park.

Ultimately, there are a lot of possible avenues out there to help you find a place to park—it's a matter of finding out the legalities in your particular location and connecting the dots between all these sources of information that are out there. To get a bigger picture on the legalization of tiny houses, you can also check out documentaries like Living Tiny Legally, or perhaps explore joining forces with other tiny house advocates to push for updating regulations and building codes to include tiny houses.