I'm an urban designer (not a planner but nearby). I agree with you that 'tiny houses' basically build in poverty. one of the key difficulties with housing is th

I'm an urban designer (not a planner but nearby). I agree with you that 'tiny houses' basically build in poverty. one of the key difficulties with housing is that the size to comfort chart is not linear. it drops off sharply at the low end and increases only slowly at the top end. this doesn't work well with a market system where the 'haves' end up with something big that doesn't really provide them much more than a mid-size home and the poor end up with a shoebox that makes living difficult. once in the west was the idea of having a safety net in social housing however this has been taken over by a high-rent system which increases productivity by forcing everyone to have an income to afford a roof over their head. this will be difficult to reverse however I think it will. Post war Hong Kong was economically driven by 80% government housing which in turn reduced the cost of employees (who didn't have to pay huge rent or mortgages). some smart state will realise this and compete in international businesses like tech. imagine the attraction for the youth if the next silicon valley had government provided housing.