Not too long ago, the idea of living in a tiny house would have seemed far-fetched to Andy Mariotti. When he told friends and neighbors in suburban Massachusetts about the idea, reactions ranged from “absurdity and mockery to flat out rejection.”
But housing prices have skyrocketed, and Mariotti is at a turning point in his life as an empty nester. Now he’s planning to move into the Tiny Seed Village, a new Blue Hill development mixing wheeled tiny houses and agriculture, later this year.
Tiny homes have gotten recent attention in Maine as either individual living options or as part of larger developments. In Bangor, a 30-unit tiny home park opened in 2024, and another one has been pitched as a housing solution on the site of the former Tent City homeless encampment. But they’re also appealing to people looking for ways to live affordably in rural areas while homesteading, farming or forming communities.
At 400 square feet or less, the tiny homes are floated as a solution to the housing crisis, and Angela Faneuf, developer of the Blue Hill project, hopes her farm-based model will be replicated. She sees the village that can form in such an environment as a solution to other social challenges — such as childcare shortages, aging and isolation — while also providing shared land for growing food and raising chickens in a time when land access is a significant challenge for young Mainers.
“I think it really does take a village to have a thriving, fulfilled life,” Faneuf said. “It’s not just us against the world.”
Faneuf has already been part of an unconventional living arrangement along Ellsworth Road for a decade as a member of the Blue Hill Cooperative Ecovillage, a shared and cooperatively governed housing site with a focus on sustainability that owns the 125 acres where the development will be located.
The new project came from popular demand: prospective members regularly asked the cooperative whether they could bring their tiny homes with them, a trend Faneuf noticed spiked especially after wildfires in western states.
“I can’t tell you how much interest I got,” she said. “I thought, ‘Maybe I should look into this,’ like it’s one of those messages from the universe.”
For the last year, she’s been having the site prepared for 14 tiny home lots that can each be rented at $575 per month, well under half the average local rent price, according to Zillow data. Residents will bring their own homes. The park will include a community area, garden plots and a chicken coop in a model called an “agrihood,” which refers to a development that mixes housing and food production.
A handful of other tiny home agrihoods are popping up on the west coast and midwestern states, some providing homes and others for tenants to bring their own. It’s possible the Blue Hill project is the first like it in New England.
Faneuf also plans to develop several homesteads at the site of the Ecovillage in the future.
She’s hoping to eventually give tiny home residents the option to purchase their lot infrastructure through the Maine law that residents have been using to buy mobile home parks around the state. Younger residents could also build equity by eventually selling their tiny homes, she said, helping them afford full-sized houses.
The homes will be off the grid, with plans to experiment with different renewable energy sources.
Though residents won’t formally be joining a cooperative, most applicants tell Faneuf they’re interested in living more collaboratively, something she said sets her project apart from other tiny home developments. She admits living in a cooperative can be challenging, but residents of the tiny house village will be able to choose how much they want to be involved in the community.
The community is a big draw for Mariotti. A lifelong friend of an Ecovillage resident, he’s excited about meeting more likeminded people in the village. He may not stay in a tiny house forever, he said, but at this point in his life, he considers having limited expenses, space for visitors and the ability to start growing food again to be additional bonuses.
He’s been priced out of buying another house in Massachusetts, as have most of his younger family members there.
“I think we’re going to see a lot more of them,” he said of tiny home villages.