{"id":576875,"date":"2026-04-02T06:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576875\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T06:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:48:12","slug":"okanagan-falls-couple-both-in-health-care-may-need-to-move-due-to-tiny-homes-rules-okanagan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576875\/","title":{"rendered":"Okanagan Falls couple, both in health care, may need to move due to \u2018tiny homes\u2019 rules – Okanagan"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may be tiny but the happiness a 400-square-foot home in Okanagan Falls<\/a> brings its owners is anything but small.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been a dream of mine to have a tiny home,\u201d said Emily Kogel. \u201cI was fascinated with the concept of living in a smaller square footage and having a smaller environmental footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

The home was manufactured by Vernon Tiny Homes.<\/p>\n

Kogel said it\u2019s fully serviced with clean well water and a septic system and built like standard home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outside is 100 per cent cedar siding. Those are double pane Ply Gem windows, the roof is a steel roof and it has a 40 pound per square foot snow load,\u201d Kogel said.<\/p>\n

The tiny home also enabled the young professional couple to achieve first-time home ownership.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat was the deciding factor,\u201d said Keith Balisky. \u201cWhen we were looking at the housing market, it was just unattainable for where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balisky is a registered clinical counsellor. Kogel is a locum family doctor working at clinics across the South Okanagan and Similkameen as well as Penticton General Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re both early in our career coming into the housing market,\u201d said Kogel. \u201cWe were looking at home ownership but the cost of owning or having a mortgage was so expensive, combined with our student debt. We just didn\u2019t feel it was the right financial decision for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But their living situation is in limbo because their tiny home is not considered a permanent dwelling, classified instead as a recreational vehicle (RV), in which the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen prohibits year-round living without approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cTiny homes are in that kind of weird in-between limbo where there\u2019s no regulation, so they have to follow some sort of regulation,\u201d Balisky said. \u201cThe builders typically go by kind of RV standards but our home is way above RV standards in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOpen House: Exploring a tiny home\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The rules could force the couple to move, a potential loss to the communities they serve amid a doctor shortage.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t expect exceptions as a physician,\u201d Kogel said. \u201cBut I do think that the bylaws governing additional dwelling units probably could be updated and I think it\u2019s time to do that in the midst of our housing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In an email to Global News, the RDCO stated the Okanagan Valley Zoning Bylaw does not recognize \u201ctiny home\u201d as a dwelling type.<\/p>\n

It added, \u201cthe only way for them to be permitted is through an approval by the RDOS Board (either in the form of a rezoning or a temporary use permit).\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple has submitted a request application for a temporary use permit. In the meantime, the couple has taken their plight to social media, asking for the public\u2019s support of their temporary use permit application by signing an online form.<\/a><\/p>\n

Kogel said the response has been overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very grateful for all the positive support,\u201d Kogel said.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re not we\u2019re not trying to skirt the rules. We\u2019re very supportive of having land use regulations in place and we want housing to be safe for everyone, but unless there\u2019s a safety issue here, I don\u2019t see why it should be prohibited.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RDOS board is expected to vote on the permit application at its regular meeting on April 16.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt would be pretty devastating,\u201d Kogel said when asked how she would feel if the application is denied. \u201cWe love living in this community. We love working in this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAffordable housing advocates condemn government decision to de-fund community housing\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may be tiny but the happiness a 400-square-foot home in Okanagan Falls brings its owners is anything…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,15222,84,392,2081,221303,221302],"class_list":{"0":"post-576875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-central-okanagan","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-kelowna","14":"tag-okanagan-falls","15":"tag-tiny-homes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}