It’s been nearly 10 months since Erie County announced its “A Pathway Home” project, a community of several tiny homes on East 16th Street designed to be used as transitional housing for the homeless.
Currently, the 25 homes have a built exterior and interior frame, but the county and City of Erie have different ideas for how the project should move forward.
“The tiny homes and houses that they’re going to be building over there, they have to meet code. They have to be safe for everybody to live in. We just can’t have anybody running over there and installing electric. It’s a potential fire hazard,” said Steve Yurkewicz, City of Erie Assistant Manager of Code Enforcement.
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Yurkewicz said the city is waiting on the county executive to send the proper mechanical, electrical and plumbing drawings so they can get approved for permits.
He said he can’t send any inspectors and move forward with the project to the site until they get that approval.
Right now, stakes are up at the property mapping out the next steps, but the county executive disagrees on how those next steps should play out.
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“This is common sense. It’s a very simple thing that they could easily waive to be reasonable, because tiny houses are in a completely different section of the new international residential building code,” said Brenton Davis, Erie County Executive.
Davis said the city has already funded another tiny house in the community without a foundation, and now they’re trying to require it for the new homes.
As for the permits, he said in order to have a permit, you have to agree on exactly what the requirements are, which has put them in a stalemate.
“It’s about impeding progress over something that should be simple. This is something easily waiverable, or we could find a common sense ground on,” said Davis.
“We’re still waiting. Right now, the ball’s in his court, he’s just got to get the drawings in so we can approve it and get rolling,” said Yurkewicz.