Submitted by stricly_business t3_z41hiw in boston
If so, where or how far away from Boston? I'm wondering if there are any nearby towns that would allow it since it seems only very small rural towns don't have zoning laws that prevent this types of dwellings from existing.
It might be cheaper to live on a boat.
Not in New England. Dockage / mooring fees are charged by the length of the boat (and can include or not - electricity and pump outs). Not many first come first served public mooring / sea camping areas along national waterways at this time of year.
Besides local zoning, there are usually deed restrictions which makes things harder because even if you do find the right municipality you still have to research each parcel. Also real estate agents are fucking useless for this info - you have to do it yourself.
You realize it snows and gets cold here at night right. Last weekend it was 30 degrees. It only gets worse in January.
Yurts are used extensively on the Mongolian steppes ... including during the winter.
There are also modern four-season tents. Many of them have a pass-through for the chimney of a wood-burning stove, and are used for things like scaling Mount Everest.
Sure, but the kind of tent you'd take to mount Everest can cost like 6K.
I'm not sure how much overlap there is between "someone who has 6K to drop on a tent" and "someone who can't afford housing"
How much is it to build a house?
Pretty sure it's more than $6K.
Also pretty sure it's also more than the $10K or $20K to build a good, winter-suitable yurt.
[removed]
Come February you’ll wish you lived in something more substantial than a tent.
there is someone living in their car at one of the stations i park at and always feel bad when the temps drop the past few weeks... they flee when anyone approaches tho
Do you know what a Yurt is? Do you know what the climate of Mongolia is?
Yeah I do. But it sounds like we are talking about a person who is basically homeless. The yurt dwellers are a community of people. They share resources and are prepared for the weather. I thought it prudent to make facts known. Just because people who have done it their entire lives can do it. Doesn’t mean a person going out for the first time, long term is ready just because they watched a YouTube video.
The homeless community in this city can be some of the most clever resourceful survivalists around. Its not like they get shipped to LA for the winter. Many homeless people have been homeless for quite some time, and believe it or not there is a sort of order within their own community. I’ve encountered homeless that prefer the lifestyle they’re living.
But this person is talking about a trailer, yurt, or similar. I’d tell them to take $50 and get a train down south. At least it’s not freezing. That’s one less thing to worry about. It sounds like they have some means. But want to live off the grid or in a simple way. I’d say not up here.
“Birds are riddled with diseases and can fly away at any moment. If you’re hunting you’ll want something more substantial than an eagle.”
Just go to Maine
Yes, Mass & Cas
Lol, just imagining OP innocently arriving at Mass & Cass with a yurt—eager and full of possibilities—only to realize the actual truth of the situation.
I can think of 3 trailer parks in metro Boston: Pratt street in revere, the one behind the Town Line Bowling Alley in Malden is another, and then the only one in the Boston city limits is in west Roxbury off vfw parkway
There's another one further up Route 1 pretty close to where Bonkers used to be, albeit on the southbound side. We're stretching the limits of what counts as metro Boston here, but it might be close enough to be helpful.
I’m not sure any of those are what OP is looking for. They seem to be in a travel trailer and those parks are all established single wides where you own the “trailer” but rent the land. They’d be best to find a year round camping park. I know Normandy Farms goes pretty late into the year.
for anyone curious, search the sub for the (fairly) recent r/boston google maps walkthrough of the Revere trailer park..
Those are so expensive that it doesn’t make sense unless you’re rich. None of them are in convenient locations, and the W Roxbury one has been fighting the landlord over all kinds of sanitation issues so stay away.
The West Rox one is owned by a tenants association, not a landlord
That’s great news! They must have recently bought it.
If I’m not mistaken there is one in peabody on Rt1.
It probably can be done but you’d need a supportive landlord and some luck in not attracting negative attention from neighbors and city officials. It’s not a legal dwelling so if someone complained you’d be done. Maybe not a big deal in a camper as then you could move quickly, but to where? I’ve seen vans around Cambridge and Somerville where I live but they disappeared in the fall. Nobody seemed to bother them in the summer. In the cities of course they’d have to move often for street cleaning, although some were on private driveways. Luck with neighbors largely depends where you set up. If you found someone with a backyard in my neighborhood in East Somerville and built a yurt or parked a RV, absolutely nobody would care. But in more expensive and lower density areas like Arlington you might have a problem. Getting utilities is also a problem. The only MA towns that allow “tiny homes” are Great Barrington and Nantucket so not Boston area, but since 2019 Somerville allows an ADU which is basically a tiny home in the backyard of another house (city officials couldn’t cite any examples when I called recently). There are subreddits for tiny home, van and RV dwellers that would be helpful.
There is someone living in a motorhome parked in the Revere Target. The motorhome seems like it isn’t going anywhere soon. The owner rides a scooter, and there is a generator kind of hidden between the motorhome and the median strip. Been there for a few weeks now, however I’m certain it’s not legal, I don’t think this person is bothering anyone so it looks like Johnny law is turning a blind eye for now.
Depends how close you consider "near Boston". I knew a number of enlisted from Hanscom AFB that lived at Minuteman Mobile Home Park. Oak Hill is in Taunton. There are a couple in Attleboro.
There's a trailer park in Chelmsford on 110 by Westford.
Define far
There are some people who live in vehicles around the city but it isn't common. Theres nearly no unoccupied land but if you look closely there are plenty of homeless folks who camp in tents and such over the winter.
[deleted]
Go luck luck finding a town 40-50 miles out from the city that will allow this with special permission.
riski_click t1_ixorj6l wrote
i'm not sure where you're going with this, but even small rural towns will have regulations about building a dwelling to live in without amenities such as plumbing and heating..
Plus, it's still Massachusetts, so you're going to have to pay a ton of money for the land, so the privilege of even building a tar paper shack is going to cost you a small fortune.