ANNOUNCER: On this episode of Ecosense... JOHN RED CLOUD: Look what we're doing in one of the toughest poverty places in the United States.

Some have likened it to a third world country smack dab in one of the most prosperous, you know, countries on the planet.

WILL JOHNSTON: I always love to say downsize your way to happiness.

JAKE BITTLE: Everybody knows it'll explode someday, but each person thinks, well, it's not gonna be me who's holding it when it explodes.

♪ ♪ JENNIE: Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota is a place of stark beauty, and a severe housing crisis.

Red Cloud Renewable is working to solve that with affordable, climate-resilient homes.

♪ ♪ JOHN: On the reservation today, housing shortage has been a crisis since the reservation system was imposed on us.

ELAN SEIDEMAN: Some official estimates place as many as 4,000 new homes needed.

You know, you think about a home housing four to six people, that's a lot of people that are in need of housing.

They might be waiting up to a decade for a home and what they receive from the government is an old trailer that was built in 1978 for, you know, disaster relief in Alabama and doesn't have the kind of insulation and resilience that is required for the extreme elements we have here in South Dakota, where temperatures might range from over a hundred degrees on many hot summer days to well below zero in many days in the winter.

HENRY RED CLOUD: I start looking at low cost, high efficiency in housing, and found myself up and down the front range of Colorado because they were doing a lot of natural build and a lot of natural build techniques.

ELAN: We as an organization got in contact with our partners at In Our Hands, which is another nonprofit, with this idea to create a sustainable, affordable home out of materials that are inexpensive, and will stand the length of time as well as many different disasters.

These homes are tornado proof, flood proof, fireproof, pest proof, you know, all of the above.

HENRY: They started their nonprofit and then they start designing this Air Crete and showed me this little dome like structure and he said, "I think we got something."

He said, "We want to come out next year to, you know, build."

I said, "Okay, all right."

CHRIS ELLIS: You've got a round home that's got to withstand wind.

It's got to withstand storms, rain, it'll shear off as well as the tightness of it.

You'll have an air exchanger so you can get the right amount.

'Cause we build 'em so tight, now we're building 'em with the windows and electrical in the walls.

The idea being that these cellular concrete homes have a very high R value.

They're very airtight.

The cellular concrete is less weight than concrete is, and it provides a very tight envelope.

JOHN: I grew up with Arlo.

I remember hearing about Arlo going up to Kili radio station, becoming a DJ, and I thought, that's pretty neat.

HENRY: Arlo reached out to me and said, now we're in a bus.

Winter's coming, and I want something more sustainable for my family.

And I said, you know, we're offering these here hyper-efficient homes.

So he immediately loaded up his family and came to RCR's campus and went and toured one that we have there.

♪ ♪ JOHN: Welcome to our little slice of paradise here.

It's hard to imagine.

This is a home, a domicile on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

From outward appearances, it's very unassuming.

You look on the inside, you've got these refined cabinets here.

You know, all this nice edges here, this finished wood, locally sourced wood here.

The great part is, it's local labor as well.

So we're creating jobs, we're putting people in homes, and we are, I think, leveraging the American spirit of like, "Hey, let's do better.

Let's be better as a country."

This is approximately 15 inches thick.

That's the depth of this.

This is what you call an insulated home.

There's no cracks, there's no seams anywhere.

It's one continuous piece, this is going to provide that insulation from those frigid temperatures and from the blistering heat as well.

Tankless water heater, fully functional, electric range, fridge, all the modern conveniences of a home.

But it's hyper-efficient.

Imagine spending on your heating bill $9 or $10 dollars a month in the depth of winter.

Maybe we'll have a little TV mounted here, maybe a little TV there.

You can sit here, unwind during the day.

And then, you know.

So you can sleep here as well.

Fully laid out.

I'm not cramped up or anything like that.

Here we have our bathroom here -- very, very efficient.

Small sink.

This is our shower here.

Composting toilet here.

So, this is the second floor loft area, as we call it.

And this is where the family would be able to take a load off and rest for the night.

Again, making good use of the space.

This is a standard bed here.

Very, very comfortable.

HENRY: People build homes, you know, traditional stick built, and it could take months, years even, you know.

And building this type of concept is really easy, really quick.

Less than a month, a person can be living within his home.

ELAN: So far, with the first few homes that we've built, including those here at our Red Cloud Renewable campus, we've been able to do those for about $25,000, so maybe $30,000 to be safe, you know, conservative estimate.

JOHN: With our cellular concrete dome home building project, we call it the Lakota Thiyuha Project, and Thiyuha roughly translates into English as to have a home, to start a family, to have a beginning.

In that manner, we can address this housing crisis that's been plaguing the reservation, which -- it's not a panacea.

Trust me, I'm under no illusions that this is going to be the end all, be all.

But I do know that it is a solution, at least it's an option.

HENRY: What we need to do is, you know, partner up and start, you know, moving down this green path together.

CHRIS: So, we're trying to facilitate the idea of career tech ed, just like you need in any towns that need affordable housing and we need more skilled labor force, but also a place for the skilled labor force to live.

So if they're building their own infrastructure to provide their own homes, for their own relatives and family, then you scale it up by teaching more and more of them how to do this, how to run their businesses, how to be part of a solution for them by them.

We're not anti-capitalism.

We're pro B Corp concept where it's like you're doing something good for the world, you're making money, you're sharing it with your employees, and you're being a kind person.

So what's wrong with that?

So they're building B Corps on steroids that make sense for them.

JOHN: If somebody lives like Arlo does, five miles from the nearest power pole, the electrical co-op will do a single line build for you.

$5 a foot.

It's not going to happen.

So one of our most recent projects is providing what's called solar plus storage.

HENRY: We as, you know, people, we forget about the energy of the sun.

We forget about the energy of the wind.

All these gifts that were given to us to use, we became a society of quick thinking, doing stuff fast, driving fast, doing all this stuff fast, talking fast, and we're almost in a confused state.

Solar's going to bring us back and then, okay, we can work with the sun.

We'll use it while it's there.

And then when it's not there, we're going to conserve, basically slows us down as humans and then gets us reconnected to the natural as the Lakota way of life.

JOHN: Red Cloud Renewable just has gained that reputation now as providing that solar warrior training and, you know, equipping those with the skills to know how to put solar panels on homes.

Generally speaking, one of a kind, first of a kind are good things, Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center is a first of a kind, one of a kind renewable energy training center on an Indian reservation.

We don't want that to be the case.

We would like other tribes to see what we're doing.

And quite honestly, they see what's happening in Pine Ridge, a very tough economic reality there.

If we can do it here, I think anybody can do it.

Look, what we're doing in one of the toughest poverty places in the United States.

Some have likened it to a third world country, smack dab in one of the most prosperous, you know, countries the planet, but we're doing it here.

And I think that's a testament to that grit, you know, that desire, that determination to see better and to see that next phase.

CHRIS: Arlo works for Kili Radio Station, he's a wonderful man, lives in a school bus and they've got kids and wife and they are destitute.

I mean, here he is a professional, knows his stuff.

Great guy, cannot afford to buy a home.

I mean, that's not right.

So how do we slowly start making those shift in paradigms so they can be part of their own solution?

We need to help them build an affordable house and then teach their children how to build those affordable houses so that they can then charge whatever the going rate is.

JOHN: One thing my dad always talks about is that we're walking the prayer forward for the seventh generation, which means the moves, the decisions we make as an organization, even at home, even in the way that we teach things to our children and pass on lessons, principles of life.

All these things intertwine to make us on this piece of land here.

I like to say unceded Lakota lands, it was never ceded.

So we are on the Pine Ridge reservation boundaries, but our mindset, I think remains the way it was on the plains, roaming free.

You know, the sky's the limit.

JENNIE: MicroLife Institute promotes living in "less space" to enjoy "more life."

I visited with Will Johnston in Clarkston, Georgia, to experience his model tiny house neighborhood.

♪ ♪ What is the beautiful part of this community and sharing the space?

WILL JOHNSTON: The thing about living in a space and, you know -- heads up, surprise, I live here too.

I'm not just a supporter, I'm also a member.

It's that idea of like, being able to live in an organic area that allows for connected community.

So if you look around, we see usable sized front porches, we see a common area, we see parking off to the side.

These different elements allow us to interact as humans organically, versus the normal -- Pull in, drive in, shut the garage, go to your private backyard.

So there is a large group throughout the United States that want to live a little bit more connected with their community.

And so how can we build community through design, through infrastructure, through just simple planting a garden that allows people to gather, even a campfire for people to gather around?

JENNIE: What's the definition of a tiny house?

WILL: It all depends on which state you're in and even your local municipality to really understand what the definition of a tiny house is.

We consider micro-building to be a thousand square feet or smaller, but we really like to help people understand what housing options mean and are to our community.

JENNIE: How many houses are in here and why and how did you plan this?

WILL: So you are seeing behind me and around me, the Cottages on Vaughn.

We were working with the city of Clarkston, we helped update their cottage court ordinance and then the mayor at the time just said, "You want to build one?"

And we, at that moment, were like, "We've never done this before."

So we took it on, and voila, we took 0.57 acres and put eight houses on them and they're all under 500 square feet.

But what's great about this, these are all fee simple single family homes.

They're just smaller.

So every house has their own lot, every homeowner owns their own land and then we share this amazing, beautiful common area in between.

JENNIE: What are the benefits of a tiny home?

WILL: You're already being so much more sustainable.

You think about it, less materials to actually build the structure, and then how much do you think it takes to heat or cool it?

Not that much of your money.

But then also it's a small footprint so you can be closer together to your neighbors, which allows you to save on land costs, taxes, all around you are going to reduce your costs overall while being sustainable.

♪ ♪ JENNIE: So, what surprises people most about your tiny house?

WILL: So, I think what surprises most is the comfort.

When you walk into my house, what greets you is height and light.

We have six foot tall windows, we have high ceilings, and that's what makes a small space feel large.

We've had almost 6,000 people come visit us over the years.

We host tours.

We are a nonprofit.

We want people to see, feel, and touch these spaces so they're not afraid of 'em.

So they're saying, "You know what, This might not be for me, but I see the value for other people to live here."

JENNIE: Can you speak to some of the outdated laws that make it very challenging to build tiny houses and how you deal with that?

WILL: We really adopted a suburban style zoning law since the 1940's and 50's.

We were told the American Dream was a single house, picket fence, two car garage.

So we're painted a picture and we're said, "This is what you need."

And in reality, it's like we need a whole spectrum of options for people to actually live in sustainable spaces.

JENNIE: When I drove down here, I just see the farmland disappearing and it's disappearing by the acre per minute for urban sprawl.

Would this help that problem?

WILL: We can't keep expanding.

Everyone thinks, "Oh, we can just keep growing."

We can't.

I really like Portland, Oregon's model where they drew a line around their city and say, "That's our city limit.

We can't go out anymore.

We need to protect trees.

We need to protect our farms.

We need to protect our environment.

We can't just keep taking from this earth."

I want developers and I want municipalities to ask themselves, how can we build a more walkable, connected community?

As a culture, we need to have a reckoning and understand it's okay to have the density and walkability, to have those corner shops just down the street, be able to walk out your house and not get in your car.

I'm not saying get rid of cars, I'm not saying "boo" to capitalism, but we need to build in a way that actually allows us to connect.

JENNIE: Can downsizing help people age in place?

WILL: I always love to say downsize your way to happiness.

And so some people have a hard time right now.

They show their wealth through their stuff and the size of their home.

They need to have a little, you know, enlightening themselves to understand that the laws that they're protecting for their property value is not allowing them to have a better life when they're ready to retire and downsize.

JENNIE: Are you using this development as a model to other people around the country?

WILL: This pilot project has won global attention.

I'm giddy the fact that all I did was put eight houses on a half-acre and people are like, "Oh my gosh, how did you do that?"

All the states are having a huge housing crisis right now and we're really good at talking.

But what we need to do is actually act and acting is changing policy to allow us to be more creative with our land and build the density we need to support that walkability.

5% to 10% of America is walkable, yet 65% of Americans say they want walkability.

And then they go vote no for a new type of housing option that's being built down the street.

JENNIE: So people actually have an option to vote to help this movement?

WILL: The biggest thing that someone can do is understand zoning and better density for their community.

It's so important for you to educate yourself about housing and zoning because unfortunately a lot of leaders don't.

JENNIE: So, if you were looking into the future in 20 years, where would you like to see the housing developments going?

WILL: I would like to see basically a small town revival.

I see this renaissance period of people realizing, You know what, there's this great little town that I just drove through and they've got broadband, they've got connectivity, they've got great walkability.

There are so many amazing small towns that just need those entrepreneurs that just need that little bit of extra life and humans to add to the work of it.

JENNIE: And maybe putting down their devices and meeting their neighbors.

WILL: Yes, yes!

♪ ♪ JENNIE: When most people think about climate change, they imagine it in the future.

Jake Bittle's book, "The Great Displacement", looks at climate migration inside the United States, right now.

♪ ♪ JAKE: Every year in the United States, tens of thousands of people lose their homes as a result of climate disasters like floods and fires.

And many of them never make it back to the homes that they left behind.

And those people are engaging in a kind of chaotic, almost invisible migration across the United States to new places that are just starting to grow or just becoming clear.

I wanted to start the book in the Keys because it's a place that's suffering from two kinds of climate vulnerability... huge hurricanes that last a couple days and they destroy everything.

And the sea level rise, which happens over the course of multiple decades.

The Keys, under most projections, are more or less doomed by 2100.

Even if they never get hit by another hurricane, the pace of sea level rise is going to consume a lot of those islands and make many other islands unlivable.

Even though scientists know there's gonna be a ton of sea level rise on the Eastern seaboard over the next century, that fact has not yet been integrated into the housing markets in places like Miami or Norfolk, Virginia or Boston.

So, people who live in those areas, they sell their home to somebody else who then can live there for a while and sell it to somebody else.

And even though, the future value of that home is zero, because one day it'll be underwater, people can keep selling it and buying it, and selling it and buying it.

I liken this to, somebody passing a stick of dynamite to another person who passes it to another person.

Everybody knows it'll explode someday, but each person thinks, well, it's not gonna be me who's holding it when it explodes.

People in the United States who have to buy flood insurance are those who live inside a FEMA's designated flood zone.

Millions of people live outside of those flood zones, but they're still highly vulnerable to flooding.

Then when they do flood, FEMA basically can't help them recover their homes and their belongings because they didn't purchase insurance coverage.

And the government sets the prices of that insurance by creating these giant maps of where there has been flooding and where the government thinks that there's gonna be flooding.

And these maps, they're extremely flawed.

They don't rely on very good data.

So you have thousands, or some people would say millions of people who live in a flood zone, they just don't know it because they're not on the federal maps.

When, at some point the housing market catches up with increasing climate risk and people start to leave coastal areas like Miami, for instance, or New Orleans, the projections are that they'll probably go to the closest city in the same region that doesn't have the same risk profile.

So we could imagine people from Miami going to Orlando, or people from, Mobile, Alabama moving to Atlanta because, there's cultural, political, economic reasons why you might not wanna move too far away.

So we think that cities across the southeast and the southwest, as well, will start to gain population as people flee these, sort of, extremely vulnerable coastal areas.

There's a big difference between somebody who is worried about maybe suffering from a disaster in the future and wants to leave an area and they're choosing where they move, and somebody who loses their home in disaster and then can't afford to rebuild it or doesn't have the insurance coverage to go back.

The people who are most likely to leave a given place, they tend to be younger and more mobile.

I think that elderly people and established families have a more difficult time, uprooting themselves and leaving somewhere behind.

Scientists talk about this thing called the extreme heat belt.

By 2050 or so, that belt will extend from Miami, basically all the way west to Los Angeles and probably as far north as Dallas or Atlanta.

I think that it's gonna be a very powerful driver of climate migration because it's not a 1% chance that you get hit by a hurricane.

It's a 100% chance that you're not gonna be able to go outside for the entire month of July.

There's a lot of things that cities can do to protect against this, right?

Like they can ensure that people have access to affordable air conditioning.

They can put more shade and more trees in public spaces so people don't get caught in the sun and get heat stroke.

But the adaptation capability is limited.

And that's gonna have a huge effect on whether those places can attract young talent, whether people are gonna wanna, keep their mother there in assisted living facility or raise a young child there, knowing that you're not gonna be able to go outside in the summer in those places.

That's a powerful psychological push factor.

I think one thing that climate disasters have shown right is that the existing housing market and housing system in the United States is just not sufficient to protect everyone, even when there's no disaster happening.

But then when a hurricane destroys thousands of homes, a housing market will go totally haywire.

And I think the pace of these disasters has encouraged more creative thinking about what it would mean to house everybody.

In addition to new ways of building homes, there's also a lot of interest in alternate forms of energy.

Microgrids can make communities energy independent, and they don't have to wait, weeks for their power to come back on after a disaster.

Most experts believe that $1 spent on disaster preparation or disaster resilience saves $6 of post-disaster spending.

They just take care of the relocation or the retrofit up front.

And then when the disaster happens, the people who live in those homes are much less vulnerable.

And the federal government should provide moving stipends and relocation assistance to help people get out of the riskiest places, so that they're not exposed to future disasters.

We can start taking some of the most vulnerable cities and towns and making space for nature and water to do what they need to do in those places.

I think that there's two reasons to be optimistic.

One is that public awareness of climate change and the willingness of elected officials to act on climate change has grown, so much more than people would've predicted.

The other thing though, is that I think that after speaking to hundreds of people who went through these dislocation experiences after disasters, I was surprised by how resilient many of them are and how much people were able, after a lot of financial stress and difficulty and trauma, to build new lives in new places.

And I think that the best-case scenario, given that there's going to be more disasters, is that we could use these disasters as an opportunity to build new places that are safer and fairer and more accessible than the places that we're leaving behind.

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