Housing is a whole different idea. These would be summer cottages in their most elaborate form, a trailerable floating "camper", for more spartan builds.

Bryans design is quite innovative in that his shanty boat is trailerable and good looking(better looking than many "boats" these days to my eye). It won't need housing infrastructure, at all. In fact I could easily see it off the grid with solar panels on top both for electric storage and hot water as well as catching rain water. A composting toilet and you have by all intents and purposes, a boat, that would pass any mooring requirements I'm aware of(in fact it may be more legal than most on moorings today). Simple outboard power, these could spend quite a bit, legally, in some very pristine locations.

Houseboats on the other hand, are not boats at all.