Post navigation

Prev: (05/21/18) | Next: (05/22/18)

Plans underway for new Yesler Tiny House Village in the Central District

A tour of the 22nd and Union village in 2016

People living near 18th and Yesler will gather Tuesday night to learn more about a plan to bring more neighbors to the area in a new Tiny House Village project from the Low Income Housing Institute.

“This new village will shelter homeless families, homeless students, seniors, veterans, singles and people with pets,” the announcement from LIHI says.

Tuesday’s community meeting is one of two gatherings planned to discuss the project that is envisioned for vacant land across from the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute in the Central District.

18th and Yesler Tiny House Village Community Meeting

LIHI “will operate the village and help people obtain long-term housing and employment” while its church partners in the project New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and Truevine of Holiness Missionary Baptist Church “provide services, clothing, blankets, donations, and meals.”

LIHI operates similar villages across the city including the cluster of small houses at 22nd and Union. The community is self managed and residents hold meetings to work on the management of the camp. The village also helps tenants save money and eventually move into standard housing as residents only pay a small amount for utilities and rent can be paid by working security shifts and earning participation credits. Each house costs roughly $2,200 in materials.

So-called “bridge housing” like the villages has risen in favor in Seattle under the Durkan administration and somewhere around $2 million of the expected $48 million in revenue from the new big business head tax would be apportioned for similar projects.

UPDATE 5/23/2018: 400 employees from Seattle’s Vulcan will come together Friday to build the new homes, the company announced Wednesday:

Vulcan Converge will take place at CenturyLink Field Event Center from 8am to 4pm where Vulcan employees, along with LIHI and contractors from the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Washington, will build 30 tiny houses that are 8’ x 12’, the size of a small bedroom. The tiny homes are more than just four walls – they will be insulated, heated, with windows, porches and locking doors. Construction industry experts, led by nine AGC contractors, will be leading and instructing volunteers onsite.

“It is impossible to miss the homeless crisis all around us, so I am personally gratified to see so many of our employees volunteering to tackle this project,” Bill Hilf, Vulcan CEO, said in the announcement. “Hundreds of employees from Vulcan, the Seahawks, the Allen Institute, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and MoPOP will step up to contribute their time and energies to make a contribution toward addressing this problem.”

 

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.

 

 
Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

9 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
The Last Sane Person On The Hill
The Last Sane Person On The Hill
5 years ago

A bit ironic that the ad displayed in the article was “Costco now hiring – $19 to $24/hr”

Happy Campers
Happy Campers
5 years ago

We’re talking the “Un-hire-ables” here.

PS
PS
5 years ago

Another LIHI camp just like the Ballard camp where residents are NOT checked for warrants. The Ballard camp housed the rapist originally from Texas that violently choked and raped a woman in a Leary Way car dealership bathroom last week. He was previously featured in a Times article about Ballard Nicholsville. These camps do not check for warrants. Some check for sex offenders, but there outta be comprehensive background checks.

Christine
Christine
5 years ago
Reply to  PS

Landlords in the City of Seattle are barred from checking criminal backgrounds (except lifetime sex offender registry status). Why should the homeless camps be held to stricter standards than other types of housing?

Neighbor
Neighbor
5 years ago
Reply to  PS

To PS: Correlation does not equal causation. The odds of this individual committing that horrendous crime because of the fact that they had housing are slim.

RWK
RWK
5 years ago

Are mental health and addiction interventions occurring in these tiny house camps? If not, they should be, as otherwise some of the temporary residents will never achieve permanent housing.

Adam
Adam
5 years ago
Reply to  RWK

These camps aren’t about putting people into housing, they’re about keeping funding flowing to LIHI. If they weren’t, we’d see some success metrics and less camps over time, not more.

Enabling folks to live in wooden boxes and stay addicted to drugs, disguised as compassion. It’s frankly quite disgusting.

ltfd
ltfd
5 years ago

Sound and fury signifying nothing- except a virtue signaling play village.

Tammy
5 years ago

Lihi shouldnt be running the the encampments they rude and snobbie towards others and they think they can do what ever they want to do or invade your medical records they dont need to. Know if some one is having a baby or not or need to know if your are having one to house you and if you are a couple or sing or if you married with out kids the thing of it is its none of their damn bussiness or your medical records about your disiablies are or what medical history is they font need to run the encampments they need to build them and let the people run them and to run their own camp and stay out of other people lives a lone and keep others in their houses that they put in and keep you in it as long as you are living Every day life . i hate lihi i am out in the cold in a open tent and i have major medical issues and i am sick and i have a cold and i am enaged to be married soon and hes out in the cold with me and now hes sick with a cold of because of lihi bull shit so i am going to sue lihi for this shit and they better fix this shit saying the tiny homes are for families only shit they have single men and women in the tiny homes and couples in the tiny homes and families you can contact me at 253 802 6862 and lihi is full of shit on things and us people should be running the encampments and et the rules their own shelves