By Alaa Hasan
Low Income Housing Institute Volunteer Programs Manager
Houses being built by Sound Foundations NW and LIHI volunteers will be moved to Southend Village. (Photo from Alaa Hasan)
After the recent snow storms, it’s impossible to ignore the thought of hundreds of people trying to survive through the freezing nights. Soon, a new resource will be available to the Rainier Beach area to serve people who face this situation nightly. Truevine of Holiness Missionary Baptist Church, the Refugee Women’s Alliance of Washington (ReWA), and the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) will develop the Southend Tiny House Village to provide shelter, safety, and community to individuals, couples, and families experiencing homelessness. Tiny house villages are a sustainable and rapid solution to ensure we do not lose another displaced member of the community to the extremities of nature.
“LIHI is excited to work with Pastor Lawrence Willis of Truevine of Missionary Holiness Church to develop a new Tiny House Village in the Rainier Beach Community. There is an urgent, unmet need for emergency shelter in the BIPOC, immigrant, and refugee communities in Rainier Beach,” said Sharon Lee, executive director of LIHI. “Our partner will be Mahnaz Eshutu, the executive director of ReWA, whose agency will provide culturally relevant wrap-around case management services to our villagers.”
Tiny Houses at LUV Village in South Lake Union (Photo from Alaa Hasan)
We are committed to working with our neighbors and organizations to reduce the number of unhoused individuals, provide a safe harbor, and a hopeful future. LIHI hosted a meeting to discuss this opportunity.
Truevine of Holiness Missionary Baptist Church and LIHI listened to the feedback given by the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, the African Community Housing & Development, and other community-based groups.
“I am distressed by the number of people I see sleeping in doorways, parks, and in their vehicles during this freezing weather here in Rainier Beach,” said Willis. “Southend Village will be a critical resource in our community in getting our unsheltered neighbors inside, warm, and safe, and on a path to permanent housing. By working together, teamwork will make the dream work.”
Tiny Houses at True Hope Hope Village on 18th & Yesler (Photo from Alaa Hasan)
As an essential community that individualizes each experience, the tiny house village program is an enhanced shelter model that provides one bedroom spaces for individuals, couples, and people with pets, and multi-home accommodations for families. Each village comprises approximately 40 homes with locking doors to ease anxiety, laundry facilities, hygiene services, community space, and 24/7 staffing including onsite case management. Unsheltered persons lose a lot of what they own, including their IDs and/or important documentation. ReWA case managers will work directly with clients, who are bound to a Code of Conduct, to connect them to resources and provide the support they need to obtain a new ID, ensure a stable monthly income through benefits or employment, and help people transition into permanent housing. The Code of Conduct requires them to become an active participant in the community.
LIHI and Truevine of Holiness Missionary Baptist Church will provide people living unsheltered in South Seattle with safe, warm, dry, and healthy shelters instead of encampments, cars, doorways, or other uninhabitable places. This tiny house village program is not meant to be permanent housing but a starting point for these residents to get back on their feet. Southend Tiny House village at 9101 Martin Luther King Jr Way South will provide shelter to vulnerable families, immigrants/refugees, and others from the BIPOC community. With this in mind, we believe our tiny house villages can pave the way for additional affordable housing in the area. Similarly to our Othello Tiny House Village plan, we want to convert our tiny house villages into affordable housing apartments, which is the ideal option.
Lee said, “At Southend Village, we will be able to provide more than 40 families, couples, and single adults who are living unsheltered a safe, heated, welcoming tiny house, with privacy and dignity. What’s even better, the village will serve as a bridge to permanent housing.”
LIHI has developed and operates 2,500 units of affordable housing in Puget Sound. LIHI recently opened George Fleming Place at Othello Park with 106 units of permanent affordable housing. LIHI is also working with SeaMar to purchase a building on Beacon Hill that will serve homeless women.