SEATTLE — (KOMO) – Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s plan to quickly expand homeless shelter space received early support from the city council, which moved forward a proposal to give the mayor’s office funding and leasing authority to increase the number of tiny homes.
The council’s Finance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments committee voted to advance the Mayor’s request for $5-million in funding to help stand up 500 new tiny homes by June. The full council will hear the proposal next week.
Despite the approval at the committee, several councilmembers expressed concerns about the city’s response to homelessness, including councilmember Dan Strauss who said encampments in Ballard have surged in recent months.
“There is a building in the middle of our street that has a chimney, this is something I haven’t seen since the pandemic,” Strauss told the Mayor’s staff during their presentation. “If somebody is housed, then they cannot pitch a tent in public spaces. These are things we believe are going on today.”
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Tiny homes have been supported by outreach workers who say they are a low-barrier option for homeless people to get out of encampments. The city currently has just over 600 tiny homes between approximately 20 villages in the city.
Wilson’s staff says they have identified $17.5 million to help expand tiny home villages. The average annual cost per tiny home is around $35,000 when factoring in on-site staff and support services, according to a report prepared by staff at the mayor’s office.
While tiny home villages are pitched as a way to quickly address the needs of homeless people and eliminate encampments, neighbors near a village in south Seattle say the city has not kept its word.
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“We need some level of accountability, we need some level of results,” said Peter Eastey, who owns a business near a homeless encampment just off Martin Luther King Jr. Way South in the Rainier Beach neighborhood.
Eastey says when the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) opened the Southend Village in 2022, the neighbors were promised by the city ensure encampments did not reform in the area.
Neighbors say the city of Seattle has broke its promise to deal with encampments around a tiny home village (KOMO)
Instead, Eastey says a large homeless encampment has gone unmitigated despite repeated calls for help to the city.
“Sheer lack of action, absolute sheer lack of action on the city’s part,” Eastey said. “Most of the stuff in there is stolen, not most of it, I suspect all of it is stolen, and there’s no accountability for that. They know it’s stolen, the police know it’s stolen, but they won’t go on and pull it out of there. We need some level of accountability, we need some level of results, and it that doesn’t happen, things need to change.”
