If it will take a regional approach to solve Seattle and King County’s homeless crisis, perhaps leaders will have to look for help in the suburbs.
There is at least one example of it already happening, in an out of the way industrial park near Arlington.
“Right now, our heart says we want to build houses for the homeless,” says Darrel Potter, of Buddy Shelters, LLC. He’s been manufacturing and constructing tiny homes since 2015. Backyard sheds they are not.
“It’s called a structural insulated panel,” he said Friday while walking through the warehouse, pointing out some of the materials that are gathered and assembled. The pieces can be assembled, like parts of a puzzle, clamped together by metal connections.
“They’re better that the house you live in, they’re better than the house I live in. Why do something less for the people you’re trying to help,” he says. “The panels are rated at 100-year lifecycle, the aluminum is a 200 years lifecycle.”
The Non-Profit Low Income Housing Institute has already bought and transported ten of the ready-to-build homes, with half being installed in a new tiny village in Ballard, and another five in Seattle’s Central District.
LIHI and Seattle have also asked for additional hygiene centers which serve as bathrooms and showers. Potter’s employees, which include military veterans, and putting them together for placement now.
The concept is gaining momentum in some chambers of City Hall. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is calling for one-time emergency funding for immediate shelter, like tiny homes. She made the announcement Wednesday, at the village in Ballard.
Not all are supportive. Just Thursday, a South Lake Union meeting brought out dozens of opponents worried about a potential site in that neighborhood. There have also been many critics of the sanctioned village in North Seattle, called “Licton Springs”.
But Potter believes it is an effective, efficient use of resources.
“(It’s) much warmer and dryer than living in a tent - we can actually build thing for less money than living in a tent - but we desire to build something that lasts a long time," he said.
