This may be the 4th site in Bellingham for a tiny homes encampment for the homeless
An encampment for homeless people could be relocating to the former Clean Green site at Lakeway Drive and Woburn Street.
Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood told the City Council on Monday night, Feb. 10, that he has directed staff to look at the city-owned land — a former transfer station for residential yard waste — as the new site for Unity Village, a tiny homes encampment operated by the nonprofit HomesNOW!
“While not a permanent solution to our homelessness crisis, I believe tiny home villages can be an effective tool in transitioning people to more stable housing,” Fleetwood said in an announcement on Tuesday, Sept. 11.
The tiny homes encampment is now in the parking lot at 210 McKenzie Ave. near the Post Point Water Treatment Plant in the Fairhaven neighborhood, where it’s permitted through April 30.
If approved, the former Clean Green spot would be the fourth temporary site on city-owned land that Bellingham has made available to encampments for the homeless operated by HomesNOW!
Next up: HomesNOW! needs to apply for the permit in order to be allowed to move the encampment to the lot west of the community gardens at Lakeway Drive and Woburn Street, according to Rick Sepler, Planning and Community Development director for Bellingham.
Once the nonprofit has applied, the city will notify neighbors online and through the mail, to let them know about the proposal and how to submit comments about it.
Sepler said to The Bellingham Herald that the city also is encouraging HomesNOW! to hold a community meeting for the most recent proposal, which it has done for its previous locations.
The tiny homes would be on a total of one-quarter acre.
They could be there for up to two years, but how long will be decided during the permitting process, according to Sepler.
If approved, the tiny homes encampment at Lakeway and Woburn would be similar to the existing one in Fairhaven in that HomesNOW! could have up to 20 tiny homes to provide overnight shelter for up to 28 residents, according to a city of Bellingham announcement.
The site also would have communal bathrooms, showers, drinking water, an outdoor kitchen, containers for trash and recycling.
The tiny homes residents would have access to social services and would have to follow restrictions on drug and alcohol use.
HomesNOW! would be required to provide on-site staffing.
Until last month, HomesNOW! had feared its tiny homes encampment would have to shut down at the end of April.
Under former Mayor Kelli Linville, the city had told HomesNOW! that the Fairhaven spot would be the last piece of city-owned land that would be made available for an encampment for the homeless.
The city offered the sites to show the encampments were viable and hoped that other municipalities or organizations would step forward to offer land, Sepler said in a previous Bellingham Herald story.
So far, the city of Bellingham has made land available on a temporary basis for HomesNOW! three times.
Each time the HomesNOW! encampment moved, it was given a new name.
The first one was a tent encampment called Winter Haven, which opened from January to March 2019 behind City Hall at 210 Lottie St.
The second was Safe Haven, which was on part of the What-Comm Dispatch Center parking lot at 620 Alabama St. in the Sunnyland neighborhood from April until August.
The third is Unity Village on McKenzie Avenue, which the city allowed to be there through April. By the time this one opened, the tents had been replaced with tiny homes.
The encampments have been allowed under rules that the Bellingham City Council passed on Oct. 22, 2018, for temporary homeless shelters in buildings, tent cities, tiny homes and parking areas.
HomesNOW! co-founder Doug Gustafson has been leading the effort to find a new space.
Its former president, Jim Peterson, has been charged with allegedly embezzling more than $75,000 from the nonprofit. His trial is scheduled for March 30 in Whatcom County Superior Court.
This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 2:36 PM.
