Here’s how much the new tiny home village will cost Bellingham
More than $1 million to build and operate for two years a tiny home village for homeless people has been approved by the Bellingham City Council.
An enclave of hut-like dwellings called Garden View is planned for a vacant site on the northwest intersection of Lakeway Drive and Woburn Street, near the Parks and Recreation Department operations office and a city-operated community garden.
It gives people without permanent housing a place to live, keep their belongings and get help finding a home.
“The most effective shelters are the ones who focus on getting people into housing. They’re the ones that maximize ‘throughput,’” Councilman Michael Lilliquist said at the Monday, March 8, meeting when the funding was approved.
“If it works out well, it won’t be 35 tiny homes with people in them, it will be the same 35 homes serving different people — because they’re put into housing,” Lilliquist said.
“A place to stay, not be cold and move into housing, that takes a higher level of commitment,” he said.
Most of Garden View’s construction and operating costs will be paid through the real estate excise tax fund and the federal Community Development Block Grant program, according to a report on the project from Tara Sundin, economic development manager, and Forrest Longman, deputy finance director.
“These are villages that are fully staffed, that come with case management,” Sundin told the City Council in a committee meeting Monday.
“Tiny homes are shelter. Tiny home encampments are not housing,” Sundin said.
Construction is expected to cost about $500,000 and annual operation is about $360,000, Sundin told the council.
Some $193,000 in costs — such as sinks and microwaves — can’t be covered with tax and grant funds, so the council voted unanimously Monday to take that money from the general fund.
Council President Hannah Stone abstained because her husband once served on the board of directors of a group affiliated with the project.
Garden View will be the city’s third such temporary shelter, after Unity Village in Fairhaven and Swift Haven at the Civic Athletic Complex.
It will be staffed around the clock and offer housing placement and other services through the Low Income Housing Institute and Road 2 Home, said Rick Sepler, planning and community development director.
“(Low Income Housing Institute) places 57% of its tenants into permanent housing within a year,” Sepler told the council.
And it won’t affect the Lakeway Community Garden, said Steve Janiszewski, park operations manager
“We don’t expect any changes to the garden. There might even be good interactions, I would think,” Janiszewski told The Bellingham Herald.
City officials are holding an online meeting from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 11, to describe the project for residents of the nearby Whatcom Falls and Puget neighborhoods.
Register ahead to watch online or listen by phone at 1-253-215-8782, 1-669-900-6833 or 1-929-205-6099. with the meeting ID of 995 4943 4196 and password 2021.
