Bellingham’s newest tiny home community is a combination of two previous sites
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- North Haven merges two former tiny home villages into one 48-unit community site.
- Bellingham invested $2.6 million to purchase land and relocate village structures.
- Nonprofit Homes Now! manages site operations with aid from city and local donors.
Bellingham residents and city staff got an inside look at the new North Haven tiny home village, which combines two similar enclaves that were being forced to move.
Tuesday’s event was a grand opening of sorts, even though many residents have been there since late May, working alongside volunteers to build several new 8-by-12 cabins to replace those that wouldn’t survive the move from sites in lower Fairhaven and at the Civic Athletic Complex. Donations for construction supplies came from several local sources.
The event featured remarks from North Haven residents and city officials, along with tours of the site, which includes 48 units, an office, kitchen, laundry, and shower and bathroom facilities. Each brightly-colored cabin has heat, light, electrical outlets and room for a bed and chair. Some have air conditioning and many of the residents have personalized their spaces with plastic flower pots and plaques with phrases such as “Home is where the heart is.”
North Haven is helping Frank Jones with “getting on my feet” after several years without a home. He’d been staying in the Base Camp shelter, camping outside or living on the street.
“I’m feeling really good. There’s a lot of help here with my mental state. I’m super grateful to have been given the opportunity to be part of this community,” Jones told The Herald in an interview.
Tina Hayes, co-director of Homes Now! Not Later, a nonprofit group that is managing North Haven, addressed about 100 government officials and others who gathered Tuesday afternoon for an opening ceremony. Hayes is formerly homeless and a former resident of the village.
“I have my own home. I have my family back. And it’s thanks to you all,” Hayes told those in attendance.
A resident who introduced herself as Crystal said she had been living in a car for months and was simply grateful for shelter where she could simply stand up and stretch out.
“I’ve never wanted a room so badly,” she said.
North Haven is on city-owned property at 3300 Northwest Ave. in the Birchwood neighborhood. Its 48 units replace the 28 cabins that made up Swift Haven in a parking lot near Frank Geri Fields and 20 similar ones at Unity Village near the Post Point wastewater treatment plant.
Grant funding that helped pay for the ball fields means that the site must be used for recreation. Unity Village was in the way of planned expansions at Post Point.
Bellingham bought the North Haven site for $1.2 million in April 2024 and it cost about $1.4 million to relocate the villages. The city is providing $50,000 annually toward operating costs, according to it website.
City Council President Hollie Huthman said such villages have gained neighborhood acceptance since the first one was built six years go. She called it a “very exciting chapter” toward helping people find permanent housing.
Mayor Kim Lund said that neighbors were alarmed when Unity Village opened near her neighborhood of Edgemoor.
“I say that not to shame neighbors but to say that those same people, when this tiny home village was announced in Birchwood, they offered to come to talk to the Birchwood neighbors about what an essential part Unity Village had become to the Edgemoor neighborhood. So that is what change looks like,” Lund said. “This village here represents an enduring commitment to one of the many ways that we are going to tackle homelessness in our community.”
