This Bellingham tiny home village is facing a move. Could it come to your neighborhood?
A tiny home village in Bellingham for formerly homeless people will likely need to relocate in the next year when its temporary shelter permit with the city expires, despite the organization’s desire to stay put.
Unity Village, operated by the local nonprofit HomesNOW! in Bellingham’s Fairhaven neighborhood, opened in 2019 as the city’s first tiny home village for the homeless.
The village operates 23 tiny homes in the city-owned parking lot at 210 McKenzie Ave., near the Post Point Water Treatment Plant.
The community has about a 58% rehousing rate for moving residents into permanent housing, according to HomesNOW! board chairman and co-founder Doug Gustafson.
Temporary shelter permits for tiny home villages in Bellingham are issued for two years, with up to three, one-year extensions allowed.
Unity has been operating for about four years this way and, when its last extension expires, will need to move its facility to a new location.
“Part of why it’s considered temporary operations (at Unity Village) is that the city has been going through and evaluating the need to expand and rebuild (the Post Point Water Treatment Plant),” City of Bellingham Director of Planning & Community Development Blake Lyon told The Bellingham Herald. “So, while that location was viable for a period of time, long-term accommodation at that particular location does not work.”
The rehousing rate at tiny home villages tends to go up the longer a village is in operation, according to Gustafson. He said uprooting village residents would also be a complicated transition.
“I just want people to know that we want to stay. This model works. We can move these structures but it’s a challenge,” Gustafson said in an interview with The Herald.
People living in the village follow rules, including no alcohol or drug use, no stealing and no violence. The village offers support services for employment, housing and mental health support. Residents are also asked to donate 10% of their monthly income for utilities, if possible.
Although the community is meant to be temporary until residents find more permanent housing, some residents believe Unity Village is their best option right now. Unity Village resident Tina Hayes has lived on the site since it opened four years ago. She helped build her own tiny home and now helps manage the community.
“I’ve been offered other places to live but none of them are going to work for me. This is a community. This is home,” Hayes said.
The city recognizes the value of tiny home villages for addressing homelessness in the community, according to Lyon. So the process is currently underway to determine alternative locations that may be able to accommodate Unity Village and other tiny home villages operating under temporary shelter permits in Bellingham.
“(City departments) all come together in a conversation to look at the potential constraints of any particular property and how much space is needed to provide for these additional units,” Lyon said.
The city considers utility availability, parking space and proximity to goods and services when looking for usable land for tiny home village operations.
But, even after Unity Village is relocated, the way the temporary shelter ordinance is written means the community would only be able to stay at the new location for a maximum of five years before being required to move again. In order for HomesNOW! to operate a more permanent shelter, it would have to do so on properly-zoned private land that is not owned by the city, according to Lyon.
The city plans to have a new site selected before the community’s current temporary shelter permit expires, Lyon told The Herald.
Three tiny home villages for the homeless operate on city-owned land in Bellingham, including Unity Village and Swift Haven, operated by HomesNOW!, and Gardenview Village, which is operated in partnership between the Low Income Housing Institute and Road2Home.
