Everett's Palisades Village could be educational model for Bremerton housing solutions
EVERETT – A ferry and van ride away, Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler and a collection of housing service representatives gathered at Everett Gospel Mission’s Palisades Village Tuesday for a tour of the city’s pallet home village.
The group circled around John Hull, the mission’s director of strategic initiatives, as he led a tour through a 40-unit neighborhood of 64-square-foot, single-room shelters. Among the group were Wheeler, Captains Lance and Dana Walters of the Salvation Army, Jill Stanton of the Bremerton House Authority, Tony Ives of Kitsap Community Resources, Joe Crain of St. Vincent DePaul, and Doug Washburn and Carl Borg from the county’s Human Services Department.
As Bremerton's city leaders face the city’s homelessness crisis and growing encampments with camping ordinances and searches for overnight shelters, Wheeler said he is exploring a “tiny-home” adjacent shelter as an option for transitional housing and overnight shelter in the city. He and the other leaders looked toward Everett’s successful establishment of Palisades Village for education and inspiration for possible solutions that could apply in Kitsap.
The low-barrier, non-congregate shelter sits beneath an I-5 overpass where Everett’s not-so-lovingly-named “Tweakerville” once was. The area was known for its drug use and crime and even had a livestream view of the sidewalk, but not anymore.
Palisades Village was erected in 2021 with 20 units initially, then added 20 more in a 2022 expansion by a partnership between the mission and Pallet, an Everett-based small temporary home manufacturer. The shelter is enclosed with a wire fence and features 24-hour security, five private bathrooms, four showers, an outdoor cooking area and a community room. There is no substance use allowed on campus, though residents are given amnesty lockers for storage with no questions asked.
The shelter is built on light industrial city-owned property. The first 20 units were funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act, then by state Department of Commerce’s emergency housing funds.
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As Hull led the group through the unit rows and displayed the inside of a newer unoccupied unit, Wheeler and the group asked questions, mulling over the logistics, operations and funding about the shelter’s model.
“This is just part of our due diligence,” Wheeler said. “I'm currently checking our code and our zoning for areas around the city and appropriateness for areas around the city.”
Wheeler was interested in the shelter’s construction model, its layout, the positioning of the bathrooms, its cooking and eating areas, waste removal, security, lighting and other investments.
A years-long project to create a tiny home shelter in South Kitsap championed by County Commissioner Charlotte Garrido failed this summer without housing a single homeless person. But, Wheeler believes the project may be possible in Bremerton.
The site would likely need to be built in a general commercial zone, away from residential neighborhoods, Wheeler said, and the layout would not be hard to accomplish. The prep work would just be leveling a site, getting electrical infrastructure in place, and ensuring fire access among a few other tasks.
“The layout is dignified and efficient,” Wheeler said. “It’s a solid place for folks to get their feet back under them.”
Wheeler continues to search for viable locations to erect an overnight shelter by the time spring comes and the Salvation Army closes its cold weather overnight shelter, which is scheduled to open Nov. 1.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bremerton leaders tour Everett pallet home shelter
