SEATTLE — The newest tiny home village slated to soon open in Seattle could provide housing to the homeless and help get rid of one of Seattle’s most controversial encampments.
Tension has been high for parents, students and people living in and around Broadview-Thomson K-8 School in Bitter Lake, where an encampment is in a park next to the school.
“We just didn’t bring our kid over here during the peak of it during the summer. We just didn’t use the park at all,” neighbor Mario Mariano said.
Neighbors say the encampment has resulted in garbage and a spike in crime.
“As a parent of a young child, I don’t feel too safe with (the encampment) right here,” Natasha Martin said.
The new tiny home village on Aurora Avenue North near 125th Street will have 41 insulated and heated houses for the homeless. Each house was built by volunteers and neighbors.
The process of moving people out of the Bitter Lake encampment began Tuesday morning, and some will move to the new village that’s a few blocks away.
“I’m all for that, because it helps them get off the street,” Martin said.
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“There have been a lot of concerns about the encampment (next to the school). I’ve been following that. I am actually a north Seattle neighbor. I am not too far from the site. Several of them will be transitioning over within the next few days to Friendship Heights Village,” Josh Castle, director of community engagement for the Low Income Housing Institute, said.
The latest tiny house village in Seattle is the tenth run by the Low Income Housing Institute. The hope is to get people off the streets, and the new site will keep people who were living in the Bitter Lake encampment in a neighborhood they already know.
“The surrounding and local community that reaches out to them are all close to the village, so they can stay in touch with them,” said Castle.
No one is currently in the tiny homes, but the goal is for people to live there temporarily until they secure permanent housing.
The new village comes at a time when the King County Medical Examiner said 221 homeless people died in Seattle during the past year.
“People are transitioning into the village (Tuesday). It will fill up within a few weeks, it will be completely full,” said Castle.
Moving the Bitter Lake camp could create a better sense of safety for neighbors and give the unhoused a safe place to land, for now.
The village is owned by the Low Income Housing Institute, which purchased the property for $5.95 million with a loan from the Seattle Office of Housing.
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