Olympia church set to open tiny house village

A South Sound church is becoming the first in the community to set up a tiny house village on its grounds.

Westminster Presbyterian Church plans to add eight tiny homes, kitchen facilities and restrooms to its lot off Boulevard Road SE.

Last year, Olympia passed an emergency housing facility ordinance, which gives nonprofit organizations and faith-based communities the option to open camps to help the homeless. Westminster is the first church to make the move.

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"Almost every one of them says, ‘We need to do something,’ but they're a little afraid to do things on their property primarily, so not everyone is jumping in to do it right away,” said Peter Cook, United Churches of Olympia.

The church provides the space and helps with utilities and food. The city takes care of waste management and offers social services.

“This just allows for that pit stop for somebody to get their life together, get health care, get their education together, to move on, back into permanent housing,” said Jovita Fenwick, Plum Street Village case manager.

The church’s site will tie in with the city’s Plum Street Tiny House Village, which opened in February.

"All of the people who have gone to the Plum Street Village have come from our mitigation site," said Kellie Purce Braseth, city of Olympia strategic communications director. “All the people who came to the mitigation site were living on sidewalks, in streets and unsanctioned camps."

Treyton Sulcer said the tiny house village changed his life.

"I was homeless on the streets,” said Sulcer. "I'm [now] able to get the help I need for work and school-related things."

People who live nearby don't think the camp, which will back up to a neighborhood, is the best solution for everyone.

"Who knows what's going to happen, with the crime going up with homeless problems everywhere. I understand there's a problem, however, we need to go after the problem and not just throw money at it, and I feel like that's what we're doing,” said Kellie Grohe, who lives behind Westminster Presbyterian Church.

The city budgeted $100,000 for the project, which would support three pilot programs. City workers said it's too early to estimate actual costs for the site.

The tiny house village is scheduled to open in September.

Cox Media Group