Tiny House Villages
Background
Tiny House Villages have proven to be one of Seattle’s most humane and successful harm reduction supports for people facing homelessness. They provide the necessities essential to life with human dignity, like privacy, safety, community, restrooms, showers, and laundry, and a place to store one’s belongings. Many villages are self-managed, where residents are empowered to democratically run their own communities. Seattle’s tiny house villages have been able to help a higher proportion of their residents find housing than other forms of shelter.
Councilmember Kshama Sawant is sponsoring a bill to expand access to Tiny House Villages throughout Seattle. This bill will allow Seattle to issue permits for from 0 to 40 villages, in any zone. Permits will continue to be for one year, but can be renewed each year. There are currently nine tiny house villages in Seattle.
Resources
- Presentation: Tiny House Villages
- Draft Tiny House Village Bill
- Central Staff Memo on the Draft Tiny House Village Bill
- Tiny House Villages - SEPA Threshold Determination
- Tiny House Villages - Notice of SEPA Threshold Determination
- Tiny House Villages - SEPA Environmental Checklist
- Tiny House Villsages - Notice of Public Hearing