(The Center Square) – A Seattle City Council Committee approved Mayor Katie Wilson’s plan Tuesday to build 1,000 units of new temporary housing for the homeless in the next year, but added conditions, including building units specifically for drug addicts and for women and children.
The 3-0 vote by the City Council Finance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee puts the $17.5 million plan on a fast track for approval by the full council as soon as next week.
Other amendments include monthly reports by city officials to ensure that the new temporary housing doesn’t impact the quality of life in neighborhoods by increasing crime or drug dealing.
Committee Chairman Dan Strauss said he had concerns about the speed of passing Wilson’s plan, which the mayor detailed on March 4, but said time was of the essence.
Strauss said the homeless problems seem to have been getting worse over the last three months with new homeless encampments occurring in the Belltown and downtown sections of Seattle.
Strauss, who represents the Ballard area of the city, said a makeshift structure for the homeless with a chimney suddenly appeared recently in the middle of a throughfare in his district.
“We have not made the progress I want to see,” he said.
Strauss said he was going ahead with the homeless housing plan given the city council members’ commitment to resolving issues as they arise.
Key to Wilson’s plan is the creation of more tiny villages with small one-person housing units and common bathrooms and kitchens.
City statistics presented at the city council committee meeting show that Seattle has 16 such villages with 621 units.
Wilson’s plan largely focuses on more such villages with 500 new units aimed for opening in the next several months, increasing the temporary tiny village housing stock by more than 80%
“I support tiny home villages; it’s unhumane to leave people living in tents on the street,” said Committee Co-Chair Maritza Rivera.
But Rivera said specialized housing is needed for those with special needs, such as women, children, and drug addicts.
The tiny home villages have been controversial.
On one hand, they give a roof over the heads of the unhoused, but permissive screening as to who is eligible for a unit has also sometimes meant that drug addicts have used the units to use hard drug.
While tiny home villages don’t permit drug use outside, officials who run the facilities do not monitor activities inside the units.
Andrea Suarez, a community organizer, was banned from one tiny home village last month after detailing how one unit was being used as a safe house for drug use.
One of the bills passed Tuesday increases the resident cap for tiny home villages from 100 to 150 and allows for “mega-villages” of up to 250 residents at least one site per council district.
The city would be authorized under the legislation passed to directly lease and prepare land for these villages, a move intended to reduce the months of “red tape” usually associated with establishing new sites.
Originally, the housing was supposed to be ready for the World Cup’s first game in Seattle on June 15, to help the homeless and put the city in a better light for tourists, but city council researchers say that timetable is unrealistic. They say the first housing could open by mid-July, after the last of the six World Cup games.
