By Hali
The Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) is moving forward with the planned development of a tiny home community on Plum Street. This development of thirty tiny homes will house approximately 40-50 homeless people, and will be funded by the city of Olympia. This is part of a city and county-wide response plan to Olympia’s homelessness crisis, alongside several programs focused on providing support services such as emergency supplies and counseling.
LIHI held an information session on Jan. 17 to outline the plan and field concerns from the public. Executive Director Sharon Lee, who has held her position since the organization’s inception in 1991, explained that this community will prioritize couples as well as considering people on a vulnerability index, a measure that considers how at-risk members of the homeless population may be.
This housing is intended as temporary housing to give people the security they need to get back on their feet and back into the job and housing market. This includes laundry facilities and 24/7 staffing. LIHI will have caseworkers to help residents out, as well as partnering with other groups such as Sidewalk to supplement services. “We don’t set an artificial date,” Lee explained when asked about the timeline for residents at LIHI villages, “but we try to move people out as soon as possible.”
An unnamed member of the community announced that he owns rental properties near the planned community, asking Lee if LIHI has any intention to drug test residents. The community member alleged that he finds countless needles and blankets disposed of on his properties. “We are running our facilities in accordance to our code of conduct,” Lee responded, “If anyone is doing anything illegal we will call the police. We don’t do drug testing because we are not a recovery center.”
In acknowledgement of the reality that substance use is a coping mechanism to deal with the reality of homelessness, the code of conduct does not blanketly prohibit substance use, opting for a ban of substances, including alcohol, both at the facility and within one mile of it. Lee further detailed that their use of “progressive discipline,” and that drug use within the facility is grounds for instant removal.
John Brown, a young and energetic man who has experience with the operations of other LIHI villages in the Seattle area, will be directing the Plum Street village. Brown detailed the selection process, explaining that the residents will go through Coordinated Entry, a county run program. All residents must already be homeless and they must be from Olympia. There is an additional prioritization of people who currently reside in the Mitigation Site, the officially managed one of the two main encampments in Downtown Olympia.
Theodore Sanchez, a homeless man and a volunteer, proclaimed his faith in the program. Living in his car while maintaining a job, Sanchez spoke of the homeless community’s “burning desire to be part of the community.”
“I run multiple properties for a fraction of the price,” the same unnamed community member exclaimed as the price was announced at $600,000 a year. This landlord was not considering that the price includes the cost of caseworkers, 24/7 staff, utilities, and one hot meal prepared for the residents every day. The $600,000 figure relied on the low end of the projected number of residents at 40, at the high end of 50 residents this project would cost $750,000 a year.
Keylee Marineau, the Thurston County Homelessness Prevention and Housing Coordinator, noted that “it is hard to get an accurate count of the homeless population because of the transient nature of the population, but estimates suggest there could be upward of 1000 un-housed residents in the greater Olympia hub, and the actual count could be higher.” If this strategy were to be applied to the entirety of our homeless population, the cost would be around 15 million dollars a year.
Of course, the planned development at Plum Street is not intended as a one-size model for how to handle our homelessness crisis, it is specifically geared as transitional housing towards re-joining the work and housing market. It is a solution that is not geared towards those that are unable to rejoin the housing and job markets.
Lee alluded to this reality when she explained that they have at other facilities moved residents into alternative housing options, such as one time where they had an elderly disabled woman who proved incapable of taking care of herself. One of their caseworkers was able to move her to hospice care instead, which better suited her needs.
In order to manage Olympia’s homeless crisis, we need a diversity of tactics. This appears to be a good tactic for those who are in a position to rejoin the labor force and just need some assistance and a stable housing situation to get started. In the words of Theodore Sanchez, “We need your help to help us move forward.”
