by Meghan Fenwick
Whatcom County Health and Community Services’ 2024 Annual Update on Homelessness (1) showed a stabilizing number of homelessness compared to 2023.
These statistics do not tell the whole story, said Teri Bryant, director of the Whatcom Homeless Service Center for the Opportunity Council. (2)
Bryant and the Opportunity Council co-produce this study annually, dating back to 2018. Gathering a headcount of people staying in emergency shelters on any given day is easy enough, but locating unsheltered individuals can be challenging.
“What’s unique about this year’s point-in-time count is that people are getting tired of completing these surveys year after year,” Bryant said. “Many people choose to not participate. The point-in-time count, even when conditions are perfect, is an underestimation.”
The county and Opportunity Council are required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct this survey, and the Washington State Department of Commerce mandates the methodology. This year, the county petitioned to give homeless individuals the option to select housing affordability as a contributing factor to their circumstance. Over half of survey respondents selected this option. Other common answers included job loss, substance use or disability.
While the local government works to increase affordable housing through initiatives like rent reform, low-income assistance programs and new housing developments, local organizations work to fill in the gaps. While most homes require the signing of a lease and a mortgage or rent payment, creative solutions exist for those experiencing homelessness and the barriers to adequate housing that persist.

courtesy: Road2Home
These tiny homes were installed at Gardenview Village. It is located at the corner of Lakeway and Woburn, the former Clean Green facility.
Creative Solutions
Tiny homes villages as transitional housing options are gaining traction across the world. Bellingham has three villages consisting of over 80 units, the first established by HomesNow (3) in 2019.
“If you told me 10 years ago I’d be doing this now, I would have been extremely surprised,” said HomesNow Board Chair Doug Gustafson. “The level of homelessness seems to be getting worse over time. I saw the tiny homes as a way to make a dent in that problem, because there’s only a finite number of people who are homeless.”
At the HomesNow’s Unity and Swift Haven villages, located in Fairhaven and the Puget neighborhood, tenants live alone or with a roommate in eight-by-eight or eight-by-twelve structures with small patios and communal kitchen and restroom spaces. Under their resident-managed model, tenants rotate duties like working the front desk.
In the beginning, the city of Bellingham’s temporary shelter permit required a HomesNow board member to be on-site at the villages at all times. There are no paid staff at HomesNow, so board members would rotate days of the week, using their free time outside of their day jobs.
This permit, originally intended for 90-day use, has evolved to better serve the organization, the city and the community overtime. Board members were ordered to stay home during the pandemic, which became the new normal after negotiations with the city.
“There was a disbelief at the time that homeless people could manage their own lives and a safe village on their own,” Gustafson said. “I made the argument that the permit was unreasonable and that we wanted to come into compliance, but we needed a more reasonable permit to come into compliance with.”
HomesNow made a series of videos on their website and social media where tenants and board members advocated for their right to self-manage the village. This is the biggest contrast between Road2Home’s (4) Gardenview Village on Woburn Street, the third tiny home village in Bellingham, which off ers on-site case management 24/7. Gardenview’s monthly costs add up to roughly $30,000 (paid by the City of Bellingham), and the HomesNow villages cost $1,500 to $2,000 a month (funded by donations).
At Unity and Swift Haven, rent is considered a voluntary donation based on income, and those without income tend to help out more around the village. Tenants stay for an average of six to nine months before moving to their next living situation, around half being permanent housing, said Gustafson.
HomesNow operates under the housing-first model, which assists the homeless population with shelter first before addressing other needs, such as non-emergency health issues, job loss or other circumstances. The financial benefit of this approach is that sheltered individuals are less likely to need emergency services as frequently.
“This presents a very low-cost option, to have more places for people to live,” Gustafson said. “When people are on the streets, that’s when their medical situation gets worse. That’s when crime goes up. That’s when people get desperate.”
Housing-first does not mean an absence of rules. Individuals interested in living at either HomesNow village fi ll out applications and are subject to background checks. Violating resident policies could lead to evictions. Many decisions, including welcoming new tenants, are made democratically between the board and existing tenants.
Bumps in the Road
In its seven-year tenure, HomesNow has faced obstacles, including an infamous scandal in 2019 where former chairman James Peterson was charged with embezzling over $75,000 between 2017 and 2019. Peterson pled guilty this June, after the court case was delayed over 20 times due to the pandemic.
The case caused a shift in HomesNow policies and procedures, as well as the termination of three board members. Gustafson moved to the chairman position, where he had previously worked mostly on paperwork, website design, and other back-end tasks.
Now, board and village members contend with another looming transition. This spring, both Swift Haven and Unity Village will combine and relocate to a lot in the Birchwood neighborhood. Because the sites were originally intended for short-term use, relocation conversations began over two years ago. At Unity, the city plans to expand the Post Point Wastewater Treatment Facility into the adjacent city-owned property.
When the city purchased the new site at Northwest Avenue earlier this year, North Coast Credit Union appealed their temporary shelter permit, claiming that it would adversely affect their business. In response, the city purchased NCCU’s adjacent property.
The permit expires in two years with three opportunities to extend for one year. In the long-term, the city plans to use the site for subsidized housing.
Tiny home tenants have mixed feelings about the move, but are excited for the upgraded amenities, said Gustafson. This will include three full bathrooms with showers, an upgrade from the current gray water system, and an enclosed and heated kitchen as opposed to a tent.
Gustafson receives around 30 calls a day from people interested in living in the villages, and there are around 1,000 applications on the waitlist.
“The way you know that you don’t need these tiny home villages is when you can’t fill them and the villages are half empty,” Gustafson said.
Beyond Temporary
The housing-first model does not mean “housing-only,” said Bryant. Some homeless individuals may need more than just a place to stay, and could better ensure stability with peer support, job skills training and other services.
While HomesNow villages do not provide these in-house, board members ensure that their tenants receive referrals for the specific problems they are facing.
The Opportunity Council’s Whatcom Homeless Service Center runs the county’s referral system for all providers of homeless programs, meaning that their clients can be directed towards a HomesNow application if it is the right fit. HomesNow often refers their tenants to some of the Opportunity Council’s programs for a variety of other services, including finding and retaining permanent housing after their stay at the village.
If the tiny home villages are not right for a client, there are many other transitional or temporary housing options in the city and county that the Opportunity Council can recommend, including its own 22 North, a 40-unit supportive housing building in downtown Bellingham with dedicated rooms for young adults and veterans. The organization is also currently opening the Way Station medical respite center in collaboration with PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center and Unity Care NW.
While the city struggles to find space for emergency shelters this winter, the Lighthouse Mission (5) opened their new shelter with 200 beds in early October.
“I know that their new facility will be a success. And yet, there are also people who can’t go there for whatever reason,” Bryant said. “They can’t tolerate communal living, or they can’t go there because their abuser stays there. There’s a multitude of reasons why someone would prefer to stay outside rather than go into shelter, so I don’t know if we can ever have the perfect shelter for every person.”
Alongside transitional and emergency housing, permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing can be great options for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness, or who have been homeless for over a year.
While the waitlists for transitional housing units grow, Bryant believes affordable housing has the greatest shortage, and a greater supply could reduce the amount of homelessness at the source.
More Than Shelter
Around a third of Whatcom households are cost-burdened by their housing, or pay 30 percent or more of their income towards housing costs. Half the renters are cost-burdened.
“I know that I speak of affordability from a perspective of serving people without housing, but honestly, it affects everyone,” Bryant said. “I moved here thinking that I could afford to live here, and my vision was that I would raise a child who could afford to live here. And that’s not happening.”
The City of Bellingham, the Opportunity Council and Mercy Housing Northwest have developed several affordable housing units with dedicated units for tenants exiting homelessness in the past few years. One example, the Opportunity Council’s Laurel Forest, is dedicated towards seniors experiencing homelessness. Affordable housing typically implies a cap on income levels and a cap on rent charges. In September, the Washington State Department of Commerce released a 5-year plan (6) to address homelessness statewide, including a goal of 200,000 new affordable housing units within the next four years.
Public policy addressing homelessness affects more than housing. In 2021, just as fentanyl entered the scene, the United States Supreme Court reversed a Washington state law and decriminalized drug possession. (7) This year, the United States Supreme Court ruled that cities can penalize those sleeping or camping on public land if they pose a public safety or health risk. (8)
While the public opinion of these decisions are varied, their impact on unsheltered individuals can be drastic. Bryant can remember one client who was lined up for permanent supportive housing before he was arrested for several sitting and lying infractions where it was unlawful to be on the sidewalk. Other clients were lost to addiction and overdose.
“I don’t always have faith in systems, but I have a lot of faith in people,” said Bryant. “Talking with clients has taught me just how resilient people can be, and how clever and intelligent they are. So I have hope in people having the ability to resolve their own crisis, given adequate support.”
In preparation for their move to the Birchwood neighborhood, Gustafson anticipates a spike in donations of funds, time, and material. Volunteers have shown up in droves to build each new village over the past seven years, many previously homeless.
“We’re powered by private donations, so our success is a sign that the community believes in us,” said Gustafson.
_____________________________
Meghan Fenwick is a graduate of Western Washington University who recently earned her degree in environmental journalism.
References
- https://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/87106/2024-homelessness-report
- https://www.oppco.org/
- https://homesnow.org/
- https://road2home.org/
- https://www.thelighthousemission.org/home/
- https : / /deptof commer ce.app.box . com/ s /tl07c32p6j2w33ojxp3l9pn6s6fo58dg
- https://www.doc.wa.gov/corrections/justice/resentencing/blake.htm
- https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-175_19m2.pdf