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www.SoundFoundationsNW.org soundfoundationsnw@gmail.com
2023 Year in Review and Looking Ahead
2023 YEAR IN REVIEW
By Barb Oliver
This year was a very interesting year. We celebrated our 5th Anniversary and our 400th home. Yes, I know this newsletter is lengthy, but we did a lot of stuff! Here’s the highlight reel:
- We built with Chief Scoggins and the Seattle Fire Department on the Second Annual Seattle One Day of Service.
- We received the Green Globe Award for excellence in housing.
- We hosted King County Council Members Sarah Perry and Germay Zahilay, a team from Lowe’s Corporate, King County Deputy Executive Shannon Braddock, 46 sixth graders from Open Window School, Burien Council Member Sarah Moore, Seattle Council Member Andrew Lewis, and delegations from Little Rock AK, Spokane and Chicago.
- We made numerous safety and operational efficiencies including adding a second skymobile.
- July was Volunteer Appreciation Month with our regulars getting a free t-shirt.
- We are now case studies for Operations Management classes for both Western Washington University and UW.
- We are currently mentoring our second class of interns from Bellevue Big Picture School.
- And just last month, we awarded the First Annual Sound Foundations NW Awards, or “The Soundies”.
In January 2023, I met with Sharon Lee, Executive Director of LIHI, for lunch. Our Leadership Team wanted to set a goal of how many homes we would produce for the year. Sharon didn’t know because it is all predicated on how many villages the City of Seattle and/or KCRHA wanted to have. So, our Leadership Team brainstormed anyway and came up with a goal of between 185-200 homes. We adopted the “four out the door” every week policy: Four finished homes x 50 weeks (we are closed for two weeks) = 200 homes. That was an ambitious increase from the 168 homes we produced in 2022.
For a variety of reasons, the only village that opened between January and July 2023 was Raven Village, and that was only 22 homes, all produced by Sound Foundations NW. For the first half of the year, we were building on the 185-200 home pace, but we had to slow down because LIHI was literally running out of room at our storage facility. At our peak, we stored around 225 homes.
One significant change at LIHI was the hiring of Jay Yong, their new Project Manager for the construction of the infrastructure of the villages. Prior to Jay’s arrival, LIHI would build villages one at a time. With Jay’s guidance, they started to build multiple villages at the same time. Jay trained a lot of the construction crew to become the equivalent of our Team Leaders, which meant that LIHI could expand their construction teams on multiple sites. The result was that three villages: Henderson, Maple Leaf and Salmon Bay, all were being built at the same time. Those three villages alone will initially get 121 people off the ground.
Although we only built 146 homes last year because of the slowdown, the good news is that we learned in the first half of 2023 that we can build homes at a “four out the door” pace. We will need that for 2024.
WHAT’S AHEAD FOR THIS YEAR
If you have been at The Hope Factory or been to our website, you have seen the board that reads “Getting to Functional Zero”. This board shows how every one of our homeless neighbors can have a tiny home within just a few years and for less than the cost of sweeps.
Recently Amy Smith, the new Chief of the CARE Department for the city of Seattle visited The Hope Factory. The CARE Department takes all the non-emergency 911 calls. Amy, Sharon Lee, and I brainstormed that day and in subsequent conversations about how the tiny home villages can have a big part in supporting the work of the CARE Department. Amy’s example is this: A 911 call comes in about a man who is naked on the streets in 26 degree temperatures. That is a CARE Department call, but it is also a homeless problem. Now imagine that same man in a tiny home; clothed, warm, safe, dry, food in his stomach, and wraparound services to get him to the next part of his life. Isn’t that life a whole lot better for him? Not to mention that is one less call to the CARE Department.
Anyway, Amy asked me if I would extrapolate the Seattle numbers from the King County proposal and present that to her, which we have done. Soon we will be presenting that plan to Deputy Mayor of Housing and Homelessness Tiffany Washington and to Mayor Harrell for review. Once they have seen the plan, we will share it with you. But (shhhh…) here’s a sneak preview: three years or less, and for less per year than the cost of sweeps.
We already know that LIHI and Sound Foundations NW, along with the Downtown Business Association are asking the city of Seattle for four villages in Seattle in 2024. LIHI is also planning two more villages in Pierce County.
In so many respects, homelessness is a human challenge to solve. But in some respects, it’s simply a math problem: how many homes do we need and how can we produce that amount? Here’s how the math works for 2024: 6 villages x 42 homes per village (the current average) = 252 tiny homes. Currently we build 80% of the tiny homes that LIHI uses, so 80% of 252 = 202 homes. So, our “four out the door” every week plan should work for 2024, especially since we still have some homes in storage.
Side note: the number of villages above does not take into account any tiny home village RFP’s (Request for Proposal) from KCRHA. In their five year plan, KCRHA budgeted for 2-25 home villages, one in 2023 and one in 2024. An RFP was issued for the 2023 village in November 2022. LIHI submitted a proposal with a Letter of Support from us that stated if LIHI was awarded the RFP, we would supply the homes. (Our arrangement with LIHI on this RFP is that we will be compensated for the cost of materials.) To date, that RFP has not been awarded. The RFP for 2024 has not been announced, nor has the RFP for the 35-home village in Burien or a 14-home village for Nickelsville, even though King County has already offered Nickelsville the land. So, we’ll see what happens.
FINANCIALS
I am working on the end of the year financials for Sound Foundations NW. When we are finished and vetted by our Leadership Team and our accountant, we will publish the numbers on our website and put a link to that page in our newsletter. As always, we will also submit a Form 990 with the IRS which is available to the public and linked to our website. Until we publish, here is an overview.
We had one grant from the WA Dept. of Commerce for $167K . In past years we have received grants from Lowe’s, AWS, and the City of Seattle, all over $200K each.
The good news is that while we were spending that grant money, we were also still receiving donations from all of you, which we were able to save for this year’s expenses. In fact, this year we had over five times the number of donations from last year! The average donation was around $1000. You may be getting sick of hearing me say this, but THANK YOU SO MUCH! It is humbling every time I go to the mailbox and see one of your checks there, often with a “love note” that keeps the spirits up and keeps us going one more day.
Sometimes it’s daunting to think about the fact that we are spending around $18K each week on materials cost. In 2024, building 185-200 homes will mean between $832K – $900K in materials cost, and that’s assuming that the cost per home does not rise. To date, we have built 449 homes and donated over $1.8 million worth of tiny homes for our homeless neighbors. That’s all you and your generosity. Thank you so much for that!
BUILDING COMMUNITY
We all know that building community is just as important to us as building homes. And what a community we have! We got to celebrate building our 400th home this year with around 80 of our closest friends at an old fashioned BBQ at The Hope Factory. There was a tremendous amount of laughter and joy in The Hope Factory that day and, in fact, every day we build.
GROUP BUILDS
We built with Starbucks, Google, Meta (Facebook), Weyerhaeuser, Boeing, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and The Gates Foundation, all for the first time last year. These are just some of the many groups that we hosted, all of different interests and persuasions, yet all with the same goal with us. In fact, of the 300 days that The Hope Factory was open (six days a week x 50 weeks), 221 of those days we hosted Group Builds, and many of those groups built with us for the first time. As always, while the Group Builds were going on, an average of 10 dedicated Crew Members and 6 Team Leaders were on hand each day helping out. Our list of individual volunteers is now well over 700. All in all, including our groups, we now have thousands of volunteers.
OTHER EVENTS
We had three Eagle Scout projects in 2023 and two more are already scheduled for 2024. We also honored three people who died in 2023 with Memorial Group Builds. One of those memorial services was for Glenn, one of our own great volunteers. To our volunteers who for whatever reason are not building with us anymore: we still feel your energy and sense of hope and pride within The Hope Factory.
LOOKING AHEAD
On a personal note, first I would like to thank our Leadership Team: Beatrice, Tom, Bruce, David and Timothy for their wisdom, guidance and great ideas this year. We are truly blessed to have you all as part of our organization. Second, it is my goal this year to establish a nationwide organization of tiny home builders who solve homelessness. We will publish a monthly newsletter where we will share ideas and information that will help each of our member cities achieve our respective goals.
As for Sound Foundations NW, I am extremely hopeful for the year to come. We have a plan in place to get every one of our homeless neighbors a tiny home if they want one. We have the energy, the drive, and the experience to make it happen. We have become a shining example to other cities around the United States of what it takes to solve homelessness. Will there be challenges? Of course. There always is, and we welcome challenges as a way to learn and grow.
We are showing Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, and the rest of the country what success looks like when we all work together. Whether you are writing us a check, punching a nail gun, slinging a paint brush, talking about us to your friends, or speaking at a City Council meeting, what you do matters. Mostly, it matters to those friends of ours on the streets, over 2000 of which got into a space that is warm, safe, and dry this year because of our efforts.
We made a promise to get everyone off the streets. Thanks to you, we are keeping that promise.
Only about one in ten of our homeless neighbors involved in sweeps are taking temporary shelter:
Mayor Harrell’s report on homelessness in Seattle:
King County’s 2023 fentanyl deaths top 1,050, surpassing record:
- January 7th: Barb speaks at St. Therese Parish.
- January 11th, 12:45-2:10 pm. Interns at Bellevue Big Picture School will be displaying their exhibits. The Hope Factory will close at noon so we all can go over to the school. The address is 14844 SE 22nd St, Bellevue, WA 98007. All are welcome to attend.
- January 15th: Barb speaks at Covenant Shores
- January 31st: Sixth graders from Open Window School will be touring The Hope Factory again. On the same day, the Women of Amazon/Queen Bees will be building with us. Expect a wild time
TO VOLUNTEER
Come build with us this week! Here’s the link:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4EACAF2AA0F4C52-47026050-volunteers#/
Please remember to wear painting clothes even if you do not anticipate painting. Minimum age is 16 years. Please, no exceptions.
Clarification: If the SignUpGenius says (The name of a Group Build) AND Open Build, this means that you can volunteer even if you are not a part of the group.
TEAM LEADERS IN TRAINING: If you wish to become a Team Leader in Training, DO NOT SIGN UP for the day you wish to do this. Email SoundFoundationsNW@gmail.com and we will put you on the list.
We hope to be building with you soon!
Your Leadership Team: Beatrice, Tom, Bruce, David, Timothy and Barb
It Takes a Village to FUND a Village!
YOU are a big part of why stacks and stacks of lumber fill The Hope Factory. There are several ways to give throughout the year. Questions? Please email devel.sfnw@gmail.com. All gifts qualify as tax deductible but please consult your tax professional for your own situation.
To give by check, credit/ debit card, a Donor Advised Fund, or a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA, start on our Donate page, or:
Remember, if you sponsor a home (currently $4500), you get to name the home! Tiny home sponsors have their names (or “anonymous”) and the name of their home added to our Tiny Home Sponsor wall and join our growing list of supporters who’ve reached a little deeper to become part of the solution to ending homelessness. Email devel.sfnw@gmail.com for details.
A Few Reminders
- We do tours every day but Friday. Come visit if you haven’t been yet.
- We have a “Welcome to Sound Foundations NW” PowerPoint presentation that is also in .pdf form. If people ask you what we are all about, these are a simple thing to attach to an email to explain who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Email SoundFoundationsNW@gmail.com for this .pdf or PowerPoint.
- We fund our homes through a combination of private and public donations. For more information, please go to our website – Helping Finance the Homes.
Protocols, Address, Directions
- Volunteer at your own risk for Covid or any other illness. If you are experiencing any symptoms, please stay home.
- Masks are optional when volunteering at The Hope Factory. There is no shame in wearing a mask.
- The minimum age is 16 years. Please, no exceptions.
- When you are at The Hope Factory, please social distance whenever possible.
- Covid booster shots are not required but highly encouraged.
- We are usually there by 9 am or 2 pm on most Sundays. Make sure you double check the times in the Sign Up Genius. You can come and go as your schedule permits. Just let us know so we can plan ahead.
- Please bring your own gloves.
- Please leave your own tools at home.
- Please bring your own lunch.
- No matter what you do, please come prepared to paint.
- Warehouses can be difficult to heat and cool. Please dress appropriately.
- We currently have no indoor restrooms, Honey Bucket only.
- We understand that sometimes life gets in the way of good intentions. If you must cancel at the last minute, please contact us as soon as you know. Others may want to volunteer in your place.
- No experience necessary. We train willing hearts.
OUR ADDRESS is 5 S. Nevada St., Seattle 98109 in SODO.
Visit our Website: