Be sure to read the August, 2025 Update, below

An October 5, 2024 column in The Seattle Times by Danny Westneat, “The saga of Seattle’s empty tiny homes is building to a head” highlighted the absurdity of more than 200 of our tiny homes sitting in storage, unused, while more than 9800 of our homeless neighbors sleep in tents, encampments, and rv’s. To cap it off, the writer included the incident of a homeless woman breaking into one of our homes in our back storage area, locking herself inside, and sleeping in there for two nights. So yes, in the Fall of 2024, with the numbers of our fellow Seattleites who are homeless increasing every year, we had over 200 finished tiny homes in storage, waiting to shelter a neighbor who was otherwise on the streets and help them along the way to permanent housing. Bureaucracy can be maddening.

UPDATE: August, 2025 – the situation has improved considerably!

After just one village opening in 2023-24, there have been three openings in 2025 (Eagle Village 2.0 in March, Rosie’s Village 2.0 and Kingfisher Village both in July) and at least two more villages are announced for Seattle as of August. As we predicted last Fall, village openings do not happen with regularity but rather tend to happen in waves. As village sites are ready we need to be able to provide typically between 40-65 homes all at once. Our past experience is that, sooner or later, bureaucracy unsticks and more villages are built – and we’re going to continue to be ready when that happens.

Supporting any non-profit is a personal choice.  We respect your decision no matter what it is.  Most importantly, we celebrate your commitment to be a part of the solution in the past, present and future, with your donations, your time commitments, and your word-of-mouth sharing of the tiny home solution with family, friends, and colleagues. HOMELESSNESS IS SOLVABLE!  Over the years, we have overcome many challenges and we seem to finally be moving beyond this one too. 

Every night in Seattle/King County, WA, more than 9800 people sleep on the streets or in vehicles, according to the 2024 Point-in-Time Count.  That’s a 27.7% increase in unsheltered folks in just two years. There is a tremendous and immediate need for desirable, indoor alternatives.  Tiny homes are small structures built as temporary alternatives to living outside, so that our homeless neighbors aren’t sleeping in leaky tents, muddy encampments, unsafe vehicles, or abandoned buildings while they await permanent housing.  Tiny homes are not permanent housing and are not an alternative to building more permanent affordable housing.  Rather, they are non-congregate, transitional shelter that allows our homeless neighbors to live inside where it’s warm, safe, and dry while they stabilize in a village with support from professional staff to help move them to the next step in their lives. 

Our tiny homes are 8 ft. x 12 ft., roughly the size of a bedroom, and are equipped with a bed, linens, standing closet, and other necessities.  Once they leave The Hope Factory for the villages, they are wired for electricity and are given an overhead light, wall outlets, a space heater, and an a/c unit.  The villages provide community spaces, shared bathrooms with hot showers and flushable toilets, and a community kitchen, laundry facility, and pantry.

Our jig system and assembly line style building process allow us to work on multiple homes at a time in our 15,000 square foot building facility.  To build and assemble four walls and the roof framing takes an inexperienced group a single day.  A team of experienced volunteers can frame two homes in a day.  The remaining steps, including insulation, interior wall & ceiling panels, flooring, roofing, interior & exterior trim, and interior & exterior paint, require about two weeks from start to finish.  At a moderate and consistent pace, we finish 3-4 homes per week.

Our tiny homes are architect-designed and volunteer-built to last 20 years.  They are wood frame construction, fully insulated, painted, and roofed with standard asphalt shingles.  They also have Pergo flooring, two operable windows, and a locking front door for residents’ privacy and security.  Our homes are built on a jig system which are basically very large templates, that allow even those with no construction experience to build one.  Plans for our entire construction system, including architectural drawing for the jigs, materials lists, cut lists, and assembly steps are available for free to any nonprofit or government agency that would like them.  Email soundfoundationsnw@gmail.com to inquire.

Tiny homes are a positive solution to unsheltered homelessness because they are a quick, scalable, affordable, and desirable alternative to citizens living on the streets.  Non-group (or, “non-congregate”) shelter options, like tiny homes and refurbished hotels & motels, where people have their own key and a place to secure themselves and their belongings, are generally much more desired by folks who are otherwise homeless than are traditional group shelters.

We build tiny homes for a small fraction of the cost of other non-congregate shelter options.  And in 2023 according to LIHI, the supportive services that come with living in a tiny home village were successful 63% of the time at moving residents into permanent housing and breaking the cycle of homelessness.  That’s one of the highest placement rates in the country.

Homelessness is a complex problem with many root causes and many agencies within each government are trying to find solutions to the homelessness crisis.  We are just one way to help temporarily solve the problem.  Tiny homes are relatively inexpensive, durable, scalable, and most importantly desirable by the folks who need shelter, and they provide temporary housing until other, longer term solutions made by governments and other agencies can be achieved.  Sound Foundations NW does receive some grants from the City of Seattle and Washington State.

We build the tiny homes but no, we do not operate the villages. When the finished tiny homes leave our building, we donate them to one of our affiliated agencies, like the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI), Chief Seattle Club, or others, who cluster the homes in pre-approved sites, called villages. Villages also offer communal restroom/ shower facilities, community kitchens & laundry, security fencing, social services, and 24/7 staffing.

As much as anything, homelessness is about a lack of COMMUNITY.  Tiny home villages help residents create community among themselves and stabilize and rebuild trust after the instability of being homeless. And, the supportive services that are offered in villages help residents to address the problems that led to their homelessness in the first place, and permanently break the cycle of homelessness. As of 2024, 98.5% of tiny home village residents in LIHI-run villages who had moved into permanent housing, were still housed one year later. Tiny homes and villages don’t just move folks off the streets, they are one of the most successful solutions to homelessness.

Our tiny homes currently cost about $4500 ea. worth of materials to build (Fall, 2025).  We keep costs so low because we use a nearly 100% volunteer building crew.  About 90% of our expenses go directly to buying building materials and supplies.  The largest operator of tiny home villages, LIHI, reports average Year 1 infrastructure costs to install and run a 42-home village, of roughly $850,000. That means total construction, infrastructure, and operations costs of $24,738 per tiny home.

By comparison, King County purchases underused hotels and refurbishes them as transitional shelter through its Health Through Housing Initiative. Their 2024 Annual Report cites a one-year rate for acquisition, maintenance, and operations of $320,933 per unit.  Other factory-built shelter providers of pre-fab tiny home structures charge 4x-10x more than our homes cost to build.

We don’t disagree that ALL new shelter is good shelter, regardless of its origin. However, faced with a growing homeless population that’s not being matched by growing resources, we strongly believe in our tiny homes as the most affordable and therefore most scalable solution.

Yes, thank you!  Our building materials are all purchased, not donated, although we do receive volume discounts.  Most of our funding comes from individual and corporate donations, and we welcome any financial assistance you can offer.  To donate by check, credit/debit card, direct bank transfer, your Donor Advised Fund or from your IRA, even appreciated stock or cryptocurrency, please click the donation button, go to our donation page, or contact our Development Coordinator at devel.sfnw@gmail.com .

Yes, we are an IRS-registered 501c3 organization, EIN 85-3697725.  Donations to us qualify as tax-deductible, but please consult a tax or financial professional for your specific situation.

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We are separate nonprofit organizations but we do collaborate closely with LIHI. Regarding tiny homes and villages, Sound Foundations NW builds the tiny homes, while the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) and other nonprofits build the infrastructure for the villages, staff and manage them, and offer the supportive social services that residents need to move beyond homelessness.

As of Summer, 2025, LIHI manages 15 tiny home villages in Western Washington, with two more in the works in Seattle.  Two other service providers, Chief Seattle Club and Catholic Community Services, also operate tiny home villages within Seattle and nearby. Altogether, there are roughly 21 time home villages operating around the Puget Sound area.

See a (slightly outdated) list of the LIHI-run Tiny Home Villages here: https://www.lihihousing.org/villages

Yes.  In the villages, trained case managers help residents with tasks like document replacement and registration for benefits, educational and job training opportunities, referrals for medical treatment or counseling services, and even for addiction treatment.  These supportive services, combined with a safe and stable place to live and plenty to eat, helped more than 63% of tiny home village residents exit to some form of permanent housing in 2023 – a rate far higher than almost every other shelter model. And because residents have help addressing the issues they need to address to move beyond homelessness while still in the villages, 98% of those who move to permanent housing are still housed one year later.

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“More than 63% of tiny home village residents exited their tiny home for some form of permanent housing in 2023”

In the past, donations to Sound Foundations NW were processed for us by LIHI.  But as of 2021 we are our own 501c3-registered nonprofit (EIN 85-3697725) and we now accept all our own donations directly.  Roughly 90% of your donation goes directly to purchasing building materials for the tiny homes.  Click here to make a donation.  We are also always looking for tiny home sponsors, and corporate community partners looking to make an enormous difference in our local community.  Please email our Development Coordinator at devel.sfnw@gmail.com for more information, or see our Tiny Home Sponsor page on our website.

Absolutely not.  Our tiny homes are dignified and durable structures, offer security and privacy, and are architect-designed to last at least twenty years.  Our homes have heat & air conditioning, electricity, operable windows, and a locking door for both privacy and security.  Services available to residents include document, educational, and other administrative support, restrooms and showers, food and cooking facilities, medical and dental referrals, even referrals for addiction treatment. We know it’s not a permanent solution, but there must be alternatives to living on the ground, under the highway, or in a car, sometimes for years, AND ALSO a long-term strategy for more permanent and affordable housing.

In a perfect world, that would be the best solution.  But in reality, it takes 4-5 years to purchase a property, design a building, do neighborhood outreach, and build and occupy the building. Meanwhile, nearly TEN THOUSAND of our fellow citizens languish on the streets. Many people without homes are on wait lists for permanent housing for years.  In the meantime, their only options include living in tents, RV’s, and encampments – and THAT’s cruel.

Building tiny homes is an inexpensive, scalable, and achievable homelessness solution to get our homeless neighbors off the ground, out of the tents, and into a safe, secure, and dignified space until permanent affordable housing can be obtained.

Absolutely!  Building a tiny home is a really meaningful way for your team to come together to make a local impact.  We accept groups of up to 10 people (12 in a pinch) at a time and have hosted groups from Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing at one end of the company scale, and local real estate offices, churches, small law firms, and even scout troops at the other.

Your group will start with a short tour of our facility, called The Hope Factory.  Then, depending on the work needed that day, you could either be starting a new tiny home or else helping finish existing homes.  Either way, you’ll be making a difference!  As part of your experience, you will learn about the human side of homelessness and how tiny homes make an impact as part of the solution.  We do require advance bookings for groups.  We plan our group availability up to three months in advance, and the dates fill up quickly.  To ask about availability, please email soundfoundationsnw@gmail.com.

We welcome anyone 16 and older.  Unfortunately for safety reasons, we can’t allow those younger than 16.

Absolutely!  Homeless Is Solvable if you believe it is and if you have a plan. We Do!

Read our 3 Year Plan to end homelessness in the Seattle area here!

Please donate your time or money to this very achievable goal!

First of all, we’re so sorry for what you’re going through.  Unfortunately, we don’t offer tiny homes directly, or services like housing placement.  However, you can access services for the homeless by calling 2-1-1 on any phone. You can also find the service providers who do manage the local emergency shelter system, including local tiny home villages, on LIHI’s website here: https://www.lihihousing.org/temporary-shelter.

Yes!  We have a plan to get to Functional Zero, meaning more folks exiting homelessness than entering, IN JUST OVER TWO MORE YEARS AND FOR LESS THAN THE COST OF SWEEPS!  This plan requires roughly 450 more homes, in 9-10 new villages, by the end of 2027. 

The median stay in a tiny home village is currently about four months.  Over time and with the new villages, we can give every homeless neighbor in King County who wants one, a roof over their head, a lock on their door, food in their stomachs, and wraparound services to get them to the next part of their lives.  In other words, HOMELESSNESS IS SOLVABLE! 

As of Summer, 2025, there are 21 tiny home villages in Western Washington, mostly in King County, and fifteen of those are in Seattle.  On average, there are about 35-40 tiny homes per village, meaning there are approximately 750 tiny homes currently operating around Puget Sound.