Inside a massive warehouse in Seattle's SODO neighborhood, volunteers saw and hammer two-by-fours for a tiny home. In a matter of hours, they can have walls up and a roof atop the nearly 100-square-foot structure, meant for people experiencing homelessness.
The work is supervised by Sound Foundations NW. The nonprofit receives money from the City of Seattle, King County Regional Homelessness Authority and Washington State’s Department of Commerce. The finished product is donated to local governments that need them.
Barb Oliver, director of the nonprofit, said homelessness is a big problem with lots of solutions, including what she calls triage.
"It's when people first get out on the streets, and how can we get them from that to the next part of their lives," she said.
It's been more than a decade since the City of Seattle and King County declared a state of emergency over the homelessness crisis. But it’s still a central issue in Seattle, and a major sticking point in the mayor’s race between incumbent Bruce Harrell and challenger Katie Wilson.
While large encampments of people who are unhoused are no longer on downtown sidewalks or crowding city parks, the number of people living unsheltered in King County has increased. According to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, that number has risen from 7,685 in 2022 to 9,810 in 2024. Residents in Ballard and Lake City are also reporting more instances of people living on the streets.
- Both candidates agree that adding tiny homes could reduce the amount of people living on the street without shelter. Among their differences, Mayor Bruce Harrell wants to build more affordable housing units. Challenger Katie Wilson wants the city to subsidize existing affordable housing to free up shelter space.
- County data show that the number of people living unsheltered in the county increased by about 2,000 between 2022 and 2024. Homelessness remains a top concern for residents and businesses in Seattle, even after a decade that the city and King County declared a state of emergency over the issue.
Harrell is considered the underdog in the race after Wilson won the August primary by 10 percentage points. Both candidates agree that increasing the amount of tiny homes used as temporary shelters will be part of their plans to address homelessness.
At the warehouse in SODO, Oliver has streamlined production. Guides on saws make it quicker to measure and cut each piece of wood. She has created templates to frame each wall so that a volunteer with no experience can put pieces of lumber into guides and have nails in wood in about 15 minutes.
Around this time last year, The Seattle Times reported that Sound Foundations’ storage was full of tiny homes waiting for land to sit on. Oliver said that has changed, but wouldn't provide specifics on how many tiny homes are still waiting for placement.
"All the ones that are in storage right now are spoken for for tiny home villages that are going to be built in the next year to two years," she said.
Oliver said the nonprofit is currently constructing homes for places outside of King County, as well as for two new villages in Seattle: one in Lake City and another near downtown.
"It took two very frustrating years to get us to this point," she said. "And now we're just — we're just rolling."
The mayor's race
Harrell has defended the work he's done on homelessness so far. He said he needs another term to solve the challenges he inherited.
"The parks and the sidewalks were unusable, and there were many deeply entrenched encampments. And so we then created new systems," he said.
Under Harrell, the city funds two sanctioned encampments and 16 tiny home villages, partnering with social service providers to help people struggling with substance use disorder and mental health issues. Three more tiny home villages are expected to come online by the end of the year.
Harrell takes credit for “identifying” nearly 3,000 units of emergency housing since taking office, with more than two-thirds of those set to open by the end of the year. The Times reported last week that the number of shelter units has hardly moved during Harrell’s tenure.
Wilson said she's disappointed in the city’s response to the ongoing homelessness crisis.
“We can’t have another four years where those numbers keep going up and up and up,” Wilson said. “And that, I think, really will be one of the primary measures of the success or failure of my administration: How many people are sleeping unsheltered on the streets of Seattle in four years.”
Providing stability
Harrell said that if elected to another term, he will continue to work with cities through the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, an agency established in 2018 to address homelessness in the county. (The agency has been weighed down in controversy.) He recently asked those partners to take stock of land they own that could be used for tiny home villages.
"I think that they will step up their ability to provide resources, which includes money and land. And that these are the kinds of long-term solutions that we will implement," Harrell said.
Harrell said the city will also continue to build affordable housing units, including “permanent supportive housing, market-rate housing, affordable housing and different levels of area median income."
Homelessness is one of the issues that motivated Wilson to run against Harrell. Wilson said she would move the city toward a well-funded housing first model, which prioritizes getting people inside, regardless of whether they are using drugs or experiencing a mental health crisis.
"You're recognizing that in order for someone coming out of homelessness — who might have complex needs related to mental illness, related to substance use disorder — in order for them to tackle those challenges, they need stability of a roof over their head," Wilson said.
If elected, Wilson said she wants to use her first term to erect 4,000 units of emergency housing and shelter, a quarter of which would be tiny homes.
One part of Wilson’s plan is to help people in shelters who can live independently find accommodations. She wants the city to help some people, such as seniors with disabilities living on a fixed income, move into vacant units in the affordable housing sector, which she reasoned would be cheaper than building new units. The city could then subsidize those rentals while freeing up shelter space for people with more complex needs, such as those with substance use disorders. The city would provide social services on a case-by-case basis.
What about the cost?
All of this would cost more money.
Wilson said her campaign has "rough projections" for a price tag.
"I think that if we were to stand up these 4,000 units, operating them would probably end up costing about $125 million a year, which would be in excess of what we currently are spending," she said.
Wilson said that funding would require conversations with housing providers, as well as county and state governments, to look for potential trade-offs. One of her proposals would include moving existing funds from the voter-approved Housing Levy, which is expected to bring in $970 million.
“One trade-off we could decide to make would be: Let's invest less in capital costs and the construction of new units, and let's rebalance that toward services and operations and getting people into some of the existing vacant units,” she said.
Other options could include the city raising new revenue through progressive taxes, such as a vacancy tax, digital ad tax or a citywide capital gains tax.
On that topic, Harrell said the city has already looked into a citywide capital gains tax.
"It doesn't generate that much revenue — maybe $25 million or so," he said. "It would take maybe $5 million or so to possibly set up. It wouldn't be implemented right away. So that would be a Band-Aid approach."
‘Moving people around’
Part of Harrell's efforts to address homelessness have included the removal, or sweeps, of encampments through the city's Unified Care Team. During the sweeps, the city removes personal items and tents. He said people are offered shelter during those sweeps, and that fires and gun shots are down in and around camps. According to Harrell, sweeps typically happen when tents are blocking a sidewalk or if there’s a public safety concern.
"In those situations, they're just following the law to make removals," Harrell said. "But I do know that every time there's even that kind of removal, that they are trained to try to offer shelter and try to be of assistance."
Harrell said fewer people are accepting referrals to shelters. Data from the city show that about a quarter of the 3,402 offers for shelter were accepted from January through June of this year.
"While we recognize this is an imperfect solution, it continues to be rooted in urgency and compassion," Harrell said.
Wilson criticized the sweeps for not focusing solely on offering shelter or support. She said they aren't off the table under her leadership, but that she'd be more thoughtful about the process.
"It is perfectly legitimate for people to want parks and other public spaces to be free of tents and used for their intended purposes," Wilson said. "But I think that we need to be really intentional about making sure that we are not just focusing on moving people around."
Four walls
Back at the tiny home warehouse in SODO, Barb Oliver pointed to an enlarged spreadsheet tacked to a plywood board. It contained the math behind her plan to put a dent in homelessness.
Oliver wants to build roughly 1,100 tiny homes by the end of 2028. She said on average, three people a year transition out of a tiny home and into permanent housing. And each home is built to last 20 years.
"Every home that we build, I think 60 more people are off the ground — 60, 60, 60, 60," she said.
The issue is personal for Oliver. In 2000 she lost her job and was three days away from being evicted from her rental and becoming homeless. Then, a friend offered to let her stay in a spare room.
Oliver said she knows many people who are thriving after transitioning from a tiny home into permanent supportive housing.
"It's a very humbling experience when someone hugs you so tight that you can't even breath," Oliver said. "And then they let go and tears are streaming down their face, and they say, 'You saved my life.'"
She said that's what four walls do — they keep people warm, safe and dry.
