The essays, analyses and opinions presented as Community Voices express the perspectives of their authors on topics of interest and importance to the community, and are not intended to reflect perspectives on behalf of the Salish Current.
Commentary: Plans to merge two tiny-home villages sheltering people formerly unhoused highlight contrasts between the two communities, provoking questions about how they might meld.
Homes NOW! Not Later is an independent nonprofit organization that helps house homeless people. Organized in 2017, they currently operate two tiny home villages, Unity Village, near the Fairhaven train station, and Swift Haven, behind Civic Field. Plans are to move both villages to city-owned land behind North Coast Credit Union on Northwest Avenue — whose owner has challenged that move. [Ed.: Updated organization date from earlier version noting 2015.]
A legal opinion will be handed down sometime in October; meanwhile the move is on hold. Assuming it is approved, the first of the tiny home villages, Swift Haven, may not relocate until spring, according to Doug Gustafson, the organization’s unpaid administrator. North Haven, as it will be called, will have 8-by-12-foot tiny homes, flush toilets, sewers, showers, laundry facilities, electricity, internet, water, an enclosed kitchen and garbage service; significant upgrades from the portable toilets and tent kitchens used currently.
Swift Haven was hastily created in 2020 to house homeless campers at City Hall. Its 25 tiny homes are 8-by-8-foot structures. Residents were not screened until after they became residents, creating enduring difficulties with the cohesiveness of that community.
Unity Village was more deliberately started in 2022, utilizing the experience from Swift Haven. The Village has 22 8-by-12-foot tiny homes and residents were carefully screened before being accepted.
Both villages have the same screening criteria, excluding anyone who is actively abusing drugs or alcohol or has recent criminal activity. Use of drugs or alcohol while a resident is not tolerated, although someone who slips is allowed a second chance.
Both are self-managed and operated. Residents volunteer to be manager and assistant. Everyone is expected to volunteer for chores, although participation is not enforced. Residents must contribute 10% of their income up to a maximum of $150/month to pay for electricity, internet connection, water, grey water disposal, trash collection, portable toilet rental and septic disposal. Most food is donated or from the food bank. Unity Village has a 57% rate of residents exiting homelessness and Swift Haven a 48% success rate.
The similarity ends there.
At Unity Village everyone who was asked agreed to be interviewed and was happy to talk about themselves and their perspective on the planned move. There was clearly a sense of trust and community, and a general sense of cautious optimism.
At Swift Haven many declined to be interviewed and a sense of shared community spirit was mostly absent.
Gustafson and Don, the manager, were my guides at Unity Village and asked residents if they would be willing to be interviewed.
Nathaniel and Jake said they appreciated the way the village operates, working together for the common good. They were quite vocal about rejecting solutions like 22 North State Street because there was no common area and no way for the residents to form a cohesive community. Jake dislikes Base Camp where he had stayed twice. There everything is provided, there are few rules, and most residents sit around bored and uninvolved. He is cautious about the move, worried that it will disrupt the sense of community.
Becky, one of five women at Unity Village, was curious about what this move would be like, noting that the few people she had met from Swift Haven seemed nice. She loves the current system and her sense of security, in contrast to the year she spent living in her car.
John, who said that he will soon be moving into housing near his family in Sumas, said he likes the situation at Unity Village where everyone is accountable. With that in mind, he is OK about the move.
At Swift Haven, Gustafson was joined by acting manager Samuel, one of several residents who fill that role. Samuel obviously likes living at the village and is somewhat hopeful about the move but did not elaborate his concerns. He noted that many of the residents do not help with chores, so the tasks fall to several who are willing.
Jason echoed Nathaniel’s comments about Base Camp, which he feels limits people. He likes the situation at Swift Haven where there is no curfew, in contrast to Base Camp, which locks its gates in the evening. He did not express reservations about the move.
Thomas was the most vocal of any of the Swift Haven residents. He has PTSD following childhood sexual and physical abuse. He has struggled with alcoholism and is currently in remission. He keeps mostly to himself, and noted that there are conflicts among many of the residents and believes that combining the two villages will mean more conflict. He hopes to get a job as a long-haul trucker.
Mary Jo does not want to move, saying there would be too many homeless in one place and there are already conflicts among some at Swift Haven. She would resume living in her car rather than move. Profoundly depressed all her life following physical, sexual and emotional abuse as a child, she said she is intensely sensitive to conflict and keeps to herself, spending her days meditating.
The contrast between Swift Haven and Unity Village operations and attitudes is stark, suggesting significant problems in melding the two villages into one functional community.
— By John Dunne
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