Inside the new ‘The Crow’ tiny home village offering 22 rent-free homes but applicants must have a specific link to the site
A new tiny home village has opened in Seattle to provide free housing to residents.
Located in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, the community features 22 homes to accommodate up to 28 people.
It’s called Raven Village, and each house is heated, insulated and air-conditioned.
Residents can enjoy a community kitchen, bathrooms, showers, and laundry facility, as well as visiting staff offices, community spaces, and a garden, according to the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI).
The local library even donated community hotspots to provide Internet access in homes.
The Chief Seattle Club, an Indigenous-led human services and housing agency, has a 10-year lease to use the space for the Little Chief Village.
The club worked with LIHI, the City of Seattle, Environmental Works and Sound Foundations NW to open the site.
LIHI says the village will mostly serve American Indian and Alaska Native individuals, couples and people with pets experiencing homelessness.
The organization said that these groups constitute only 1 percent of the country’s population, but 9 percent of those experiencing homelessness.
The Chief Seattle Club will manage the village and provide case management to clients to help them find permanent housing, employment, health care, access to education and more.
“With significant healing for the Native community and the homeless community, we will solve this problem,” said Derek Bellegarde, executive director of the Chief Seattle Club.
Another affordable option
Washington state has been a hotspot for small villages, especially in and around Seattle.
An organization known as Tiny Homes in The Name of Christ has spent the past five years gathering donations and volunteers to build a tiny home community.
It is about 30 miles from Seattle in a small town called Langley.
Natalie Spencer and her two young children, ages 11 and 6, were staying in a homeless shelter while she struggled to work two jobs and find time to support her family.
As a single mother, she was always worried about her ability to provide for her children.
“It was definitely very scary at first,” Spencer told his local King 5 affiliate.
“I wasn’t sure what would happen in the future and the upcoming events.”
She now lives in a small house and spends about 30 percent of her income to live there.
The organization’s founder, Quila Shepherd, said the team is working to spread communities everywhere.
“They can’t afford housing, so they have to cut back on food and everything else just to have a place to live,” Shepherd said.
“There is very little housing here because most of it has been zoned for vacation rentals over the past few years.”
Spencer said her children love their new home, and she is very grateful for the stability, safety and privacy it provides them.
Another tiny home village is helping homeless veterans get back on their feet.
Plus, watch how a couple built their tiny house for just $2,500 in less than seven days.
