The mayor’s office says the city has reviewed 70 possible sites for adding shelter space in its push to get 500 people off the streets by June. That was one headline from a briefing today, delivered by mayor’s office reps to the City Council, which will have to approve some components of the plan. Here’s Seattle Channel video of the meeting:
The 70 potential sites weren’t listed in the meeting documents, and our request for the list so far has gone unfulfilled. But the mayor’s-office team told councilmembers they expect to announce five sites before the end of the month. Many of the 500 spaces – but not necessarily all – would be in “microshelters,” which seems to be the alternative name for “tiny houses.” They promised to work with district councilmembers regarding sites for “shelter acceleration” in three types:
In working with the neighborhoods where shelter would be added, they said they had plans for how safety would be safeguarded:
Of the 70 sites they said they’ve “assessed,” about a third are publicly owned. The first five sites, they said, won’t require the mayor’s newly proposed legislation in order to move forward, but others will, so that was part of why they were at the council meeting, to promote that legislation, which she announced at the Hope Factory tiny-home (microshelter) construction facility twelve days ago (WSB coverage here).
(WSB photo at The Hope Factory in Georgetown, March 4)
That March 4 announcement was brought up by Councilmember Dan Strauss in Q&A, noting a mention in the presentation of each tiny house costing $28,000, while he recalled that the microshelters are built by volunteers.
So will the city be paying for them? Strauss asked. The mayor’s-office team told him, “We’ll get back to you.” They did say part of the costs are from the plan to make these shelter facilities “service-rich environments,” explained this way:
There was no mention of the forthcoming West Seattle tiny-homes-and-RV-lot site Glassyard Commons, so we don’t know if it’s going to be considered one of the five sites or not. It’s continuing to make its way through the city permit system.
(See the full slide deck from today’s presentation here.)