BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Tiny home villages for homeless people in Bellingham can now stay in one place for up to five years.
The Bellingham City Council has unanimously approved an ordinance allowing the facilities to apply for up to three one-year extensions of their original two-year permits.
Melissa Bird with the group Road To Home told the council that it takes a lot of investment and work to establish the villages.
“The amount of infrastructure that had to be completed onsite prior to us being able to start building these homes was vast,” says Bird. “Electricity, water hookups and sewer were installed on the site. Our volunteers are working tirelessly on weekends, on their days off, in the rain, to get these houses up and ready.”
The group has been building a new village that’s almost ready for residents on the city’s former Clean Green site at Lakeway and Woburn.
There are two established tiny home villages in Bellingham at the Civic Athletic Complex and in Fairhaven.