by Sarah Goh

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This year’s “highest honor for environmental stewardship,” the King County Green Globe Award, was awarded to 11 organizations and individuals who are committed to protecting the environment. 

One of these organizations is Sound Foundations NW, a 100% recyclable facility located in South Seattle. Not only is the organization reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions, but it is also working to end homelessness in King County by repurposing its materials to build transitional tiny homes. 

“We are one of the few organizations that work with our homeless neighbors that actually believe that homelessness is solvable,” Sound Foundations NW Director Barb Oliver said.

Sound Foundations believes the first step in ending homelessness is giving people a place of shelter before they can transition to permanent housing. Tiny house villages work, and Sound Foundations is building the homes to go in them. 

According to a performance review of the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI), in 2021, 50% of people living in LIHI’s tiny homes found permanent housing. The homes are in high demand and are frequently requested, compared with shelters. As non-congregate shelters, tiny homes provide the necessary privacy and safety for individuals needing to get back on their feet.

“In the year 2000, I was four days from being homeless myself,” Oliver said. “I had a friend pick me up by the scruff of my neck and say, ‘Here’s my spare bedroom,’ and it saved my life.”

Today, Sound Foundations has built 384 homes since its beginnings in 2018. It works with LIHI, which set up the villages for the tiny homes Sound Foundations builds. Using mostly volunteer help, its facility can assemble two homes every three days.

Around six months ago, Sound Foundations acquired a dumpster for recycling rather than landfill. Since then, the organization has figured out ways to reuse its smallest scraps. A 4×8 sheet of plywood becomes part of a home’s interior walls. Its scraps become the trim of a home, and those scraps can be used for the venting system. Even sawdust and empty paint cans can be combined to make composting toilets. 

“It’s like one big puzzle,” Oliver said. “We try to figure out ways to reuse as much as we can.” 

Oliver says the organization has been able to assemble tiny homes faster with less expense than other organizations. Today, its construction system is in use in 20 cities around the United States.

“Not only does it make good economic sense, but you feel good at the end of the day,” Oliver said. “If we can do whatever we can … if everyone just does a little … the job gets done.” 

Homelessness can be solved, Oliver says, and Sound Foundations NW has a plan to do it. There are 15,120 people currently living unhoused in Seattle, and Sound Foundations NW has a detailed four-year plan to build every one of them a tiny home while providing employment opportunities and teaching essential skills, such as money management. The full plan can be found here. 

The first year of its plan has already been paid for, at around $3 million. About $47 million remains for years 2–4 — less than the cost of two hotel buildings. 

Sound Foundations NW is currently working closely with the Seattle City Council and King County Council to allocate more funding to tiny home villages.

“The homes are not the problem. The land is not the problem,” Oliver said. “There’s money in the budgets for tiny home villages, we just need those people that control those budgets to say it’s the people’s money and it belongs to the people.” 

For those interested in supporting Sound Foundations NW, you can volunteer with others to build a tiny home or donate on its website.

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📸 Featured Image: A tiny house village in Seattle. (Photo courtesy of the Seattle City Council.)

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