Happy New Year! We are full of hope that this year will get us closer to ending homelessness. This newsletter focuses on what’s in store for the coming year. Here’s how we do it, at every level.
THE FEDERAL PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS
Here is the overall national plan to end homelessness.
KCRHA GOALS: THEIR FIVE YEAR PLAN
Recently KCRHA rolled out their 5 year plan. Here is a link to the article which explains the plan in greater detail:
KCRHA is looking to get 65,000 people off the streets. For a frame of reference, the city with the largest homeless population, New York City, has 65,633 people on the streets. Los Angeles, the second largest homeless population, has 53,000 homeless people.
KCRHA’s website, https://kcrha.org/regional-
LIHI’S GOALS
LIHI is willing to commit to at least three tiny home villages in the first quarter 2023:
- The first village of 2023 will be a 25 home village in Ballard. We will build the homes, and LIHI will build the village infrastructure. Chief Seattle Club will organize and run the village including hiring the case management and staff.
- The second tiny home village will be a larger village of 65 homes located in Spanaway. Pierce County, especially Spanaway, is trying to eliminate all “unauthorized encampments” (https://www.piercecountywa.
gov/6483/Unauthorized- Encampments). LIHI, with our help, is trying to provide as many tiny home villages as possible so that homeless folks have a LEGAL place to lay their heads at night. - The third village will be located somewhere in south King County. The location will be announced soon.
On a related note, recently Barb spoke to Rev. Terrence Proctor, the pastor of The Church by the Side of the Road (https://www.cbsr.org/), a church in Tukwila. They are VERY excited to be able to host a tiny home village and want to get it up and running “yesterday.”
COTTAGES
We all know that the ultimate goal is affordable permanent housing. LIHI has been working for a few years to build cottages at Magnuson Park. They are working with a pre-apprenticeship class to build the modules for these homes. This project will open in February or March of this year. Please watch this video. It’s pretty cool.
https://www.seattlechannel.
SFNW 2023 GOALS
MEETING WITH LIHI
We will be meeting with LIHI this month to finalize our shared goals for 2023 regarding the number of tiny home villages and ultimately the number of tiny homes. We will let you know those numbers after that meeting.
HOPE FACTORY CHANGES:
- Is there anything at The Hope Factory that you think we need to change, eliminate, or improve? If so, please email your suggestions to SoundFoundationsNW@gmail.com. We are listening.
- We have new, easy-to-use straps on our orange carts.
- We have new paint tarps for the floor made from recycled billboards. They are 15 mils thick instead of the 7 mil thickness that we use now and were relatively inexpensive. We will start replacing our current ones this week.
- We have fixed or improved all the auto dollies used to move the homes around The Hope Factory. This should make it easier to move the homes (not pictured above)
- We have invested in a more industrial strength paint sprayer. The sprayer that we have now has broken down several times in the last few months. Dave the Painter will continue to do his thing with us this year.
IS IT THURSDAY ALREADY?
Nope. Another change is that the newsletter will be coming out on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays starting this week.
SEATTLE CONSERVATION CORPS
The Seattle Conservation Corps is a division of the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department that employs homeless and formerly homeless people to do things such as pick up trash around the city. We have been talking to them about building with us with the ultimate goal of training them as Team Leaders for a second Hope Factory sometime in 2023.
The good news is that the Parks Department received a significant budget increase for 2023. That means that the Seattle Conservation Corps budget with us is fully funded by the Parks Department!
We will start with 5-6 SCC workers starting sometime in Q1 of 2023. We are now working with SCC to form a Charter and a start date. SCC will also always have a paid case manager with us to supervise their staff and provide support. That case manager will have an “office” in the northeast corner of the raw materials area to work with their staff and to provide a “chill space” if needed. (The Hope Factory can be overwhelming at times!)
Having volunteered with homeless and formerly homeless people at Camp Second Chance, both Beatrice and Barb can attest to the fact that working side-by-side with them can be a real advantage. Right now, if you haven’t worked with homeless folks, you experience our mission on an intellectual level. Once you start working with the homeless and get to know them, then building the tiny homes becomes personal. Instead of building for “the homeless”, you start feeling like you are building for “my friend Jerry.” It takes volunteering to a whole other level.
Since we moved to The Hope Factory, it has been our desire for you and to experience what that feels like. We hope that this experience building with the Seattle Conservation Corps accomplishes that for you.
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BELLEVUE BIG PICTURE SCHOOL
(https://bsd405.org/
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OUR OVERALL NUMBERS OF VOLUNTEERS ARE INCREASING
You may be asking, “Where are we going to put all of these extra people?” If you notice on any given day, we are either building on the jigs and tilting up OR doing other things. Hardly any volunteers are in the Paint Department on a regular basis.
We will be gradually building up the numbers of people in The Hope Factory to where we can achieve our goal of having people in every zone building one home per day. By our count, we can get up to 42 people at The Hope Factory. Right now, we are at about 15-20 people per day. We will build to 20-25 and then 25-30 sometime in the next six months.
LARGER COMPANIES WILL BE BUILDING WITH US
Since November and especially now that we are a 501c3 non-profit, we are starting to attract several larger corporations to build with us. Boeing will be building with us tomorrow and again on Thursday, January 12th. UW Medical Residents will build with us for the first time on Monday, January 15th, and Weyerhaeuser will follow the next day. Meta (Facebook), Starbucks, and Google all had to cancel in December, and we are looking for dates to reschedule them. There are several smaller companies and organizations also joining us for the first time in the first quarter of 2023.
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ROTARY “BLUE DENIM” DISTRICT MEETING
On Saturday, January 21st, our friends at Rotary District 5030 will be hosting a 10 district regional conference. The spouses of the leaders attending this conference will be joining us for a one-day build. You all know how much spouses talk, so this is great PR and regional exposure for us. This day will be set up like the Seattle One Day of Service that we did earlier last year where we will provide all the Team Leaders and they will provide all the volunteers: up to 25 in all. Some will be painting, others building. We are looking for Team Leaders for that day. Please sign up on the SignUpGenius the week
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YMSL
The Seattle Chapter of The Young Men’s Service League (https://ymsl.org/) has chosen to do their in-depth service work and education experience jointly with SFNW and LIHI. They will be building with us on two separate weekends: February 4th and 5th and March 4th and 5th. YMSL will also take two other weekends to volunteer in the tiny home villages with LIHI. Barb will be their guest speaker at their annual banquet in April. Again, we are looking for Team Leaders for the above dates. Please sign up on the SignUpGenius the week before.
EAGLE SCOUT PROJECTS
We have two young men who will be doing their Eagle Scout project with us this year. First, Arjun will be with us March 11th and 18th for his build days. He has already volunteered a few times with his father, and he will be volunteering on a more regular basis in January and February to learn the various tasks. Like our first Eagle Scout Project, Arjun will be “Barb” on those days, and (the real) Barb will follow him around to help mentor him.
We are still setting up the logistics for the second Eagle Scout project with Hayden.
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THE FOUR YEAR PLAN
A SECOND HOPE FACTORY: The second Hope Factory is still on the burner. We will know more specifics after our meeting with LIHI this month.
POLITICS
BUILD DAYS WITH SALLY: A special shout out to Sally Bagshaw, one of our biggest advocates and a great source of political mentoring. We will be inviting more political VIPs to build with us at The Hope Factory during the Sally and Friends build days. Thanks again, Sally, for supporting us the way you do.
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FUNDRAISING
We have lots of exciting news to share with you regarding fundraising, but this newsletter is already lengthy. We will highlight our past and future fundraising efforts with you in next week’s newsletter.
AND FINALLY…
If you are reading this, it should go without saying that we know how valuable you are as a friend, a volunteer, and most especially as the wonderful and caring person that you are. We are truly humbled to have such a variety of personalities, backgrounds, experience, and sources of joy that fill The Hope Factory six days every week. Thank you for being a part of the solution!
May the new year bring you joy and peace. May we all have a healthy, happy, and productive 2023.
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THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HELPED THIS WEEK
- Our “regulars” who are the heart and soul of our organization
- “New Crew” members: Julie, Katy, Tavish, Vicki, Craig, Dave, Diana, Loren and Ted
- Our wonderful groups: Mercer Island Rotary, Sally and Friends, and Boeing (first time).
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
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TO VOLUNTEER:
Come build with us this week! Here’s the link:
https://www.signupgenius.com/
Please remember to wear paint clothes even if you do not anticipate painting. Minimum age is 16 years. Please, no exceptions.
Clarification: If the SignUpGenius says (The name of a Group Build) AND Open Build, this means that you can volunteer even if you are not a part of the group.
TEAM LEADERS IN TRAINING: If you wish to become a Team Leader in Training, DO NOT SIGN UP for the day you wish to do this. Email SoundFoundationsNW@gmail.com and we will put you on the list.
Your Leadership Team,
Beatrice, Tom, Bruce, David, Timothy and Barb
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A REMINDER
Because we are now a 501c3, your end of the gifts are now tax deductible.
It took us four years to raise and donate $1 million to build the tiny homes. Our goal in 2023 is to raise another $1 million this next year alone. So, we need your help.
We have set up a GoFundMe campaign. Here’s the link:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/
PLEASE share this on social media and everywhere far and wide. Tell your family and friends.
IF YOU WISH YOUR GIFT TO BE TAX DEDUCTIBLE, through an investment or retirement account, or if you just like writing us a check, here’s how you do it:
https://www.
It takes a village to build more villages and end homelessness in Seattle. Thank you in advance for being such great advocates of Sound Foundations NW and for the homeless.