Tiny homes offer innovative solution to homelessness in Seattle

Read more about Sharon Lee’s tiny house villages for the homeless on the Slice of MIT blog: Sharon Lee MArch ’81, MCP ’81, founding executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI), builds tiny house villages as short-term crisis response to Seattle’s growing homeless population. With housing costs skyrocketing in recent years, Seattle currently has the third largest homeless population in the US after New York City and Los Angeles. “Everybody should have a home,” says Lee. “And we think there’s a way to do it, which is having tiny houses.” The goal of the LIHI’s tiny house village initiative is to provide people with the support they need to eventually secure employment and permanent housing. “They can address their health care, their mental health, their employment situation because they can be stable,” says Lee According to Lee, more than 550 residents of the tiny house villages have gained employment or moved on to permanent housing.