Sound Foundations NW

The 2022 Point-In-Time count showed 7,685 people living unsheltered in King County, a 27% increase since 2020 and an ongoing calamity.

Sound Foundations NW (SFNW) is addressing this crisis of unsheltered homelessness by producing emergency transitional tiny homes with our quick, efficient, cost effective, and streamlined building system.

Begun in March, 2018, SFNW first built 42 tiny homes in 18 months in a tiny home village called Camp Second Chance.  In January 2020, we moved into a 15,000 s.f. warehouse in SoDo provided by one of our non-profit partners and named it The Hope Factory.  Our facility now hosts 15-25 daily volunteers working on our assembly-line-style and no-experience-necessary building system, constructing roughly 12 homes at a time, six days per week.  Although we are one of about 50 organizations building tiny homes around the area, almost 85% of homes in the more recent Tiny Home Villages were built by us.  With our system, SFNW builds 35-40 tiny homes, an entire village’s worth, in about 10 weeks.

Despite the pandemic, our output in 2021 grew to 108 tiny homes and in 2022, we expanded our assembly line and again increased our production to 152 homes. We’ve gone from finishing two homes every three weeks to two homes every three days, and we’re just getting started! Our tiny homes are wood-frame construction and well insulated, with two operable windows and a locking front door, all architect-designed to last at least twenty years. After they leave the Hope Factory, homes also get electrical outlets, an overhead light, and space heaters. These are substantial and dignified temporary homes that offer stability, security, and community. Once in a village, residents also have access to restroom/shower facilities, kitchens and laundry, counseling, treatment, education, and community-building and consequently our city streets, parks, and tourist attractions are once again more available for everyone’s enjoyment. SFNW believes that tiny homes provide a quick, effective, and affordable solution to getting people off the streets, out of tents and doorways, and ready to accept help permanently transitioning out of homelessness -- and the data backs us up. Villages can be designed and completed in just a few months, and a 40-home village can be built, installed, and operated for a small fraction of the cost of other non-congregate shelter models. There are currently 19 tiny home villages operating around Puget Sound.

Tiny home villages offer transitional shelter in community settings. Through our all-volunteer building model, we currently build one tiny home for about $4300 worth of materials and our homes are built to last 20 years.  Based on current averages, each transitional tiny home provides a warm, safe, dry, and healthy space to bring 3 people off the streets each year – meaning up to sixty sheltered citizens over the life of each home. We agree with Mayor Bruce Harrell when he visited us and stated his belief that, “the tiny home village program is the first, best path to solving homelessness.”

Now, we need your help to continue tackling this problem.  

Building tiny homes is a practical and tangible way to help relieve the crisis of unsheltered homelessness all around us. You can be a part of this critical effort by supporting Sound Foundations NW. Please make a generous one-time or ongoing donation, today. If your situation allows, please consider sponsoring one or more complete tiny homes at the $4300 level.

Please know that your gift, at any amount, makes a visible difference right now as we strive for our ambitious $1M goal this year to complete our 500th tiny home and continue bringing our unsheltered neighbors inside and off the ground.  Thank you!