Seattle homeowners volunteer their backyards for tiny homes for unhoused neighbours

 

The Block Project program has so far housed 12 people in private backyards and there are plans to grow.

So much more than building homes for those living outside

The Block Project builds fully equipped, healthy homes for people experiencing homelessness. BLOCK Homes are permitted and placed in homeowners’ backyards throughout Seattle. This model gives residents a place to call home and communities around the city an opportunity to make a real difference in supporting their unhoused neighbours and addressing the issue of homelessness together. 

The tiny houses, at only 125 sq/ft (11.6 sq/m), have kitchen areas, bathrooms, a sleeping area, and a small covered front porch. They’re designed to the strict sustainability standards of the Living Building Challenge, with features like solar power and rainwater capture and purification. Source: The-Block-Project.org

A new approach is needed to address homelessness

Seattle-based The BLOCK project builds homes for those living on the streets, and they are taking a bold stand: they say we will never end homelessness through housing alone. A new approach is needed, one that acknowledges that relationships are the building blocks for healing our communities and that we can no longer see those who are homeless as ‘other’. 

This bold new model invites all of us to step forward with our own abilities to create societal change. 

The vision is to help end homelessness by building a BLOCK Home and thriving community on every residential block in Seattle. The model will be accessible nationwide and create a foundation of compassion and empathy for future generations.

When a homeowner applies to participate, Facing Homelessness evaluates the yard to see if it meets the city’s permitting requirements for a backyard home, and then interviews the homeowners. To avoid raising the homeowners’ property tax, the nonprofit retains ownership of the tiny house and leases a portion of the backyard for free in five-year stints, with the hope that the homeowner will continue to renew. Source: The-Block-Project.org

Bold new model invites all of us to step forward to create societal change

This bold new model invites all of us to step forward with our own abilities to create societal change. The vision is to help end homelessness by building a BLOCK Home and thriving community on every residential block in Seattle. The model will be accessible nationwide and create a foundation of compassion and empathy for future generations.

When a homeowner applies to participate, Facing Homelessness evaluates the yard to see if it meets the city’s permitting requirements for a backyard home, and then interviews the homeowners. To avoid raising the homeowners’ property tax, the nonprofit retains ownership of the tiny house and leases a portion of the backyard for free in five-year stints, with the hope that the homeowner will continue to renew. Source: The-Block-Project.org

“Yes, in our backyard!” — The five core beliefs of the block project

The BLOCK Project has five core beliefs that have helped shape it and will continue to guide it’s path forward:  

INTEGRATED | Segregation perpetuates disadvantage. By building homes for those experiencing homelessness in residential backyards, The BLOCK Project fosters cross-class integration and social inclusion. The entire community is invited to be a part of the solution, and those formerly experiencing homelessness increase their proximity to new resources – and relationships – that aid healing. 

SUSTAINABLE | BLOCK Homes are designed to achieve the highest standard for sustainability in the built environment (Living Building Challenge). The buildings will “give more than they take”, creating a positive impact on human and natural systems.

SUPPORTED | Homelessness is traumatic. The BLOCK Project creates an intentional network of support for each resident, including professional social services, thoughtfully matched hosts, and engaged neighbours. The BLOCK Project is introduced to every neighbour on the block and only integrates with a collective “Yes, in our backyard.”

AFFORDABLE | The barriers to developing traditional low-income permanent housing are high. The BLOCK Project makes use of the under-utilised, available property and leverages the community’s desire to get involved to dramatically reduce the cost of housing. 

DIGNIFIED | Our built environment shapes who we are and how we live. BLOCK Homes are permanent, sophisticated dwelling units designed to provide stability for residents as they define and achieve success. BLOCK Residents will often live in the most advanced house on their block, inviting them to educate their neighbours about sustainable living.

Agencies refer unhoused people who they believe would be a good fit for the program, and Facing Homelessness serves as a matchmaker. The nonprofit also meets with neighbours to help allay fears that may be based on stereotypes about homelessness. The homeowner acting as a host can also be an advocate, drawing on their own relationships with neighbors to help make the case for the housing. Source: The-Block-Project.org

How it started

It began four years ago, when the owners of a small single-family house in Seattle decided to volunteer the use of their backyard for something new: They let a nonprofit build a tiny sustainable home in the yard and helped a man who had been homeless for a decade move in, rent-free. He still lives there, having built a close relationship with the homeowners. And 11 other homeowners have since followed suit, in this small but growing program called the Block Project.

“The community has to get involved if we’re going to end homelessness,” said Rex Hohlbein, in a recent interview with FastCompany. Hohlbein is an architect whose career slowly transitioned to tackling homelessness after befriending an unhoused artist in front of his architecture studio, and who eventually started the Block Project. 

“It’s way too complicated to just have a government program. It’s really a whole shift in how a community acts and moves forward addressing the needs of the most vulnerable.”

Hohlbein launched a nonprofit called Facing Homelessness in 2013, and then, along with his daughter, architect Jenn LaFreniere, came up with a somewhat radical idea. If it’s hard to build supportive affordable housing in a city like Seattle, where land is expensive and large construction projects can take years, why not ask local residents to share their backyards directly? 

The city already had zoning laws that allowed “accessory dwelling units,” or backyard houses. As the concept of using backyard houses for homeless housing progressed, the city planning department helped provide support to make it as simple as possible for people to build.

The program isn’t intended for everyone experiencing homelessness. Someone with severe mental health issues would be better off in another setting that offers more services, for example. But for others, it’s a way to have stable housing and connect with neighbours in an area where they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to live.

Source: FastCompany 

Everything is built in the Block shop through the use of jigs, which allows volunteers to come and build the panels without any construction knowledge. The nonprofit works with local plumbers and electricians to set up utilities, and provides basic furnishings, including a bed frame and mattress, fold-up desk, fridge, and hot plate. Source: The-Block-Project.org

Learn more about that the Block project can offer

• HOSTING: the project offers homeowners a program to host someone experiencing homelessness by simply donating a portion of their backyard and welcoming a new neighbour. Meet the hosts!
• SUSTAINABILITY: they build healthy homes to support wellness for our residents, while positively impacting people, planet, and future generations. Learn more about their healthy building practices.
• PARTNERS: they involve businesses and individuals who want to support their mission through their unique skills, passions, and resources. Meet their team of partners.
• VOLUNTEER: they are community powered! Homes are built and backyards landscaped by a network of volunteers and skilled professionals. Volunteer!
• SOCIAL SERVICES: they partner with social service agencies for referrals to thoughtfully match hosts and formerly homeless residents. Check out the resident FAQs.
• RELATIONSHIPS: they maintain relationships and provide ongoing support to hosts, neighbours, and residents to bring everyone closer to each other. Learn more about Facing Homelessness.

Home Sweet Home ❤️ A “Welcome Home Kit” fundraised with the community offers other essential items like curtains, pots and pans, silverware, bedding, cleaning supplies, and shampoo. Source: The-Block-Project.org

The work is slow but rewarding. Though the original vision was to install a tiny house on every block—which could create enough housing for almost every person experiencing homelessness in the city—the nonprofit plans to grow slowly. Source: The-Block-Project.org

What’s my role? I’m the solution! The BLOCK project offers homeowners a program to host someone experiencing homelessness by simply donating a portion of their backyard and welcoming a new neighbour. Source: Vimeo/TheBLOCKproject

SOURCE: BRIGHT VIBES

Green Synergy Creating a community space for gardening and wellbeing

Green Synergy is a community-based charitable organisation based in Lincoln which uses community gardening and horticultural therapy to improve the lives of local people.

The organisation works in communities with vulnerable people including those living with mental health conditions, learning difficulties, physical disabilities, long-term health problems and unemployment. Green Synergy runs three community garden projects, using gardening and city farming to develop the skills and capacity of people in socially and economically disadvantaged communities to allow them to identify and help meet their own needs.

In March 2017, Green Synergy was awarded a grant from the Bright Ideas Fund to explore the viability of a community garden hub – a beautiful, accessible space that will allow further development of Green Synergy’s work. After exploring feasibility of one site another opportunity arose, and they were granted a lease for 2.5 acres of derelict land behind Lincoln County Hospital, a former allotment site covered in 30 years of brambles and waste.

Together with the community, the hospital, schools, businesses and voluntary groups, Green Synergy is working to transform the space with the aim of adding therapy animals and an eco-building further down the line.

Green Synergy benefited from ‘critical friend support’ through Bright Ideas, which involved sharing learning with another Bright Ideas funded project in Worksop with similar outcomes. This support allowed for a more flexible support approach which saw an effective and trusting relationship established between staff and trustees.

How did they do it?

The grant was used to create building design drawings initially for the first location, which were then adapted for the new location, as well as covering legal advice fees for the lease, some staff costs and staff/trustee educational visits.

Hillside Community Garden officially opened in June 2019, complete with a peace garden, a therapeutic garden (which is being used for its Better Together’ therapeutic horticultural project), a productive area where they are harvesting fresh produce – some of which they are supplying to local community cafés – and a heritage orchard growing old English cherries and traditional Lincolnshire varieties of apples and plums.

In March 2018, they were donated a 40ft shipping container by Spouge Farms and Denby Transport which they are working on turning into a tool store and workshop which in turn could be used for new activities such as repairing tools and producing garden furniture.

Green Synergy are now focusing on becoming less grant reliant and develop new ideas to generate income, including growing the consultancy offer such as therapeutic garden design; increase the usage of the gardens linked to specialist audiences; premium experiential days at the garden involving animal care; growing to sell high-end novel crops; include a livestock paddock and small woodland which could offer small-scale animal husbandry/therapy additions, and fundraising through creative approaches to raise income but also the profile of the organisation.

As well as the various opportunities the garden has created for local people, it has also had its fair share of fame too as the chosen location for BBC Radio 4’s Gardener’s Question Time in September 2019, as well as appearing on BBC One during the Children In Need campaign in 2018 with members of their Tower Power project that supports children and young people.

What is their social impact?

Green Synergy runs sessions through the Building Better Opportunities (BBO) MOVE  project, led by Lincolnshire Voluntary Centre Services and funded by the European Social Fund and The National Lottery Community Fund, which works to engage with people who are not in education, work or training and are experiencing barriers to health. Through gardening and landscaping sessions, they are given the opportunity to gain practical gardening skills and experience in a caring, inclusive setting with one-to-one mentoring and advocacy support.

The Steps Forward project is similar to MOVE – but it supports people who are economically inactive and are less ready to able to work, offering them individual, bespoke volunteering opportunities designed around the individual’s specific interests and needs.

Green Synergy’s plans continue to evolve with new ideas from participants and, to some extent, the natural materials found on-site are playing a role – Hillside was once a quarry and so is yielding some pieces of limestone that they are using to create dry-stone walls, seating and water features, whilst off-cuts from overgrown trees create log edging for pathways, taking away the need to buy and use new materials.

How is it community led?

Initial consultation with the local community revealed a need and interest for more green space and community gardening projects, which led to the birth of Green Synergy. It has taken the efforts of multiple groups in the community to set up three community garden projects within a two-mile radius, plus their newest hub at Hillside. Local residents, community groups, local businesses and even staff from the neighbouring hospital all helped to create a space that is now a valuable resource for the whole of Lincoln.

“Prior to joining the project, I was suffering from alcohol and drug dependency, which was partly due to a lack of having something to do. My mental health was rapidly deteriorating. Since joining I’ve found myself waking up early in the mornings with a sense of purpose. I have always enjoyed gardening and wanted to become my own boss running a landscaping business. The project has given me the self-confidence to know I have still got the skills to work in the industry and to start applying for jobs again, taking me a step closer to my dream.”

– Phil, BBO participant

SOURCE: POWER TO CHANGE