Next homeless shelter village in Wilson's surge to be in South Seattle

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced a new tiny house village is slated to open in South Park, the second project so far in her plan to create 500 new units before the World Cup starts next month.

The city has executed a lease with the nonprofit Low Income Housing Institute to stand up 90 new tiny homes on privately owned land in the South Seattle neighborhood, said spokesperson Sage Wilson. According to the terms of the lease, he said the city could not yet share the address.

The Low Income Housing Institute estimates the site will cost about $2.5 million and plans to reserve many units for homeless people from the nearby area, spokesperson Wilson said.

There will be a community meeting in the next several weeks, the announcement said, and the shelter will be able to open within the next few months, which would be after the FIFA matches.

This brings the total number of new shelter units in the mayor's plan made public so far to 165. Last month, the mayor announced a new 75-unit shelter in the Interbay neighborhood.

While the company developing that shelter has said it will open before the World Cup, the mayor's team has not given dates for when residents might move in.

In the Thursday announcement, the mayor also said her shelter goals are receiving a $3 million donation from Challenge Seattle, a group of business leaders with former Gov. Christine Gregoire as CEO.

In the statement, Gregoire thanked the members, which include Microsoft, Mariners owner John Stanton and his wife Terry Gillespie, T-Mobile and Starbucks, for investing in Wilson's plans to bring more people indoors and connect them to services.

"We fully support the goal of ensuring public safety for all communities," Gregoire said in the statement.

Earlier this week, the mayor also received buy-in from Seattle City Council members for a package of legislation to speed up shelter production.

On Wednesday, a City Council committee approved the last of those measures, to increase a cap on the size of tiny home and micro-shelter sites from 100 to 150 people, and the full council will likely give final sign-off soon. Previously the council approved legislation allocating $8 million in funding for Wilson's plans and allowing the city finance department to directly negotiate leases for larger pieces of land.

The mayor's office credited the new measures for allowing the city to bring the new shelter site in South Park online within a few months. The mayor's staff has previously said it is working to shrink the typical process from nine to 12 months down to three to five months.

Wilson's shelter plans are expected to be costly. Beyond the $3 million from business leaders, her team has searched through the city budget to identify $17.5 million in public money that can fund the first set of new shelter sites.

The mayor's staff have estimated the shelter units can cost anywhere from $28,000 to $45,000 per year depending on the level of services.

Providers and City Council members have stressed the need to not only build shelter to get people indoors but to also provide options for those who need intensive case management for issues like drug addiction and mental health disorders.

The new shelter site in Interbay, which will include micro-shelter units from the Everett-based company Pallet that are smaller than tiny homes, will serve homeless people with a high level of need, according to a previous city presentation. A new nonprofit called Everyone Deserves Housing and run by former leaders from Catholic Community Services Western Washington is set to manage the site.

The new Low Income Housing Institute tiny home village in South Park will include wraparound services "for homeless people with a range of needs," the mayor's spokesperson said.

Wilson admitted last month that her team may not reach its 500-unit goal before mid-June but said the effort was also aimed at creating urgency and rallying people together.

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This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 4:50 PM.