Nickelsville to Open Rainier Valley Tiny House Village After Long Delays

RAINIER VALLEY — On June 27, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson will cut the red tape at Nickelsville's newest tiny house shelter on the corner of South Orchard Street and Rainier Avenue South. It's a remarkable turnaround for a project that just over a year ago had been canceled.

When it fully opens in July, Brighton Village will be the homeless service provider's third tiny house village and its first in the South End since 2019. It will also add 14 beds to Wilson's ambitious target to create 4,000 new units of shelter for homeless people over her four-year term. The mayor's office announced it plans to open 303 units of shelter this summer, about 200 short of its initial pre-World Cup goal.

In addition to the tiny houses, the village will include a security shack at the front, a common kitchen tent, laundry facilities, and three shared bathrooms. Like all of Nickelsville's shelters, it will be self-managed, with residents electing three representatives to oversee the village.

Unlike some other Seattle shelters, Nickelsville practices a high-barrier model, requiring strict sobriety and mandatory volunteer shifts. Peggy Hotes, a longtime Nickelsville volunteer, said this ensures the organization can better serve the majority of homeless people who are unhoused primarily due to economic challenges.

"There certainly should be low-barrier shelters, but when we know that most people are homeless due to economics, should not most of the shelters be to accommodate that population and not be mixing them with people with other needs?" Hotes said.

Canceled, Then Reborn

It has taken a lot of advocacy and work to bring the Brighton Village project from its conception in November 2023 to its July opening. As recently as March 2025, the 10,000-square-foot City Light parcel where the village will sit lay vacant, filled only with blackberry brambles, rocks, and a few black tarps.

Nickelsville had originally approached the King County Regional Homelessness Authority with the idea for a new village after it saved $217,000 from underspending on its existing shelters in Northlake and Central District. The city had provided the Brighton Village site as one of its options, but as Nickelsville was finalizing permits and siteplans, the city abruptly canceled the project in August 2024.

The decision triggered backlash, with Nickelsville and its allies pushing to get the project reinstated while then-candidate Wilson made it a talking point on the campaign trail. Public records obtained by Real Change later found that former Mayor Bruce Harrell's office had ordered the permits pulled after a handful of neighbors complained about the proposed tiny house village. In March 2025, Harrell's office quietly allowed Brighton Village to proceed again.

Although some were opposed to having the new shelter in their community, neighbor Bekki Kimbrough says she's thrilled to live only a few blocks away from the new Brighton Village. She has been volunteering to cook meals for residents of Nickelsville and SHARE's Tent Cities for several years and argued that a lot of the mistrust about new shelters comes from a lack of familiarity with homeless people.

"I think a lot of people are scared to go to a tent city or a tiny house village," Kimbrough said. "If people got to know the people who live there, they would feel differently."

Construction and Code Challenges

Nickelsville staff member Jarvis Capucion says that, apart from political hurdles, Brighton Village has had to overcome other barriers to reach completion.

Some were physical: The shelter is at the bottom of a gully with slopes on three sides of the property. Nickelsville had to remove 2 feet worth of dirt to level the lot and add French drains to prevent water from pooling. The tight space has also complicated construction for the grassroots organization, which primarily relies on volunteer labor from its members and outside supporters.

The site had never been developed and required installation of brand new electrical, sewer, and water facilities. The city also required Brighton Village to follow strict construction guidelines, which Hotes said at times felt excessive, such as installing two ADA-compliant bathrooms and a backflow valve. 

"We have been asked all along the way to incur costs and apply for permits that were absolutely ridiculous and do not reflect any kind of urgency in the need to solve homelessness," Hotes said.

Nickelsville Central District member George Hacker did give credit to Wilson's office for speeding up the permit approval process after its membership reached out to the mayor.

In an email to the South Seattle Emerald, mayoral spokesperson Danielle Holland wrote that "[p]ermits and reviews associated with the site have been flagged for expedited attention" so that the project did not sit idle. But Holland added that the city would not waive code requirements for the tiny house village, ensuring it met safety, reliability, and regulatory compliance codes.

The delays and additional construction costs have led the project's budget to balloon from $217,000 to around $340,000. The money for Brighton Village has come from KCHRA.

'In the Right Place'

On June 23, days before Brighton Village ribbon-cutting, the KCRHA announced the preliminary results of its biennial Point-in-Time Count, which found that homelessness across the county rose by 9% between 2024 and 2026. The rise was driven by an increase in the unsheltered population from 9,800 to 11,800.

While Brighton Village will have a small footprint on the Rainier Valley neighborhood — and make only a small dent in Seattle's shelter shortage — it could provide stability for at least 14 people. 

73-year-old Gloria and her son Daniel, who both cited safety concerns for not providing their last name, are two of a handful of residents who have already moved in. They are volunteering to help with the construction of the shelter. Gloria said she was excited to live in a community that was self-governed, where everyone chipped in.

"I think it just feels wonderful," Gloria said. "All the people that volunteer are actually people from other Nickelsville villages, which makes me see that I'm in the right place."

Guy Oron is a journalist in Seattle and a former staff reporter at Real Change.