Mighty House Anniversary Donation: LIHI’s Tiny House Program

Mighty House Anniversary Donation: LIHI’s Tiny House Program

Every year Mighty House makes an anniversary donation as one initiative towards supporting the greater community. This year we focused that donation to the Low Income Housing Institute of Seattle.

Over the past several years LIHI has developed nine tiny house villages in Seattle and more recently, are in Olympia. Together they will serve approximately 1000 people annually – including familites with children as well as individuals – with housing and services to help the community more out of homelessness.

LIHI is currently raising matching funds for their Tiny House Village Program through USA’s Today’s “A Community Thrives – CrowdRise Campaign”. If this campaign is successful, LIHI will become eligible for a grant between $25,000 and $100,000 to continue their incredibly impactful work addressing the homeless problem in our region.

DONATE HERE! 

Resilience and Sustainability Through Pocket Neighborhoods

Resilience and Sustainability Through Pocket Neighborhoods

The term pocket neighborhood sometimes referred to as “bungalow courts” or “cottage clusters,” was first coined by Ross Chapin of Ross Chapin ArchitectsPocket neighborhoods tend to consist of about 12 homes that all face a common area that residents must walk through to access their front door.  

Creating small homes on small lots allows more compact development, which uses land efficiently and can offer greater access to amenities. 

 

Pocket communities really took off in the Pacific Northwest in collaboration with developers and builders, including The Cottage Company in Seattle, Triad Associates in Kirkland, and Artisan Fine Homebuilding. Third Street Cottages in Seattle, is a community of eight detached cottages located on four standard single-family lots. To help this vision come to life, the municipality adopted an innovative Cottage Housing Development (CHD) zoning code. The code allows for up to double the density of detached homes in all single-family zones.  

Pocket communities also serve as a great solution for increasing the number of affordable units within a municipality. Creating small homes on small lots allows more compact development, which uses land efficiently and can offer greater access to amenities. Residents may also enjoy a smaller mortgage, with the option to enhance their home by selecting higher-end finishes. Then there’s the increasing value of these small homes. The Third Street Cottages, the first of the pocket neighborhoods, have resold for as much as 250 percent of their original price, proving their enduring appeal and value.

Small homes feed our recent fascination with resilience and sustainability because they meet the needs of communities that wish to increase density and reform land use patterns without losing the feel of a single-family community. Smaller homes also can reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions through the use of passive solar energy, low water-use fixtures, and the abundance of vegetation in these communities found in the interior courtyard, personal gardens and surrounding open space. Additionally, the demographic shift toward smaller households and the rise in single-person households is driving a need for a more diverse housing stock that includes small homes.

Surviving the Viaduct Closure

Surviving the Viaduct Closure

The SR-99 Viaduct officially closes down starting Friday January 11, 2019. Here are some tips from Sound Transit (and us!) on how to make the best of the increased travel times and traffic congestion:
  • Work from home when possible
  • Ride your bike to work – check out SDOT’s new interactive bike route map
  • Take the Sounder Train or Link Light Rail – ride share services are offering discounted rates on rides to transit stations through February
  • There will be additional Water Taxi Service – a fun way to get to/from West Seattle!
  • Talk to your employer about flexing your hours to avoid peak commute times
  • Be patient and considerate on public transportation – together we’ll get through the #SeattleSqueeze!

flex your time, pack your patience, be a good rider