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Now in its third year of operation, the tiny home community aims to help those experiencing chronic homelessness.
The 50-unit HOPE Village pallet home community opened in the Highlands neighborhood of Longview, Washington, in December 2022, inhabiting land where an encampment stood for three years that, at times, was home to some 150 people.
During the years of the encampment, the Highlands experienced frequent police activity, said Longview Temple Corps Officer Major Phil Smith. The Longview City Council declared a state of public health emergency for the site of the encampment, and it was cleared, with plans to construct a tiny home community for the population in its place.
Initially, members of the community were hesitant when they heard of the plans, Smith said.
HOPE Village opened as an emergency housing readiness program for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and addiction, with The Salvation Army as the contracted service provider.
Now in its third year of operation, the program has resulted in some 100 people achieving permanent housing—individuals who often would have been considered “unhousable” due to chronic homelessness, which the National Alliance to End Homelessness defines as when people have experienced homelessness for at least a year along with having a condition like mental illness, substance abuse disorder or physical disability.
“The premise of the model was to help house these unhouseable people, but really what’s proven to be the biggest impact, I think, is stabilization of that population,” Smith said.
While 100 people might not seem like a large percentage compared to the number of people experiencing homelessness, and those on the waitlist—which often numbers more than 150 individuals—Smith said the change is significant.
“The biggest impact is how that population has impacted our community negatively. That has diminished greatly between HOPE Village and the programs at the corps that serve the same population. We meet a variety of their needs directly through Army services,” he said. “That matters, how the community is impacted on a larger scale…The community as a whole is being stabilized through this program.”
Today, city council meetings have a different tone, Smith said. Neighbors ask to lend their services, and volunteer to do things like lead crafts and hold a community barbecue at HOPE Village.
“I’m not saying that we’ve changed 100 percent of the minds in Longview, however, the biggest challenge we had was with the neighborhood, and I really think we’ve bridged that gap now,” Smith said.
Support for sustainable change
Once someone moves into HOPE Village, they receive case management to support them in attaining permanent housing. Since the program’s opening, this has grown to offer expanded life skills programming and, recently, support after someone achieves housing.
“We do follow them with case management for the first 90 days when they leave, which is turning out to be really something that was needed since the beginning, but we now have the capacity to do that,” said HOPE Village Site Manager Hollie Hillman. “It’s been really helpful.”
Currently, the waitlist to get into a HOPE Village unit is about 190 people long, Hillman said. To move into HOPE Village, an individual does not have to be clean of substances. However, they are not allowed to use them on the premises, and doing so will result in an exit from the program.
“Community partners are essential to what we do here.”
Hollie Hillman, HOPE Village Site Manager
In the initial stages of HOPE Village, an exit for drug use would result in an individual having to start the wait list process over again if they wished to come back. In the last year, Hillman said policies have changed to further encourage recovery by allowing those who were exited for drugs to skip the waitlist by going to inpatient treatment. When they return, their case manager helps support their recovery by ensuring compliance with treatment protocols.
To do this, The Salvation Army works closely with 19 partners, Hillman said, which span mental health to substance use, employment and housing services.
“Community partners are essential to what we do here,” Hillman said. “Connecting them to those outside agencies and connecting the resources all together—and all of the different agencies working together—is crucial to running a program like this.”
Because of the policy update, Hillman said 75 percent of individuals staying at HOPE Village are either in substance use counseling, mental health counseling or a combination of the two.
“We’re really proud of those numbers,” Hillman said. “We’re just seeing people really getting their hope back. And it’s so cliche to say, because it’s HOPE Village, but really getting their hope back, just with our staff telling them that every day: ‘You’re worth it. You can do this.’”
Something Hillman finds encouraging? People are choosing to pursue treatment on their own.
“Once you give them shelter, which is a basic human need, and food and then telling them that they’re worthy of change, they’re worthy of being loved, and they’re worthy of shelter and food, then they start making those changes on their own,” Hillman said. “That’s what’s really exciting.”
An eye on the future
HOPE Village is a city partnership funded through grants and state dollars, Smith said—not out of Longview’s operational budget. Last year, $1.4 million was budgeted for the site’s operational expenses, and Smith said The Salvation Army came in roughly $200,000 under budget as they had the year prior.
“We’ve been asked and hired as a contractor to provide a service, and so that’s how we view the budget…We put that on the shoulders of the city to manage,” he said. “Year to year, funding is always a question, but the city’s been successful so far in raising those dollars.”
Smith said this year the city will put out a request for proposal for operation of HOPE Village, something The Salvation Army hasn’t faced competition in before due to the emergency declaration status at the program’s start.
“We have every reason to look ahead with positivity. We see this program as bringing great value to the community. We want to continue,” he said. “We are the best provider for this operation to happen. Nobody in town operates under this philosophy of care when it comes to shelter or when it comes to treatment, for that matter. So it’s unique, and it meets an unmet need.”
Smith noted the previous difficulty in addressing the chronically homeless scenario with any kind of success.
“This program needs to happen, regardless of who’s operating it, but we are certainly in the best position to do that,” he said.
Recently, when Longview experienced temperatures so cold it posed harm to those living on the streets, The Salvation Army operated a cold weather shelter at a city facility as part of a separate contract.
Over the course of two multi-week stints, Hillman said 213 individuals were served.
With the forthcoming bid process, they are considering including a subcontract for severe weather as well.
“It was a hand-in-glove kind of fit with what we were already doing with the city,” Smith said. “It’s a natural component to take in addition, and so we’ve proven that we can do that and do it successfully.”
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