Belmont Tiny House Village breaks ground with plans for 32 new Capitol Hill homes by July

Thanks to a CHS reader for this picture of the start of work at the new Tiny House Village site

The Belmont Tiny House Village will open to residents by July.

The Low Income Housing Institute’s $1.1 million, 32-tiny house “emergency transitional encampment” broke ground last week with trucks arriving to deliver the 96-square-foot homes to the empty lot in the 1700 block of Belmont Ave.

The property will eventually be redeveloped as a new supportive housing facility from Downtown Emergency Service Center.

“LIHI is thrilled to announce that we have broken ground on the future Belmont Tiny House Village (formerly known as Cap Hill Village)!,” the Low Income Housing Institute said in its groundbreaking announcement.

“Located at 1737 Belmont Ave, this village will be in the heart of the vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle,” the announcement reads.

As CHS previously reported, the village will feature 32 tiny houses, 24/7 staffing, a security pavilion, staff and case management offices, a community kitchen, plus hygiene and laundry facilities.

Common facilities and six of the tiny houses will be accessible, LIHI says.

CHS broke the news on LIHI’s plans for the block in April. A spokesperson for Mayor Katie Wilson told CHS the plan for the Capitol Hill village was not being driven out of her administration and is not being funded as part of the mayor’s acceleration of new shelter.

Funding from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority — Seattle provides approximately 61% of the KCRHA’s total budget — is powering the LIHI project. CHS reported here on the major upheaval around the authority after an audit revealed the organization has a $44.7 million spending hole with millions unaccounted for. Officials have vowed to tighten processes and oversight. Reports on plugging the financial holes are due in coming weeks.

Groundbreaking on Belmont Ave as the mayor’s plan to fund larger tiny house villages across the city is moving forward. Last week, the Seattle City Council and District 3 representative and council president Joy Hollingsworth approved legislation part of Wilson’s plan for “Shelter Acceleration” in the city that will raise legal limits on residents at “transitional encampments” to 150. The bill will also allow one “interim use” 250-resident village in the city.

During debate, Hollingsworth sparked significant discussion by comparing proposed shelter buffer zones around schools and parks to regulations placed on cannabis dispensaries. Those buffers zones were ultimately rejected.

According to the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, the mayor’s plan will create more than 500 new spaces in Tiny House Villages in the city. Wilson has said she will support initiatives with a goal of 1,000 new beds across the city in 2026.

Those totals don’t count the new homes on Belmont Ave.

The cleared 4,300-square-foot Belmont Ave lot was home to the recently demolished Granberg Apartments. That building was acquired and cleared as Downtown Emergency Service Center develops a 120-unit supportive housing apartment building with onsite services for its residents. The block had been home to trio of former transitional housing building from Pioneer Human Services before the $6.5 million acquisition.

As of early 2026, there were around a dozen tiny house villages currently operating within the Seattle city limits. The number has grown with the opening of the Olympic Hills Village in Lake City in February 2026.

Most of the sites are managed by the Low Income Housing Institute in partnership with the City of Seattle and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.



According to the early planning for the project, the Belmont Tiny House Village will be operated by LIHI as “a religious controlled emergency transitional encampment.” The arrangement allows the camp to move forward under guidelines established by then-District 3 representative Kshama Sawant exempting religious organizations from permitting requirements for encampments. The religious partner organization for the Capitol Hill village has not been announced.

Nearby, LIHI has partnered with groups including Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd and New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in the Central District.

Capitol Hill’s Environmental Works and DH Landscape Architecture are leading the design of the Belmont Ave village.

According to the plans, the Belmont Tiny Village will be similar in size and scale to the organization’s Aurora Ave encampment.

Getting a space in Seattle’s Tiny House Villages does not use a walk-up intake process or a waitlist. Placement is driven by a direct referral model managed by the city and outreach organizations. The city’s Homelessness Outreach and Provider Ecosystem program is the primary referral source for Seattle-funded villages. Some villages partner with dedicated, localized groups. The Olympic Hills village in Lake City coordinates placements with groups like Purpose. Dignity. Action.

The Capitol Hill Tiny Village will be temporary — but could be in place for years as the development process for the 120-unit supportive housing building from DESC plays out and an environmental cleanup continues at the site after decades of leaky oil furnaces.

The Low Income Housing Institute says it held a community meeting on the project on April 20th — the same day CHS broke the news on the project — but hasn’t said if it is planning any follow-ups for the village.

LIHI says the Belmont Ave village will have an onsite case manager “supporting clients in obtaining housing, employment, income support, health care, getting IDs, applying for benefits, educational programs, and more.” The facility will also have an onsite behavioral health specialist “to provide services and refer clients to outpatient care, such as medication-assisted treatment.”

The organization is planning to open the Belmont Tiny House Village to residents by the end of July.

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