Expanding the New Hope Village & We Need Your Support!

While this is a call to action for our generous community members, it is also a relief to share good news with you this time. For those of you that may not know the details, over the last six months, OlyMAP has been working to expand our New Hope Village and blend the project with our Stability Stays program.

New Hope Village is an extremely low-barrier, long-term tiny home village that shelters our previously houseless neighbors. This program supports up to twelve individuals in six shelter units housed beneath the First Christian Church in downtown Olympia.

Stability Stays provides temporary shelter for individuals and adult families who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness and have a qualifying medical condition or emergency. The program provides stability, sanitation, connection to basic needs, and harm reduction for individuals experiencing an acute illness, a temporary medical crisis, or are recovering from a procedure.

Historically, Stability Stays has relied on placing people in hotels, and while we will still do this for some cases (like families), it is increasingly cost prohibitive. However, OlyMAP is dedicated to finding sustainable solutions. To this end, leveraging relationships with our community partners, we have secured the use of space on the FCC lot, beside New Hope, allowing us to place 6 additional tiny home units to act as emergency shelter and medical respite for vulnerable individuals. With support from our partners and creative strategies, OlyMAP will use existing contracts, program resources, and staff to ensure our ability to operate these units while providing Stability Stays services to the residents.

In the past few months, OlyMAP has worked to secure partner approval, permits, and even the units themselves. These are amazing strides that we are so excited to bring to you and we look forward to providing even more people with respite and support during some of the most difficult times in their lives.

Call to Action

With many things already in the works, there are a couple of important (and expensive) steps that we ask for your support with. Direct financial support is always welcome and truly helpful, but more than that we ask for volunteers that can donate their time and expertise to help with these major projects.

Concrete Work

Part of safely placing our new homes will require

leveling some ground and, decreasing the steep grade from the sidewalk to the village to increase accessibility. As New Hope will be hosting individuals in need of medical respite care, it is imperative that individuals using with physical limitations and/or using mobility devices are able to readily access the village. To make this possible, we need a contractor to remove some of the old concrete and pour new concrete to regrade the slope. Estimates range from $4,500 - $7,000 for this project.

Safety & Security

Fencing

With expansion comes the need for updates to security features. The size and shape of the village are changing, which requires new fencing to be purchased and laid, including fence posts. We will also need to install pedestrian gates and may need to update the vehicle gate. Estimates range from $8,000 - $11,000 for this work.

Door Locks

Each unit in the village, including the social spaces like the kitchen and living area, need locking doors to protect the privacy and autonomy of people living in the village. Ideally, OlyMAP would prefer to install electronic locks, similar to those you see in hotels. This would allow us to easily replace keys if they get lost or go missing, without having to replace the entire door knob every time. Additionally, unlike keycode locks, we would know how many keys have been handed out and who has them, as opposed to a code that can be passed along. Estimates range from $2,000 - $4,000 for the locks, with install likely performed by staff.

Needs of Living Updates

Doubling the capacity of the village means that some of the basic living staples must be updated to accommodate additional people. This means, hopefully, expanding the kitchen and, at minimum, upgrading the kitchen electrical system so that it has the capacity to support more residents. Additionally, this may require sump-pump/plumbing updates to ensure the bathrooms and showers can operate uninterrupted for everyone living in the village. Estimates range from $8,000 - $15,000 to complete theses tasks.

Needs of Living Updates

How You Can Help

If you are licensed and able to perform any of this work in full or in part and are willing to donate your time (or offer service discounts!), please click here to use our contact form, email volunteers@olymap.org, or call to leave us a message at 360-515-3202.

If you are not licensed but would still like to volunteer your time to assist in these matters, please email volunteers@olymap.org.

If you would like to donate materials or other supplies, please click here to use our contact form, email donate@olymap.org, or call to leave us a message at 360-515-3202.

As always, if you are able to support us financially, please click here to donate electronically, or click here to learn about other ways to donate.

Thank You

We are forever grateful for the support of our community. It nearly goes without saying at this point that we would not be able to do our important work without you, however, it's important to tell you how needed you are. Non-profits cannot exist in a vacuum and especially with the concerning changes and decisions from government entities, your voice and your support are as necessary now as they have ever been.

Even with progress yet to be made, we are beyond thrilled to share this next step with you. What we are able to do may seem like a drop in the ocean, but at a time when we're losing accessible shelters, 6 new spaces are 6 wins worth celebrating. So, sincerely, thank you and we look forward to seeing what we can continue to accomplish together.

Love and gratitude from OlyMAP.