The eight Pallet shelter tiny homes at Faith Family Village stood empty, as seen a few weeks ago.
Photo by Perris Larson
EVERETT — A tiny home village set up in central Everett to temporarily shelter homeless families on their path to housing went lights out just after the start of the New Year, and went on hiatus a little over 12 months after it opened. Now, a smaller set of organizers are planning to revive it.
Faith Family Village was a shelter community specifically for families experiencing homelessness.
Opening in September of 2023, the shelter was able to come to life through the partnership of Interfaith Family Shelter, Faith Lutheran Church, and Faith Family Food Bank. The city bought the eight Pallet shelters and paid for Interfaith’s services using a combination of its COVID Recovery dollars and HUD grant funds provided by U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen.
The City of Everett stipulated that Faith Food Bank work with Interfaith Family Shelter, as the food bank did not have experience in family sheltering or managing government funds. By working with an established organization like Interfaith, the program would be managed by an agency with the organizational infrastructure, staffing and expertise necessary.
With all three organizations dedicating their time and money into the project, Faith Family Village was able to house 22 families.
A hiatus was put into place in September due to disagreements between staff members on how the village should be run. Families slowly began to move out to permanent housing and no new families were accepted.
The Pallet shelters residing at Faith Lutheran Church’s property on Cady Road remain empty.
Roxana Boroujerdi, who was the executive director of Faith Family Village, exercised her right to terminate the project in the fall. This resulted in the three-way agreement terminating, the village temporarily closing and fewer spaces available for temporary sheltering of people in homelessness.
“Unfortunately, there were organizations involved and each had its own understanding of how the program would be managed,” Boroujerdi said. “Faith Food Bank, the founding nonprofit, invested $125,000 and will probably never get this money returned as promised, so the foodbank can meet its food needs in 2025. With this issue and the Village not operating as they expected, Faith Food Bank withdrew from the project in late December. We do hope that the remaining organizations will be able to reopen soon. It is a very needed program in our community.”
According to Lynsey Gagnon, Executive Director of Interfaith Family Shelter, none of the families
were forced to leave or displaced when the hiatus took effect. Interfaith Family Shelter was able to house the families who were staying in the Pallet shelters, with the last family exiting into permanent housing at the beginning of this year.
“Our overall goal is to make this a sustainable, long-term, long standing project for families with kids,” Gagnon said. “We desperately need to be opening up this project.”
With the agreement terminated, Interfaith is moving forward to create a new lease to keep using the property, working with Faith Lutheran Church only, as well as changing the name of the property to Madison Family Village.
“Faith Lutheran Church is developing distinct leases with both (Faith Food Bank) and Interfaith so that both agencies can continue the work they do serving people in need. We are hopeful that this will resolve any issues and allow Interfaith to continue managing the shelter program located on church property,” city spokeswoman Simone Tarver said.
Leadership at Faith Lutheran Church did not respond to inquiries for this story.
“With the name change, we really hope that the name puts us a part of the neighborhood,” said family support specialist with Interfaith, Daniel Blizard. Blizard works directly with clients on the intake line for the village, providing support and processing background checks. Blizard explained that even though the hiatus is still in effect, they are taking this time to do repairs, replenish supplies and ultimately figuring out how to better meet the needs of families.
“If you have a positive outlook, point people in the right direction. You’re able to keep families motivated, a positive outcome can happen even if it isn’t the ideal outcome, it’s still positive,” Blizard said.
Boroujerdi sincerely hopes for the best.
“I spent three years of my life and money to get this family Pallet shelter open. I cried when FFB withdrew but I felt it was our only option,” Boroujerdi said. “I pray that Faith Lutheran Church and Interfaith will recreate a better and safer shelter for families in need.”
