Photos: Pallet's factory building prefab tiny homes for the homeless - Business Insider
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Washington-based Pallet is building tiny homes to shelter people who are unhoused.
There are about 100 "villages" made of Pallet shelters across the US, housing over 2,000 people.
See inside Pallet's factory building about 80 tiny homes a week.
If factories and production lines can mass produce everyday items like smartphones and cars, why can't they be used to rapidly build housing?
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That's what Washington state-based Pallet — which specializes in building prefab tiny homes — realized in 2016.
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But instead of producing the typical luxury tiny homes that have flooded the real estate market, Pallet is building for those who need it the most: people experiencing homelessness.
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Over the last few years, several tiny home villages designed to shelter unhoused people have popped up across the US from California to Massachusetts.
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Many of these "village" programs have since been deemed massive successes, pushing more nonprofits and municipalities to explore this nascent but growing housing concept.
The Everett, Washington-based company builds prefabricated units to house people who are unhoused.
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One of the company's biggest advantages is that its products look and operate unlike traditional congregate shelters …
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… which can often be triggering or traumatic for people who have been living on the streets.
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Instead, the Oregon company currently prefabricates 64- and 100-square-foot tiny homes with lockable front doors …
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… a community room, an office …
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… and a bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink.
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And when several of these units are organized together onto one property, they can create a full "tiny home village."
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Think of these villages as a sort of micro community with resources like social services and medical care.
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The goal is for its occupants to eventually find permanent and stable housing opportunities outside of the Pallet village.
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But before this can begin, the process of building a village — no matter its location — starts in Pallet's office and production facility in Everett, Washington.
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And when it comes to the company's workforce, it's all about practicing what it preaches.
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Over 80% of the employees who work on the manufacturing side were previously unhoused, incarcerated, or experienced substance use disorder, Amy King, Pallet's CEO, told Insider.
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Pallet's joint office and factory space is just under an hour drive from downtown Seattle.
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Pallet moved into its large headquarters about a year ago after it outgrew its roughly 5,000-square-foot manufacturing space just two miles away.
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And despite the recent move, the company is already quickly outgrowing this new factory and office space, it told Insider during a tour of the factory.
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Inside, pieces of aluminum and reinforced plastic composite panels quickly are turned into full tiny homes.
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All of the components are built in-house, from the cutting of the tiny home's panels and aluminum pieces (like the shelf supports and roof trusses) …
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… to the wiring and assembly of the electrical panels …
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… and the plumbing of the bathrooms.
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Because all of the homes are prefabricated and follow a preset number of designs, the well-labeled construction process is fairly consistent.
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But that doesn't stop Pallet from being quick to adapt.
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The nearly seven-year-old company is learning as it progresses.
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Pallet often receives live feedback from the municipalities and organizations that have deployed its units, which forces the team to be quick to adapt and implement any necessary changes.
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On average, the factory can pump out about 50 64-square-foot Shelter 64s …
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… and about 30 to 35 100-square-foot Shelter 100s in one week.
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It also builds a larger 400- to 800-square-foot Community Room.
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But this unit uses the same components as the Shelter 64, easing the construction process.
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The bathroom is then built out in a separate part of the factory.
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Pallet's goal is to turn the raw materials into a finished product in 30 minutes, the company told Insider.
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Right now, this process takes the team about one to three days.
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When the tiny homes are completed, they're flat packed and shipped to their final sites.
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Pallet's $7,500 Shelter 64s are by far its most popular unit.
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So far, the company has built about 3,500 of these 64-square-foot tiny homes.
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These units can accommodate up to two people or one person with a desk, giving its occupants more privacy compared to the communal congregate shelters.
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Nonprofits or municipalities looking to house families together can instead purchase a four-bed Shelter 100.
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Both models can be assembled on-site in under an hour, while an entire village can be built in a little over a week …
… a significantly faster timeline compared to building a traditional congregate shelter from the ground up.
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If the home needs to be moved again, it can either be forklifted out in one piece or disassembled in under an hour and flat packed again.
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After delivering the units, Pallet generally is uninvolved in the village.
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But King says the company still wants the sites using its products to meet the company's standards …
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… and requires the service providers operating Pallet villages to supply "necessary services" like hygiene, food, safety, social services, and access to transportation.
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These services help stabilize its residents in a "sustainable" manner, King said.
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Many unhoused people understandably reject congregate shelters, but demand for these Pallet tiny homes has been red hot.
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Josh Kerns, Pallet's former public relations manager, told Insider in an email that occupancy is "generally pretty close to 100% (anecdotally)."
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And some of its villages now have a waitlist.
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"Cities trying out this new model [are] getting much higher acceptance rates amongst individuals that are traditionally service adverse and don't want help [in a congregate setting]," King said.
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It's no surprise more cities and counties are eyeing tiny homes as a solution to the ongoing homelessness crisis.
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So far, these Pallet-based villages seem to be doing what the company promises.
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There are now about 100 Pallet villages across the US housing over 2,000 people.
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And these communities have been seeing an average 60% to 90% "placement rate" depending on the site, King says.
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In these success stories, residents stay for an average of three to six months before they find permanent housing, which often includes returning to their families, King said.
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“We’re trying to put ourselves out of business,” King said. “We want to make sure that we’re helping people truly exit the streets sustainably.”
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