In 2017, a Washington couple began building homeless shelters that assembled in under an hour; after serving 30,000 people, their company is shutting down | World News
In 2017, a husband-and-wife team in Washington began experimenting with a different way to provide emergency shelter. Rather than constructing conventional buildings that could take weeks or months, Amy and Brady King wanted to create small, durable units that could be transported easily and assembled rapidly. Their idea eventually became Pallet, an Everett-based company that built villages of temporary shelters for people experiencing homelessness.According to GeekWire, Pallet is closing its business after nine years of building transitional shelters for people experiencing homelessness. The company reported that its villages across the United States and Canada had offered more than 6,083 beds and sheltered an estimated 30,000 people. Its closure ends a company that made rapid construction central to its approach to homelessness. The shelters could be assembled in under an hour, but the larger challenge was creating places where people could live indoors, access support services and begin working toward permanent housing.A shelter designed to go up quicklyThe Kings had construction experience before starting Pallet and initially considered using their modular shelters for people displaced by natural disasters. The design consisted of durable panels that could be transported flat and assembled on site with minimal tools. Their first major opportunity came from the homelessness crisis closer to home. According to the City of Tacoma, the city had declared a state of emergency over homelessness in 2017 and began using micro-shelters as part of its emergency response.Pallet became an early supplier, with Tacoma eventually incorporating 40 of its shelters into a sanctioned tent city. The small units were designed as temporary accommodation, with communal facilities provided elsewhere in the village. Pallet’s prefabricated modules could be installed on site and assembled in about an hour without specialised tools. The units had basic amenities, including a folding bed, windows, ventilation, and locking doors and offered residents a private place, while other communal services could be placed somewhere else in the village. These structures could be installed far faster than conventional buildings, making them useful for communities that needed rapid shelter.From emergency shelter to a transitional villagePallet’s concept was not intended to replace permanent housing. Instead, its shelters were designed as transitional spaces where residents could move indoors while receiving support from service providers. That distinction shaped the way the villages operated. The shelter itself provided a private sleeping space, while kitchens, bathrooms, laundry facilities and other services could be shared throughout the wider site. Case managers and partner organisations could work with residents on issues such as employment, benefits, healthcare and finding permanent accommodation. A review published in Wellbeing, Space and Society in 2026 examined research on tiny homes and sleeping cabins in high-income countries and found that these approaches could form part of a broader response to homelessness, while also noting that evidence on their effectiveness remains limited.Pallet nevertheless expanded rapidly, eventually building its 100th village and supplying shelters to communities across North America. Employment was also an important part of the company’s mission. Pallet said it hired people with lived experience of homelessness and others who faced barriers to conventional employment, connecting shelter production with a so-called fair-chance approach. At the same time, the villages were designed to make temporary housing feel more stable and personal. Instead of sleeping in large communal spaces, residents could have a private unit of their own while sharing kitchens, bathrooms, laundry facilities and other services with the wider community. This combination of privacy, shared facilities and support was central to Pallet’s aim of making the transition from homelessness to permanent housing less abrupt.
Person experiencing homelessness alongside personal belongings. Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons.
Nine years, 30,000 people and an unexpected endingHowever, Pallet later faced sustainability challenges as conditions around homelessness changed. In its shutdown announcement in September 2026, the company said customer demands had become more complex and that funding conditions and political priorities were shifting.The decision came despite the company’s scale. Pallet says its villages across the US and Canada had provided more than 6,083 beds and sheltered over 30,000 people since 2017. Its shelters also helped popularise a rapid-deployment housing model that some communities continued to use. The closure also raises questions about what will happen to the infrastructure now that the company is gone. According to Pallet, operators of existing villages will be able to access warranty information and replacement parts, but maintenance will be their responsibility.Pallet’s closure is an ironic ending for a company built around rapid shelter deployment. The company showed how quickly emergency shelter could be manufactured, transported and assembled for thousands of people. But fast assembly alone could not address housing affordability, government support or homelessness itself. The shelters were meant to last for years, but the company that produced them lasted only nine years.
