While the Seattle City Council and the Mayor’s Office struggle to establish a plan to handle the homelessness crisis, one Magnolia man has formulated his own plan that sheds a little light on the problem – literally.

Mark Buick, a Ballard Rotarian, and Walt Hickey, founder of Camino Maestro, a nonprofit, have developed a program called “Lighting For Living” that aims to illuminate the dwellings and covered spaces using solar panels at city-sanctioned homeless encampments in Seattle and eventually the nation.

At the Ballard Nickelsville encampment there is a now a small solar panel perched on the roof of the small security shed that was installed last week. The panel can provide lighting for up to five hours and can also charge a cell phone. The one panel is the first of over 50 panels that are planned for installation at the Nickelsville encampment and Othello encampment in Southeast Seattle.

Buick said that he and Walt were planning on installing more at the Ballard site but had to stop for the day because of the rain and impeding storm over the weekend. The goal is to involve students from Interlake High School, where Walt teaches math, to experience meaningful impactful community service.

Looking for more personal growth Buick got involved in the Landmark Education, a personal development program based in Fremont. Buick said that one of the goals of the program is for the student to take on an in the community project. Ideas like Amber Alerts on cell phones, “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes”, and “The Hunger Project” have come from individuals in this program.

Buick got to thinking about a meaningful leadership project.

“I hate to see all the bad press homeless people get –we have people with drug problems, the alcohol problems, but we also have so many people here that were one injury, one or two paychecks away from being homeless. So I have a lot of empathy for the people living in these camps.”

Buick asked man who lived at Nickelsville for a hand on a home project. While they were working together he asked the man what he was lacking most at that encampment, and he said that campers really needed electricity to charge their phones and for lighting at night. The primary source for electricity at the encampment is a gas generator. The generator needs to be shut off after 7 p.m. because of a noise ordinance. Aside from lamps and flashlights the camp goes dark at night. Also, campers lose their source for charging their phones until the next morning.

“I thought, why not charge them with solar panels? It seemed like a natural fit for my project because I was already working with LED lighting,” said Buick.

Buick said he went to the Interbay SHARE campsite closer to his home for inspiration after hearing they used a single solar panel, installed by Camino Maestro last February, in their common area. The camp itself is now equipped with electricity from the City of Seattle. He linked the panel to Camino Maestro, a non-profit, that supports the construction of dignified housing for needy families in  distressed neighborhoods of Tijuana, Mexico and a similar neighborhoods elsewhere. Camino Maestro had partnered with a similar project supported by the Rotary Club of Los Gatos, California. Being a member of the Ballard Rotary Club, Buick got the idea of partnering with them to fund this project, along with Camino Maestro.

With the partnership between Ballard Rotary Club, Camino Maestro and Elmore Electric, a Ballard marine electrical company, idea is now becoming a reality. The project is being funded by Camino Maestro and through a Rotary Club grant and matching funds. Lighting For Living will be able to provide up 50 solar panels, which means potentially that all the tiny houses at Nickelsville(5) and Othello (25) and their common areas will have lights and charging capacity for the residents.

But Buick said it doesn't have to stop there. He would like to bundle his idea and help other clubs offer it in their communities. Lighting For Living is modeled after the Lighting For Literacy non-profit program, which works with schools to bring renewable lighting to the 1.5 billion people in other parts of the world who have no lighting after sunset. The program satisfies the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) National Initiative and was honored by President Obama.

“There are Rotary Clubs all over the country in cities that are facing the same homeless problem we are. There are surely other cities where these type of camps exist, and there’s most likely one or more Rotary Clubs there too. … If we can do it around the world why can’t we do it in our back yard where we need it most?”

Moving forward Buick is working with Interlake High Students to assemble and install the solar kits. Elmore Electric has offered their shop in Ballard where they can assemble the panels. Buick said he plans to pre-make the installation kits in plastic bins to take to the encampments, and then donate the bins for storage.

With both the City Council and the mayor considering more city-sanctioned encampments to deal with the growing homeless crisis, Buick is hopeful that the City adopts his plan at the sites that do not have electricity infrastructure. He said that he’d like to offer them at unsanctioned camps but with no security the risk of loss is too high.

“I’m excited about it and committed to it, and I want to make this happen. …
For me it’s really just personal; I want to make a difference in peoples lives. I’m at the point in my life and the age when the things that matter to me most is making a difference peoples lives.”

For more information visit http://www.lightingforliteracy.org and http://www.caminomaestro.org