A few years ago, Lona Hammer spotted a tent hidden in a thicket of trees in Kennewick’s Zintel Canyon near her house.

The tent was well out of sight of any passing hikers or drivers, but she knew people living there in the middle of winter.

“It was cold and damp and I could hear persistent coughing,” said Hammer, the executive director of the Kennewick Housing Authority.

From that grew the idea for a micro home development that will be complete by next summer.