Watch this video about a tiny home community for veterans in Kansas City.
A movement has been growing for the past six or seven years to provide affordable housing and support services for our homeless veterans. It has been estimated that 98 percent of veterans experience homelessness. The planned communities offer barber shops, medical and dental clinics, and training facilities. Some go so far as to offer veterinary clinics, and fellowship halls.
The tiny houses offer between 100 and 200 square feet comprising living, sleeping, bath, and kitchen areas. They are heated and cooled and have televisions and WiFi. All are planned with the veteran’s need for self-sufficiency and privacy in mind.
The barber shops and the medical and dental clinics are planned to help the veteran who has been living on the streets to improve his physical wellbeing. The training facilities prepare the veteran to work in fields that will allow him to support himself. Some veterans have pets; the veterinary clinic cares for them.
The fellowship halls cater to the veterans’ spiritual and emotional needs, as well as providing a common area for the residents to get to know each other. Other common areas are gardens, where the veterans can help the community grow its own fruit and vegetables, and the workshop, where veterans can learn woodworking and other skills.
One group that has been actively planning, building, and operating communities for homeless veterans is the Veterans Community Project. It was started in 2017 by a group of combat veterans, who felt the system was failing returning veterans. They pooled their resources and opened their first community in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2018. Today, they have six communities located in Kansas City; Longmont, Colorado; St. Louis, Missouri; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Learn more about the Veterans Community Project.
The movement to provide tiny homes for homeless veterans hoped to receive a boost with the passage of the Tiny Homes for Homeless Veterans Act of 2021. The act would have created a pilot program through an existing Veterans Administration program to provide grants for building communities of tiny transitional homes and providing support services for homeless veterans. Sadly, the bill died in Congress.
Wouldn't it be "loverly" if the Congress that funds the military could actually see fit to fund care for the men who serve in that military!
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