First veterans to begin moving in at tiny-home village

It took a little longer than expected, but before the end of the month, the first homeless veterans are expected to be living in the new Sioux Falls tiny-home village.

The first five houses for the Veterans Community Project essentially are ready to go at 376 N. Willow Ave. on property donated by the city of Sioux Falls.

Except, that is, for one key element: running water.

“There’s always one thing that doesn’t go quite right,” executive director Eric Gage said. “For us, that was the water meter — the one thing you can’t do without because without running water, these are very, very fancy shells.”

Originally, the plan had been to build the main building to serve the village with space for staff and services. That’s where the water meter was going to be housed.

“But that building doesn’t exist, so we had to change a few things,” Gage said.

Essentially, that meant building a small heated shed that will house the water meter.

“That piece alone slowed occupancy,” he said. “We’re overcoming it. The city has worked with us really well, but when you’re doing something like this, you’ve got to come up with a plan and get it approved and coordinate with a plumber at the city.”

Once that’s done, “we can turn the water on and get our final inspection and get our occupancy,” Gage said.

“Our first five houses have been complete and for the most part ready to use for a little bit. All the construction, all the furnishings, we’ve had great support from builders and people buying stuff off our wish lists.”

Now, it’s finally time to figure out who will move in. Originally, the plan had been to start housing veterans earlier this summer.

In the past week, a co-founder of the Veterans Community Project visited Sioux Falls from Kansas City and worked with Laura Nostvick, director of veteran support services for the new location, to begin interviewing potential residents.

“We’re having a lot of quality but difficult conversations,” Gage said. “We’re dealing with folks who are on the street for a reason. Something happened in their life, or something got in their way, and over the course of these interactions, you learn a lot about these folks.”

Some interviews are formal, and others are the result of impromptu conversations on the street or at shelters.

The stories are diverse, Gage said. He met with a 24-year-old who “had a rough go of it in his early days, joined the military to find a family because he didn’t have that growing up and left the military because of a medical discharge,” he said.

“Losing that family again has been a struggle ever since. We just see such potential in him, and he’s just scared because he doesn’t want to live on the street or end up in jail.”

There also is a couple overcoming addiction, “and they’re just in a bad spot,” Gage said. “They’re not just trying to stay clean but maintain a relationship.”

The hope is to have chosen the first three veterans to move in before the end of September, followed by the additional two after that.

“Filling all five houses from day one isn’t fair to them,” Gage said. “Our staff would struggle to keep up. People pass through our program at different rates, but there are some major milestones that happen early on, and as a person goes through, they typically need less and less support from the staff.”

The Veterans Community Project also has taken steps to limit public traffic in the area and remind people that it’s private property in preparation for residents to move in.

“We don’t operate a zoo,” Gage said. “We say that jokingly, but people do drive by and look at what’s going on here almost hourly. They’re respectful of it, but some folks don’t know where the line is. Since they (the signs) have gone up, traffic has gone way down.”

Public traffic will be allowed, but a staff member will have to be present, he said.

“These will be people’s homes, and these folks are going to be overcoming some trauma, dealing with some heavy, heavy stuff, and we want to make sure we’re not adding unnecessary pressure to their lives,” he said.

A dedication will be held next week to recognize the 10 sponsors for the initial houses:

• 84C, a local men’s group
• Tony and Lorraine Bour
• Dacotah Bank
• Elite Electric Inc.
• Paws Pet Resort
• Scheels
• Schulte family
• Sioux Falls Cosmopolitan Club
• Adrian and Ann Van Boschove
• Wireless World

The next five houses also are starting construction and being framed by volunteers. The first 10 houses are designed for families, but there also are three nearly finished houses for single individuals waiting at Harrisburg High School — where students helped build them — with other planned to start.

Lumber and shingles have been donated, which is a great help given the unplanned increase in construction costs from the time fundraising started until now, Gage said. The rising cost of concrete is partially why pads haven’t been put down yet for the other houses that are done.

The hope is to have the existing houses entirely enclosed “before the snow flies,” he said. “At that point, we will pause and assess funding.”

In November, the Veterans Community Project is scheduled to begin a Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce appeal campaign to raise funds for its community building, which will support the wraparound services that are key to the program.

“The chamber and the committee have been amazing,” Gage said. “They’re really excited to get into this. And we’re stoked because we’ve asked a lot of this community with this project so far.”