New VCP leader brings career of military service, passion for tiny-home village for veterans

Jim Linn first learned about the Veterans Community Project — to provide unhoused veterans with a tiny house and support services — while he was on deployment in Africa with the South Dakota National Guard.

He attended an early meeting to discuss bringing similar tiny houses to Sioux Falls. Linn was there at the project’s groundbreaking on North Willow Avenue in 2023. He has supported various fundraisers for Veterans Community Project.

And as of Monday, he’s now its executive director.

“Jim will bring strengths-based leadership to VCP and continue to build on our strong foundation in Sioux Falls,” Bryan Meyer, co-founder and CEO of Veterans Community Project, said in a statement. “His lived experience, leadership and personal commitment will guide us as we expand capacity to serve more veterans.”

“I am back on mission,” Linn said, sitting in his new office. “That’s going to be part of my mantra for an entire year. One thing that’s been missing from my life wholeheartedly since 2023 is my brothers and sisters in arms, and if I could impact one in a year, that was amazing. I now have the opportunity to impact a lot more veterans in need than that.”

2023 is when Linn retired from the South Dakota National Guard after 35 years in uniform. What began as an enlistment on a dare turned into a life-changing experience as he pursued full-time employment in pharmaceutical sales and in management of an architecture firm.

VCP’s mission is to create a specialized community of tiny homes aimed at providing the sanctuary and emotional space needed as a veteran addresses his or her underlying causes of homelessness. Other VCP projects are open in Missouri, Wisconsin and Colorado, with planning for a site in Arizona.

When completed, likely next year, the Sioux Falls site will have 15 single-person and 10 family units. Currently, nine of the 10 finished tiny homes are occupied. Another building offers space for staff and services and for volunteers.

While putting a roof over veterans’ heads is essential, that’s just a small part of VCP’s assistance, Linn said.

“It’s the wraparound services that truly help them get on their feet. Putting a roof on someone’s head is one thing, but you can find that at missions or a homeless shelter. This is so much more. They can get counseling on how to navigate the VA and get the benefits they may be eligible for, we can help them figure out how to navigate the employment market, can help with their finances, can help with their family.”

At the same time, he understands what community engagement coordinator Amy Young meant when she said the mailroom is her favorite space at the VCP.

“They have an address. There are so many things they can do when they have an address,” Linn said. “It’s something to put on a resume and on a job application and as far as trying to obtain custody for their children or visitation — so many things that change in their lives.”

Linn’s life changed when the Pierre native was a student at South Dakota State University in the late 1980s. He and his roommate were both failing classes and faced bank overdrafts.

“We decided we had to do something before our fathers got hold of both of us, and we decided to join the military,” Linn said.

That dare took them first to the South Dakota Air Guard recruiting office. However, that commitment would require a semester away from SDSU to complete the necessary training. Instead, they traveled to the roommate’s hometown of Watertown and talked to a National Guard recruiter there. Six weeks later, they started a summer of basic training, completing the requirements the next summer.

Linn spent much of his National Guard career as a field artillery officer, but about 2009, before he was deployed with his unit to Kuwait, he helped develop a training plan for deployment and certification. From 2010 to 2014, he was responsible for training every South Dakota National Guard soldier who deployed.

Linn experienced four deployments, and each one affected him personally. It gave him more insight into the human condition, realizing that every person can be changed by what they encounter in life.

“Every deployment I was on, we were lucky enough to bring everybody home, but not everybody truly came home,” he said. “There’s a lot of veterans that struggle with reintegration coming back to society. If I can make a difference in their lives, I reckon I can die a happy man.”

It was a fellow guardsman, Sgt. Maj. Tom Leonard, who led Linn to his two-decades career as a sales executive. One of the National Guard’s most amazing parts is how success in the military and in private life overlaps and complements.

“One of the reasons the Guard is so successful is that their members are No. 1 used to juggling two responsibilities or more, and No. 2, when we do deploy the skill sets we bring from the civilian side, it magnifies how good we are at it.”

He cites an experience in Iraq when large air-conditioning units were needed. The Army said it had nothing to offer, but a South Dakota guardsman noticed that 10 broken units were in storage. Another guardsman inspected the units, determined what they needed and asked his employer in Watertown for help. After the parts and tools arrived, six of the 10 units had been restored to full operation.

Linn’s second career started after he returned from deployment in 2021. He had taken a retirement buyout just before the COVID pandemic began in 2020. Linn and his wife, JoAnn, are the parents of three grown children: Shelby, Ashley and Sawyer. He had coached flag football with another father, architect Todd Stone of Stone Group Architects.

Stone invited Linn to join his firm as chief operating officer. He had no experience in architecture, Linn protested. Exactly the point, Stone told him. He wanted someone to manage all the nonarchitectural challenges that would confront the firm.

It also offered Linn another connection with the military. Stone Group Architects is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business that works with the Department of Veterans Affairs nationwide.

“It gave me the opportunity to help where I could,” Linn said. “They made the facilities better for those who serve and also make the facilities better for those who serve those who served.”

Linn first heard of the VCP when he met co-founder Mark Solomon while the Navy reservist was on deployment in Africa. He has another connection locally since he knows John Holter, the retiring executive director, from their years in the Guard.

Holter knows the stories of the men and women who have graduated from VCP housing and those who live there today. Now, it’s his turn to listen and learn from those stories, Linn said.

With two-fifths of the tiny houses completed, a small community has started to form, Linn said. In a year’s time, he expects it will have grown and strengthened. His goal is to amplify what has already been accomplished.

“You will see a thriving community of veterans that are sharing their stories. Some will be more reserved, some more open, but they’ve all come from a variety of places,” Linn said. “Some were in combat, but every one of them raised their right hand and were willing to put everything on the line, including their life, for our country. There’s less than 1 percent of the population that’s done that.”