Service club helps advance early successes at veterans’ tiny-home village

On Friday, Cosmopolitan Club members inspected a total stranger’s home.

The celebration inside one of the newest structures at the Veterans Community Project in Sioux Falls marked a jubilant moment for the 100-year-old service club’s 55-plus members.

“Everybody’s just excited to be a part of something, to give back and to help lives transition from homelessness,” club member Matt J. Smith said. “It’s bigger than ourselves, but we can come together and be part of it.”

The Cosmopolitan Club raised $50,000, both as a club and with some additional individual contributions in the organization’s name, to sponsor a house in the VCP neighborhood where veterans can stay. The transitional housing units are known as tiny houses.

Currently, the Veterans Community Project has four villages in the United States. The first to open was in Kansas City. Sioux Falls is the fourth project, and the organization just broke ground in Glendale, Arizona, for the fifth and is working on one in Milwaukee, said John Holter, the Sioux Falls VCP executive director.

Eventually, the local village will have 25 tiny homes with 25 sponsors. So far, 10 are available for veterans.

“Five more will be done in a couple months, so we will have 15,” Holter said. “The goal is to build the last 10 this summer. Construction season is starting.”

The VCP formula for prospective tenants is veterans who are homeless or about to be. If they are willing to work on the underlying causes of their homelessness, VCP offers them a home and wraparound case-management services. The organization can help them deal with a disability or find employment or schooling, for example, Holter said.

In 2023, supporters established a VCP in Sioux Falls. It has recorded three or four positive transitions, residents who move to permanent housing and become self-supporting, Holter said. This month, VCP had another first — a married couple moved in, marking the first time a tiny house has sheltered two people and the first time for a female resident.

VCP also offers outreach at Bishop Dudley Hospitality House and at Berakhah House, a Volunteers of America Dakotas group home that offers short-term housing on Western Avenue.

VCP is not federally funded. It runs primarily on private donations for building and operational costs, Holter said. That’s why the support of an organization such as the Cosmopolitan Club is vital.

“The Cosmopolitan Club here in Sioux Falls has been an amazing supporter of ours,” said Kaelyn Giefer, VCP’s local director of development.

The house that Cosmopolitan Club members inspected Friday is fully furnished and ready for its new occupant. When that person leaves, they will take the new furniture, dishes and accoutrements such as a toaster to their permanent home, and the tiny house will be refurnished.

Cosmopolitan International began in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1918 and now has more than 40 clubs. The Sioux Falls group marks its centennial this year. One of its past projects that is still prominent in Sioux Falls in the McKennan Park band shell.

The Cosmopolitan Club’s primary function is to raise funds to fight diabetes, said Smith, market president at Dakotah Bank. When he first joined about 25 years ago, Smith was starting his banking career and wanted to join a service club to become involved in the community and meet business leaders.

Raising funds to build and furnish a tiny house fits into the Cosmopolitan Club’s mission to cure diabetes, Smith said. Diabetes affects about 20 percent of those who receive services through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“It’s a cool connection to the Cosmopolitan Club,” Smith said. One of the club’s most enthusiastic supporters is also a veteran with diabetes.

Per capita, the local club has an outsized impact on the money it raises despite a relatively small membership, he said.

Its fundraisers include helping at the Sioux Empire Sportsmen’s Show and sponsoring The Sweetest Day of Golf tournament every September. Club members divide the funds raised between the VCP sponsorship and Camp Gilbert, a weeklong experience for children with diabetes.

Holter and Giefer kept Cosmopolitan Club members updated on the progress of “their” house, and for the past two Christmas seasons, club members helped decorate tiny houses with holiday lights.

Club members learned about the difference the houses had made in veterans’ lives.

“One of the coolest stories right now is the gentleman who had kids but couldn’t have visitation with them,” Smith said. “He’s now in a family unit and has a place for them. They’re working with a husband and wife. It’s helping families.”

Holter sees the changes first-hand.

“We’re making a difference in the lives of homeless veterans. It’s not just the ones who live here. (Recently) we able to pay a lady’s rent for next month and keep her housed. We’re making a big difference in people’s lives; we’re making a big difference in homelessness in the veterans’ population. It’s partnerships like Cosmopolitan Club that make this possible.”