Veterans Community Projects marks milestone with all homes underway, recent grads

Saturday’s snow scoured away the last traces of chalk drawn on the sidewalks at the Veterans Community Project of Sioux Falls, but the disappearance is only temporary.

The chalk drawings will return next spring when the weather warms up and the last of the VCP’s 25 tiny homes for unhoused veterans open, marking the end of construction.

“What’s kind of cool is if they have children, when they have a house, they get visitation rights back to get their kids to come visit. You see sidewalk chalk and toys in the yard; it really feels like a neighborhood now,” said John Holter, the VCP executive director for the past two years. “We’ve got all 25 homes in the air now, and it really looks like a village.”

Of the 15 already-completed homes, a couple are waiting for sidewalks to be poured, then the city of Sioux Falls can issue certificates of occupancy, Holter said.

“Twenty-five is the total number we’re going to build, and we have the last 10 framed with roofs and sheeting on the side,” he said. “We’re putting roofs on, and in the next week or two, we’ll put all the windows and doors in them, then we can put heat in them and finish them over the winter.”

By week’s end, he expects 10 homes to be occupied. Currently, seven shelter veterans, including a single woman and a married couple.

“The next resident that moves in will be female, and we’ve got a single man moving in after that,” Holter said.

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.

When work on the VCP at 376 N. Willow Ave. finishes next year, it will include 15 single-person and 10 family units, in addition to buildings with space for staff and services and for volunteers. The Village Center offers office space and a place for veterans in residence to gather. Single-person dwellings are 240 square feet while the larger houses are 340 square feet.

Eight veterans have graduated from the program, Holter said. The first veterans moved in during October 2023.

Veterans who have graduated to their own housing off the campus generally have remained in the Sioux Falls area.

“They actually frequently stop in to say hello,” Holter said. “We’re a new program, so we’re just starting what we call our alumni program. We have them gather in the community periodically. They meet with residents and acts as a pseudo counselor and friend.”

In the United States in 2024, reports indicated that there were 32,882 homeless veterans, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Included in that number is 42 percent of veterans who were unsheltered, 30 percent living in emergency shelter and 28 percent living in transitional housing through organizations like the local VCP.

The nonprofit organization broke ground in Sioux Falls in 2022. The national VCP organization has locations in operation in Kansas City, Missouri; St. Louis; and Longmont, Colorado. This year, work started on a 50-home village in Glendale, Arizona, and 40 homes in Milwaukee. The first village opened in 2017 with 13 homes in Kansas City.

Sioux Falls is the smallest village with 25 homes. Longmont’s 26 houses were finished this year.

The local VCP’s veteran support services team also is ramping up its outreach to ensure that every veteran has needed items for winter.

This includes snack bags, hygiene essentials and cold-weather items. A wish list is online at Amazon.