Longmont in the coming year will be home to a new tiny home community for veterans, and next week residents can join a webinar to learn more about the project.
The Longmont Library on Thursday will host a virtual discussion with Paul Melroy, executive director of the Veterans Community Project in Colorado, to talk about the project that will house homeless vets.
The city is the first expansion site for the Veterans Community Project, which got its start in Kansas City, Missouri. The 49-home Kansas City Village began housing veterans in 2018.
When completed, the Longmont Village will feature 26 tiny houses and a 3,000-square foot community center. The Village, which will be off Nelson Road to the west of Home Depot and Target, will feature five 340-square-foot homes for families able to sleep up to seven people, while the remainder will be 240 square feet for single residents. Veterans will be allowed to live for free in the homes stocked with new furniture, appliances, housewares and bedding. Utilities also will be paid.
The Village also will use a one-on-one case management model to help residents achieve “incremental, lasting results in the areas of health and wellness, education, employment, financial literacy, and the development of a personal support network,” the Veterans Community Project states on its website.
Potential residents will be referred by partners including veteran service officers in Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties, and nonprofits. In addition, a Veterans Community Project street outreach team is already working in Longmont.
Ground was broken on the Longmont site in August and construction of the homes is anticipated to begin in spring.
HMS Development donated about 3.5 acres adjacent to its planned Mountain Brook subdivision, with the Veterans Village going in on about 2.5 of those acres, HMS partner Kevin Mulshine said earlier this year. The remaining land is going to Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley for eight homes.
HMS also will build all the pre-construction infrastructure — roads, water, sewer, gas, etc. — for the site. The land and work are worth about $3 million, Mulshine said.
Construction of the Village will employ a model similar to Habitat for Humanity, using tradespeople to work on those parts of construction that require permits and volunteers to build the rest of the tiny homes.
Thursday’s webinar with Melroy, which also will include time for questions, will be from 7 to 8 p.m. It is free to attend, but registration is required. To register, click here.
