A delayed project to build 40 "tiny homes" for homeless veterans and their families on Milwaukee's northwest side received approval from the Plan Commission Monday.
The development would be built by Kansas City-based
Veterans Community Project Inc. on a vacant 7-acre site at 6767 N. 60th St.
The development's homes would range from 240 to 340 square feet, provided rent-free. Each home would include a kitchen, bathroom and sleeping areas, with eight homes set aside for families.
A village center would provide social activities as well as case management services, education, and health and wellness programming. The goal is to help residents become stable and find jobs and new housing, according to the nonprofit's proposal.
The homes' designs take into account post-traumatic stress disorder's effects, and provide veterans "a sense of privacy, security and the opportunity to reintegrate into society at a comfortable pace," the proposal says.
"Housing with dignity is very, very important to us," Ben Hendershot, Veterans Community Project's vice president of national expansion, told Plan Commission members.
Construction could begin this year, with the community center and homes built in phases.
Veterans Community Project has completed neighborhoods in three cities and has three other neighborhoods in the planning or construction stages, including the Milwaukee neighborhood, according to the group's website.
Work was supposed to start in 2021 after Racine-based Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin Inc. bought the city-owned site and had a similar project planned, but those plans didn't move forward. Veterans Community Project picked up the project in 2022 and launched an $11.7 million fundraising campaign last year, project leaders said.
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