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A proposed “tiny” housing project for homeless London veterans is forging ahead with hopes of getting shovels in the ground next spring.
In a partnership with Veterans Affairs, the village of 20 small homes – each one less than 300 square feet, but “with all the features of a larger home” – will provide wraparound supports such as social and mental health workers at an as-yet-unnamed location, said David Howard, the founder of Homes for Heroes.
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The land, which he would only say is not in the city’s core, was donated.
Howard describes the project as “very low impact to the community,” adding: “The homes are built in a warehouse while sites are being built. There’s a village built in four or five months.”
Howard says there are as many as 10,000 veterans who are homeless across Canada.
Those dealing with drug and alcohol addictions won’t be treated at the tiny homes, Howard said, noting residents must commit to a code of conduct before moving in.
Homes for Heroes, designed with the input of 200 veterans, has built tiny homes in Calgary, Edmonton and Kingston. A project is about to start in Winnipeg, too. Each “village” of tiny homes consists for 15 to 25 individual homes “arranged in a park-like setting,” according to the group’s website. The homes all face inward “to facilitate peer-to-peer support.”
Said Howard: “We want this to be a build that the citizens of London look at and say: ‘We take care of our veterans.”
In Kingston each of the 20 units is dedicated to the memory of an individual Canadian Forces member, unit or important historical events in the history of the Canadian military, according to The Kingston Whig Standard.
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