Posted on Sep 7, 2023
After a year's delay, tiny homes for St. Louis-area homeless veterans to open next month
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Twenty tiny homes built for homeless veterans are set to open in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood in the next 30 days.
“It feels very surreal but exciting, and we’re anxious to get there,” said Rebecca Tallman, executive director of the Veterans Community Project of St. Louis.
Originally scheduled to open last summer, a yearlong delay in getting an essential electrical box for the organization’s on-site outreach center set back the entire project’s construction. The newly built center, designed to help veterans transition to permanent housing, opened just three weeks ago for staff.
With the construction lag now behind the group, Tallman said she’s hopeful 10 single units and 10 family units will be fully furnished soon. At first, the group will start off housing five veterans.
“The staff has been very ready,” she said.
The St. Louis campus’ opening follows the organization’s housing its first veterans in Longmont, Colorado, last week and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, later this week.
“It feels very surreal but exciting, and we’re anxious to get there,” said Rebecca Tallman, executive director of the Veterans Community Project of St. Louis.
Originally scheduled to open last summer, a yearlong delay in getting an essential electrical box for the organization’s on-site outreach center set back the entire project’s construction. The newly built center, designed to help veterans transition to permanent housing, opened just three weeks ago for staff.
With the construction lag now behind the group, Tallman said she’s hopeful 10 single units and 10 family units will be fully furnished soon. At first, the group will start off housing five veterans.
“The staff has been very ready,” she said.
The St. Louis campus’ opening follows the organization’s housing its first veterans in Longmont, Colorado, last week and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, later this week.
After a year's delay, tiny homes for St. Louis-area homeless veterans to open next month
Posted from stlpr.org
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Posted 8 mo ago
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One year delay shows how even one thing can wreak havoc on construction plans
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This is a great step and I hope its repeated as often as needed in many locations.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."“When you look at the statistics, about 22 veterans take their lives every day,” Kander said. “But it’s within that that most people don’t realize that out of that 22, on average 18 of them are not connected to any sort of veteran services at all. By lowering the barrier and by making it much easier to access our services we want to make a real difference in those numbers, and that’s a big part of the walk-in operation.”
The nonprofit will connect with veterans through referrals from a variety of service providers and the VA, as well as sending out teams to do street outreach work to make sure veterans in the region are aware they can get help.
According to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, 453 veterans were experiencing homelessness in Missouri as of January 2020. Kander said that number is likely low.
“When you do look at the numbers generally you can increase the actual reported number by around 20 or 30%," he said. "When you consider, those numbers miss a lot of people."
..."“When you look at the statistics, about 22 veterans take their lives every day,” Kander said. “But it’s within that that most people don’t realize that out of that 22, on average 18 of them are not connected to any sort of veteran services at all. By lowering the barrier and by making it much easier to access our services we want to make a real difference in those numbers, and that’s a big part of the walk-in operation.”
The nonprofit will connect with veterans through referrals from a variety of service providers and the VA, as well as sending out teams to do street outreach work to make sure veterans in the region are aware they can get help.
According to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, 453 veterans were experiencing homelessness in Missouri as of January 2020. Kander said that number is likely low.
“When you do look at the numbers generally you can increase the actual reported number by around 20 or 30%," he said. "When you consider, those numbers miss a lot of people."
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