Transitional tiny home project aims to serve veterans at risk of homelessness

A collection of tiny homes aiming to serve veterans at risk of homelessness is coming to a site at the heart of Dallas’ existing veterans services.

Veterans Community Project announced in late May that it would build a transitional housing project in Dallas. Bryan Meyer, the project’s CEO, said Dallas was selected because it’s a large population center where many people move to after serving in the military. 

“I just thought that having something like our project in place for individuals who get out of the military — and maybe fall on hard times and things like that — that this would be a great place to do it,” Meyer said.

The project will create 50 transitional tiny homes at a site in east Oak Cliff. The homes will support veterans at risk or experiencing homelessness, according to the Veterans Community Project. Veterans living in the homes pay no rent and are asked to participate in a case management program, the nonprofit said.

The tiny home project will be at 4515 S. Lancaster Road, across the street from the Dallas VA Medical Center and near the Veterans Resource Center of Dallas. A previous development at the site failed, and the space has sat empty for years.

The homes would range from 260-square-foot individual units to 360-square-foot family units. The full community would also include a 7,000-square-foot facility to deliver on-site support, including full-time case managers. The site will also have a perimeter fence and a dog park. 

The Dallas site would be the Kansas City-based nonprofit’s seventh site. The project’s plans were approved by the Dallas City Council during its May 27 meeting as part of the consent agenda.

To fund the development, the organization is launching a $15 million capital campaign and could start building as it gets initial funding. The project’s organizers are already having conversations with donors and have received some pledges, Meyer said.

As of January, there were 289 veterans experiencing homelessness in Dallas and Collin County, according to an annual Point-In-Time Count, which tracks the number of people experiencing homelessness.

However, some people don’t self-identify as veterans, and some people inevitably get missed in the count. Meyer said that, in his experience, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness could be three to four times higher. The project will serve veterans who don’t have access to stable housing, which could include people experiencing homelessness on the streets, living out of their car, couch surfing or other forms of housing instability.

Although there would only be 50 homes, the project could serve many more people as veterans transition out of the site, Meyer said. The project has an 85% success rate in helping veterans achieve permanent housing, according to a news release from the nonprofit.

One of the largest impacts of a development like this is what it can mean for veterans, Meyer said.

“For the veteran, it is just this permanent monument that this community has not forgotten about them,” he said. “That this community took it upon themselves to come up with a local solution, and not wait for somebody else to address the issue of veteran homelessness in their city.”

The future veterans village site is steps away from the Dallas VA Medical Center and public transportation, which are the two things the project looks for when selecting a site. The location was chosen after the city brought the property to the nonprofit’s attention, Meyer said. 

Council member Maxie Johnson was passionate about getting this project to Dallas, Meyer said. During a City Council meeting, Johnson said discussions for the tiny home village have been going on for about eight months. 

“No veteran should be homeless,” he said. “We ought to take care of our veterans. And so we will be doing a veteran village, 50 homes, right across the street from the veterans hospital in District Four.”

He said the site has been vacant for over a decade and that this will be a phenomenal project. Johnson wasn’t available to comment further on this story because of his schedule, his office said.

When asked why the nonprofit went with that location, Meyer said the nonprofit always looks for sites that have access to public transportation and proximity to a VA medical center. He said this site couldn’t be closer to either of those landmarks.

The VA North Texas Health Care System said in a statement that they greatly value community partnerships to end veteran homelessness.  

“We welcome all organizations interested in partnership and collaboration on this goal,” the statement said. “VA North Texas has a meeting scheduled with the nonprofit and is excited about future opportunities.”

Another nearby veteran-focused organization in the area is the Veterans Resource Center, which provides support for veterans, including a day center for veterans experiencing homelessness.

Ken Watterson, president of Veterans Resource Center, said he is against the development and has concerns about what it could look like in a few years. He said the city needs to do more for homeless veterans, but this isn’t a good solution for the community. He also said he remembered when there were other development plans for the site. 

“We [were] hoping that it could be stuff to come in there that’d have nice restaurants to draw more people out here but also to support the people that work at the VA,” Watterson said. “You’ve got about 5,000 people there. So I just think that in three years time it would probably be a dump out there.”

Watterson said he learned about the project after it was announced and has reached out to to the nonprofit.

The land across from the medical center has been vacant for years, in part because a previous development plan failed. 

Officials unveiled a project called Patriots Crossing in 2009 that was celebrated as an economic boost for the area. The project would have included apartments, shops and restaurants.

City officials provided developer Yigal Lelah with $4.4 million to construct the project. But Lelah never obtained financing to begin building, and the site remained empty for years.

Lelah’s company, Sapphire Road Development, filed for bankruptcy in 2015 after the city initiated foreclosure proceedings to recoup its money. Since late 2015, the land has been owned by the city of Dallas, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District. 

The site was also one of the potential projects of the nonprofit City Wide Community Development Corp., which was involved in a bribery scandal where a low-income housing developer pleaded guilty to bribing former council members, according to reporting from The Dallas Morning News. The developer, Sherman Roberts, now maintains he is innocent. He received probation in June.

This new project for the site will benefit veterans at risk of experiencing homelessness, Meyer said. But it can also create community pride when these projects are built, he said.

“So often individuals want to do more than stand up and clap at a ball game for veterans,” he said. “They want to do something tangible. They want to put their hands on it. They want to have pride that they built something for veterans in their city or community.”