The finishing touches are underway on a new 3,000-square-foot community center for veterans in Longmont.
The center is part of the Veterans Community Project, an organization dedicated to improving military veterans’ lives. The nonprofit is building more than two dozen tiny homes in addition to the center.
“We will be ribbon-cutting on the community center in May — that’s very exciting,” said Jennifer Seybold, the organization’s executive director. “We expect to have a temporary occupancy certificate for that within the next couple of weeks.”
Some of the organization’s staff will begin moving to the center in the coming weeks, Seybold said. The community is just off Nelson Road to the west of Target and Home Depot.
Once the tiny home village is complete, residents will be able to access programs and professional development classes through the center, and enjoy community gatherings. The center will also house case managers, who will meet with the veterans once a week, Seybold explained.
“They really work with individuals on a plan that is catered to their own unique needs,” she said. “So what resources do they need? How can we work on getting that permanent housing ready?”
The $5 million village will feature five 320-square-foot homes for families, which are able to sleep up to seven people; and 21 240-square-foot homes for single residents.
“The homes are moving really fast at this point — we have 10 fully enclosed with roofs on them,” Seybold explained. “The inside is not built out yet, but the exterior structure is complete. And then we have two more in addition to that are fully framed.”
Lifetime Roof & Solar committed to roofing all the tiny homes without charging the nonprofit, she said. Companies ABC Supply and GAF contributed supplies. Other companies have helped keep costs really low, and there has been plenty of volunteerism, Seybold explained.
“We’ve had great corporate support and people coming out and sending 25 to 30 volunteers from their organization that build, and that’s just awesome,” she said. “And that will continue until the completion of the project.”
The nonprofit is searching for support to lower the cost of furnishing the homes, and help with funding once the community is up and running.
The organization hopes to have a few homes ready as early as June, and all homes completed by October.
There is no waitlist for the community — instead, the nonprofit’s outreach center works with veterans to get them housed as soon as possible, Seybold said.
“The intent behind that is we just don’t want people to quit their forward progress, and our case managers are doing really great housing work already … they’ve already housed 12 people since the start of this year — so incredible start off to the year, because last year we did 20 total for the entire year.”
The Veterans Community Project is a Kansas City-based nonprofit that is also working on projects in Oklahoma, South Dakota, Missouri and Wisconsin.
