LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville nonprofit is fundraising to build a tiny home community for people who are experiencing chronic homelessness.
At the edge of Louisville’s Portland neighborhood, Meg Stone and Angela Tamura see a grand vision taking shape. “When we get to break ground or even when we start on the infrastructure, it’s just a giant step,” Stone shared.
Stone is the board president of Jacob’s Ladder’s Outreach, a Louisville nonprofit supporting the city’s homeless residents. Its members have a plan to turn an overgrown lot into a housing community for people who have continuously struggled with homelessness.
The site at 500 N. 35th Street is proposed to be Eden Village Louisville, a community of 35 400-square-feet homes offered at a proposed rental cost of $350 per month.
“We are going to make an awesome community for individuals who have lived on the street for over a year have a mental or physical disability and this village is designed for community,” Stone explained.
Their development has partnered with and is modeled after Eden Village of Springfield, Missouri, an organization which has also helped cities in Oklahoma and North Carolina build their own tiny home communities. One year ago saw the ribbon cutting of Eden Village of Wilmington.
“And I started doing homeless outreach, I think it’s going on 12 years now,” Tamura said while visiting the site. Tamura is the co-founder of Jacob’s Ladder and says there came a point in her life she wanted to do more. “I kind of got discouraged about waiting for somebody else to do it. And so that’s when Mylantha Williams and I, she’s my co-founder, we got together and said we need to make a move on this.”
Tamura is motivated to make a difference by her own experience with homelessness. When Tamura was a young woman, and right out of high school, she described not having a place of her own, either sleeping in her car or staying briefly in friends’ homes before eventually joining the Army.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is we’re all one unprocessed thought and decision away from being homeless away from being homeless ourselves, one bad decision,” Tamura said.
Eden Village Louisville would offer structure to those who want it, Tamura said.
“There is certification that needs to show through a case manager somewhere that they are homeless and then certification of their disability as well,” Stone explained.
The group is in contract to buy this land and fundraising to build the homes. The entire project would be privately funded through donations and grant writing.
Eden Village Louisville will also assist residents in pursuing work and transportation. “We’re trying to help with these barriers and that’s why there is structure within the Eden Village community,” Tamura added.
Eden Village Louisville has already received a number of endorsements and support from local leaders like former Deputy Mayor Barbara Sexton Smith, District 5 Metro councilwoman Donna Purvis and longtime community developer Gill Holland. Building the physical structures could begin in less than a year.