16-04-2025
Work to house veterans shows progress
HIGH POINT — Though it looks pretty rough and unfinished at the moment, the city's second tiny house development for veterans is just a few months from being ready for people to move in.
Scott Jones, the executive director of Tiny House Community Development, said he hopes the four one-bedroom and two two-bedroom houses on Smith Street north of Green Drive will begin renting in August.
'We're working really hard to get everything dried in,' he said, using the construction term for having all of the exteriors finished so the houses are protected from the weather.
As subcontractors then finish the interior work, a crew of 30 volunteers will come to landscape the half-acre development, which in addition to the six houses includes a house built in 1927 that is being renovated into a community center that agencies serving veterans will be able to use for meetings with their clients, he said.
Tiny House Community Development also is still trying to raise $400,000 to build two three-bedroom houses on the site that would offer respite care for veterans discharged from hospitals who don't yet have a place to go, Jones said.
None of the houses are intended for long-term housing, only to get veterans off the street and working toward a more long-term housing solution, Jones said.
The construction of this tiny house community followed a 10-house development completed in 2021 on Hay Street, and a lot more are needed, Jones said — there are currently more than 60 veterans in Guilford County on various agencies' lists of those in need of housing.
The Smith Street development took a while to get off the ground after the property for it was donated to Tiny House Community Development in 2018. The COVID-19 pandemic was one factor, but a larger one was the condition of the property, Jones said. About 20 truckloads of debris and unsuitable soil was hauled out, more than 60 truckloads of fill dirt was hauled in, and thick pads of concrete were needed under the houses.
'We've gone over budget on this project,' he said. 'We'd get started and then realize we've got to raise more money.'
But while Jones was standing amid bare soil with construction debris all around, he vividly described the community he envisions occupying the property within a few months, including children and people of all backgrounds.
'You're taking a half acre and turning it into something diverse,' he said. 'It's going to be cool when all the flags are flying here.'
