The first shovels have dug into the ground for a unique housing development in Kingston, Ont.
The organization Homes for Heroes is building 20 tiny homes beside Providence Care Hospital for homeless veterans.
This development is being billed as a community for veterans, where they can come together, receive treatment and reintegrate into society.
Along with the houses there will be a garden, recreation area and a central gathering place.
“It’s essentially what we call a resource centre,” says Cameron Diggon, vice-president of Homes for Heroes.
“Which is a gathering place for the veterans where they can get together, they can do group therapy sessions as well. That’s where the counselor’s offices are located, within that building.”
This Homes for Heroes development is the first of its kind in Ontario, with two other locations already up and running in Alberta.
So far the program has produced impressive results, with many of the veterans moving out into places of their own.
“We opened our first one in Calgary, it’s got 15 homes in it, the second village was opened in Edmonton,” says Diggon.
“We’ve had 24 graduates so far. There’s 15 homes in Calgary, 20 in Edmonton, that’s a pretty good success rate.”
This development comes as Kingston is looking for housing solutions to combat its ongoing homelessness crisis.
A significant portion of the unhoused population in the city are veterans, due in part to Kingston’s strong ties to the military.
“The best guesstimate at any given time, of the hundreds of homeless people in Kingston, up to 40 of them might be veterans,” says Mark Hutchings, chairperson of the Kingston Veterans Village Project Team.
“They don’t self-identify, that’s why it’s been an invisible problem. They’re not exactly proud to be homeless.”
Construction on the project is expected to move quickly, with the homes projected to be fully installed by November, with people moved in by the end of the year.