Miami Valley Housing Opportunities wants to build a tiny home village in northeast Dayton, nestled on Needmore Road.
MVHO currently helps more than 1,500 people find housing solutions each year and it is looking to expand that through this project titled Beacon Place Village.
"That is going to be a community that is primarily focused on serving folks who are living currently on the street or in a place not fit for habitation," said the nonprofit's CEO, Debbie Watts Robinson. "It will be the first project of its type."
Robinson said this idea has been years in the making, formulated in response to a rising need for housing in the community.
“We've got to find other ways to provide housing for people," she said. "They've got to be cost effective and we got to help people through this situation.”
Design and functionality
The village site will have 40 handicap-accessible units and a community center with additional resources for residents, said Leah Konicki, the technical advisor for MVHO.
"The people who normally work with the folks who are living on the street, they will be able to serve other people in that community center," said Robinson. "And that's going to be another place for people to go where they can get services and feel comfortable and feel like they belong there."
Each home will be 500 square feet with a bedroom, bathroom and combined kitchen and living area.
"They're paired so that one deck joins two units. If we have someone who is wheelchair bound and needs it, we can replace the stairs with a ramp," Konicki said. "So that makes them kind of really versatile."
Konicki said these designs were inspired by similar and successful tiny home villages including Vista Village in Columbus.
Other communities that inspired the current design plans for Beacon Place Village include a campus for youth aging out of the foster care system in Oklahoma City and a small house community for working individuals in Toledo.
"We visited Community First Village in Austin, [Texas] which is probably the best known tiny home village for homeless," Konicki said. "It's been on the Today Show and CBS Sunday morning. But it was an amazing experience."
Location and funding
So far, Robinson said MVHO has raised $4 million of the proposed $9.5 million project with help from organizations like Montgomery County ADMHS.
"The city [of Dayton] has provided $1.25 million," she said. "So we've got some funding that is already secured, but obviously we need more and that's what we're working pretty heavily on right now."
Robinson said they will be working on the 12-acre site in collaboration with three major partners; Oberer Companies, Unibuilt Industries and App Architecture.
"Oberer owns the property and they've given us site control," she said. "So it's been a good partnership with all three of them."
The site is adjacent to two bus routes within the area which Robinson said is an important amenity for future residents.
"It's also right on a bike path that will take you straight downtown," she said. "And that's good to have too because a lot of our people are utilizing bikes."
Robinson said the nonprofit hopes it can raise the remaining money to complete the project by 2027.
"I feel like once we get the funding in place and we're working with different finance arms, et cetera, we will be able to move relatively quickly," she said.
