MOUNT PLEASANT — Despite threatening clouds and rain, more than 40 people gathered at a warehouse on County Road KR on Saturday morning and set to work on construction of four “tiny houses.”
While some workers had years of experience in trades like carpentry and others had never picked up a hammer before, their mission was to put a roof over veterans in the Racine area who wouldn’t otherwise have a home.
“Because they served for us; it’s plain and simple,” explained Jeff Gustin, director of Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin and organizer of the project. “They were brave enough to serve our country and defend our freedoms so we need to give back to them.”
Eventually, Gustin plans that the four tiny houses built on Saturday will be part of the James A. Peterson Veterans Village — a community of 15 tiny houses specifically for homeless veterans around the City of Racine, providing them a place to live over a two-year program until they can obtain permanent housing.
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Dedicated to curbing veteran homelessness, Veterans Outreach was founded in December 2013. Today, it runs a food pantry that serves 30 to 40 veterans a week. And in 2015, the furniture warehouse it maintains helped furnish the homes of 225 veterans.
The plan for the “village” of tiny houses would be to build the homes in three phases, with five homes being built during each phase, and Gustin said the organization is nearly halfway to the $125,000 needed to open the first phase of houses.
He said the organization has a written agreement to acquire a site for the village, but we will not be announcing the location until after discussing it with nearby residents.
With four houses built Saturday and more work to be done on the interior design in the coming weeks, Gustin said the goal is to open the first five houses of the community by September, or at least before winter hits.
Community pitching in
Dozens of residents and numerous organizations showed up on Saturday in two shifts with tools, building materials, food and water, money or even just their hands to help Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin meet that goal, including Van’s Electric Service, Milwaukee Tool, Union Grove Lumberyard, and about 20 local members of local carpenters unions.
“Everybody’s affected by this, I mean there’s no reason why any vet should be homeless,” said Jim Anderson, representative of North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters and from Kenosha. “If our government isn’t doing something about it, it’s time for us to do something about it as a community.”
In addition, the founders of nonprofit 2x4s for Hope, Mark and Chris Lawrence, drove six hours from their home in Quincy, Ill., to donate 1,200 2-by-4 strips of lumber and $2,500 for the project.
Among those donating time to the project Saturday was Racine Mayor John Dickert, who hoped other communities will adopt a similar shared focus on housing homeless veterans.
“What we saw today is that when the community comes together, they can solve any problem,” he said. “Today we put a very, very strong effort into solving the problem of veterans homelessness.”
One veteran working on the project Saturday was David Smith, who served five tours between Iraq and Afghanistan with the Marines Corps and saw his life “turned upside down” when he left the service, the only life he knew.
Working as a Veterans Outreach of Wisonsin’s warehouse manager and driver, he will live in one of the tiny houses in the village and serve as the on-site general manager.
“It’s nice that I’ve got the support of everyone around me and that I’m not doing it alone,” he said of the project and of those who came to help Saturday. “In the service, I always had my battle buddies and everything with me backing me up, and now I’ve also got the community acting as that support as well.”
Gustin said anyone interested in the effort can learn more about the project and how to donate time or money can visit Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin’s website and the project’s GoFundMe site.
