Milwaukee’s delayed “tiny homes” project gets new developer

A delayed veterans housing undertaking on Milwaukee’s northwest aspect is to be taken over by a brand new developer.

The “tiny houses” undertaking was to start building final yr after Racine-based Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin Inc. purchased the 7-acre city-owned web site, at 6767 N. sixtieth St., for $35,000.

However, “as a consequence of varied components, together with the worldwide pandemic,” Veterans Outreach hasn’t but began building, in response to a brand new metropolis Redevelopment Authority report.

So, Veterans Group Challenge Inc., a Kansas Metropolis-based nonprofit group, will take over the undertaking to construct at the very least 24 tiny houses and a neighborhood constructing for homeless vets, the report mentioned.

The authority’s board is to overview that proposal at its Thursday assembly. It additionally will want Widespread Council approval.

Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin would promote the property to Veterans Group Challenge, which is to finish the event by June 30, 2024.

The Widespread Council and then-Mayor Tom Barrett permitted the undertaking in 2019.

Its first part is to function 24 single-family small homes, every with 240 sq. toes, and a ten,000-square-foot neighborhood heart with a communal kitchen, showers and workplaces to host providers for the residents.

The objective is to assist residents turn into steady and discover jobs and new housing inside two years. The tiny-homes mannequin is designed to offer every resident a way of getting their very own house.

The proposal was primarily based on Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin’s Racine growth: the James A. Peterson Veterans Village. It opened in 2017 and options 15 tiny houses and a neighborhood heart.

Veterans Group Challenge has developed a tiny houses undertaking in Kansas Metropolis, and is creating related initiatives in St. Louis, Oklahoma Metropolis, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Longmont, Colorado, in response to its web site.

Tom Daykin could be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and adopted on Instagram, Twitter and Fb.