Tiny Home Villages

What is a Tiny Home Village?

Tiny home villages provide a strategy for quickly and cost-effectively developing dignified emergency shelter spaces that can function as temporary living spaces as people transition into permanent housing that can be utilized to transition people from homelessness to stable housing. While a new affordable unit in Denver costs an average of $290,000, a tiny home can be constructed for $15,000 in material costs. Each home provides dignity and privacy, while the villages are designed to provide a pathway to stable housing. Each village employs a participatory governance structure, empowering villagers to design their community and their future. We are a program that provides supportive services, including case management, peer support and connections to permanent housing.

The tiny homes are about 100 square feet each and contain electricity, heaters, fans and outlets but no water or sewer connections. Those connections are made in the common house, which helps to keep the project costs down and to build community among residents. The village is a temporary residential environment that serves as an alternative sheltering solution intended to create additional access points into the housing continuum for our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness.

Beloved Community Village

The Beloved Community Village opened on July 21, 2017. The village is a first of its kind for Denver. In May 2019, the Beloved Community Village moved to a site in Denver’s historic Globeville neighborhood. In February 2020, the Beloved Community Village nearly doubled in size by adding 8 new Tiny Homes designed by Radian and one new Common House designed by our partners at Shopworks Architecture. The Common House, complete with showers, flushing toilets and a full kitchen, is the heart and soul of the Beloved Community Village. It's where community members and staff gather for meetings, meals, and community events. It's where we host our friends, family and neighbors as we seek to reweave the social fabric of our society and build what Martin Luther King Jr. called, "The Beloved Community."

The Welcome Village

On any given night, at least 1/3 of the 4000+ people experiencing homelessness in Denver are women or transgender, but fewer services exist to serve this portion of the population. According to the City of Denver’s three-year shelter plan document, those most in need include women with pets, women with limited access to transportation, domestic violence survivors, transgender women, elderly women, and youth. The Welcome Village provides a safe, supportive space for individuals who identify as women, transgender, or non-binary that is tailored to their unique experiences and validates their identities.

Locations

The Model

  • Staffed 24 hours per day by Colorado Village Collaborative

  • Outreach and case management 

  • Up to 50 individualized shelters, serving a maximum of 60 people

  • Resident placement conducted through street outreach and referrals

  • Food provided through partnerships with faith community and existing food service providers

  • Shelters, cots, and sleeping bags provided to residents at entry

Outreach & Supportive Services

These spaces will expand outreach to people not accessing existing services, creating equitable links to hotels, health care, and ongoing case management and housing resources.

Learn More

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