Tiny Home Village Provides Solutions for Kingston Veterans

Sleeping bag on sidewalk - tiny home village - solution for kingston veterans

Housing is a major concern for the nation’s military veterans, between 3,000 and 5,000 of whom experience homelessness. Now, a new partnership between the Homes for Heroes Foundation, the City of Kingston and the Ontario government is looking to tiny homes for an innovative solution.

The government of Ontario has announced funding for the province’s first village for precariously housed veterans, to be built in Kingston. The village will also be Kingston’s first tiny home development. Located on one and a half acres of provincial land at the corner of King Street West and Portsmouth Avenue, the village will provide transitional housing for 25 veterans.

The project will use prefabricated modular housing to construct self-contained units that come in around 300 square feet. The Homes for Heroes Foundation states that energy-efficiency features will “reduce ongoing operating costs.”

The village itself is designed to include a counselling office, community garden and resource centre. The plan is to arrange the houses to face each other to provide for more interaction between people living in the village. The site is surrounded by greenspace, which will be left in place.

An Accelerated Timeline


The province is providing $2 million for the project, including the transfer of provincial land. On November 10, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark issued a ministerial zoning order to rezone the site and help fast track the project. Clark says:

“Ontario owes a debt of gratitude to our Veterans, and our government believes that everyone—especially those whose lives have been in the service of others—should have a place to call home.”

The accelerated timeline was much appreciated by David Howard, CEO and president of the Homes for Heroes Foundation. “This is the fastest we’ve been able to get this done,” says Howard, who envisions that the project will be completed by the end of next year.

This project is the third for the Homes for Heroes Foundation. It’s developed another tiny house community for veterans in Calgary and has one opening next month in Edmonton.

Image credit: Jon Tyson

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