Tiny home village in Kansas City, Kansas, will house those experiencing homelessness

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Phil Jorgenson does not like to call it a homeless community.

“Because as soon as they move here, they’re not homeless anymore,” said Jorgenson, one of the founders of Eden Village in Kansas City, Kansas.

“They’re a community member, and they’re going to be good neighbors.”

Built on the site of an old trailer park, near 10th Street and Metropolitan Avenue, Eden Village is slated to provide shelter as well as access to social services for Kansas City area residents in the most dire living situations. It is governed by a 13-member board of directors for a nonprofit organization called Three Dog Night, named after the classic rock band and an Australian saying about being outdoors in the bitter cold.

The tiny home village was dreamed up by Jorgenson and other volunteers who spent time working in the camps around the Kansas City metro. Providing services only to watch people bed down outdoors inspired him and fellow founders to do more.

“We will be serving those people in the greatest need,” Jorgenson said during an interview and tour of the site with The Star on Wednesday.

Since its formation nearly three years ago, Jorgenson said Three Dog Night Charities has raised about $3 million. The Eden Village project, he added, is expected to cost around $2.8 million, and the organization is hoping to raise more, including through an upcoming tournament at Dub’s Dread Golf Club.

So far, 21 tiny homes meant for single occupancy have been built on the four-acre lot with space for two more. Each is designed with a bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen, front porch and small lawn.

At the entrance of the gated community is a community center — it’s about the size of a double-wide, Jorgenson says — where residents will have access to rotating services like medical and dental care, addiction treatment, counseling and laundry. It’ll also serve as a communal space.

Applications for residency have already started. To qualify, residents must be considered chronically homeless. That term generally means a person has been homeless for at least a year or has experienced repeated bouts of homelessness over the course of several years.

Organization leaders say most residents will be eligible for programs like Medicaid, Social Security and disability. Rent will be $375 per month, including utilities.

Rules will also apply to remain in Eden Village. For example, residents will not be allowed to live there if they’re using illegal drugs and refuse to stop, Jorgenson said.

“We’re like a regular homeowner’s association here,” Jorgenson said. “You can drink, but not outside. You can have pets, they always have to be on a leash. You can smoke, just not in the house. But no drugs whatsoever.”

The village is split into two sections. At the bottom of a steep hill, north of Ruby Avenue, is the community center and two rows of tiny homes. A freshly-painted crosswalk leads to the other side of Ruby and another two rows of homes, near a growing community garden, where tomatoes, flowers and lettuce have already been planted.

Each residence is to be furnished — beds, tables, chairs, appliances, televisions — through donations the organization has collected. Costs to build each tiny home started at about $45,000 two years ago; they’ve increased to about $60,000 since.

Sponsors who buy houses in Eden Village can name them. Signs posted out front of units include Hope House, Mike’s Place and Kelley’s House.

Jorgenson said the community and neighbors have overall been generally supportive of and excited about the project.

Commissioner Christian Ramirez, whose 3rd District includes Eden Village, is among those who have voiced support. He says he’s excited to see the space be used for disadvantaged Kansas Citians in the near future — and the tiny home community looks much nicer than what was there before.

“As long as I’ve lived in Argentine,” Ramirez said of the run-down trailer park, “this has been an eyesore of the community.”

And other organizations in Kansas City, Kansas, are speaking highly of what Eden Village will offer to address housing needs.

Rob Santel, program director for Cross-Lines Community Outreach, which offers a range of social services for Wyandotte Countians living in poverty, said Eden Village serves a need in the Kansas City metro where the number of homeless residents has steadily risen.

“In Wyandotte County specifically, we have seen an increase over the last five years,” Santel said, citing statistics from the point-in-time count, a population measure conducted through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in January.

Transient populations, such as those living without homes, are difficult to track in precise detail. But Santel says the point-in-time count — a system that has its flaws, he added — has grown from about 70 in 2019 to about 130 last year for Wyandotte County.

Service providers have seen even greater numbers, though, when opening cold-weather shelters, Santel said. Last winter, the number of individuals at those shelters in Kansas City, Kansas and in Kansas City alone, he said, more than doubled point-in-time estimates.

“Homelessness is a housing problem. The data shows that,” Santel said, speaking to a demand for more housing like that in Eden Village, adding: “I need more of those beds and units available to help address the need.”

On Wednesday afternoon, work at Eden Village continued with furniture assembly and other finishing touches still to be put on before residents are expected to start moving in June 1.

Among those putting in time was Katrina Gerber, president of the organization’s board, who was drilling in the crossbars on the last sections of a wooden fence near the garden. She says she’s been spending hours there every day to get the space ready for the people who will soon call the community home.

Work donated by other volunteers has also impressed Gerber, an engineer by trade who designed Eden Village. She recalled a recent effort by members of a local church to haul a mountain of rocks up a steep hill.

“They were sweating buckets,” Gerber said. “But they did it, and they didn’t complain.”

She also says the transformation of the area — and the excitement she’s heard in the community about the project — has been rewarding.

“When I first drove up here, I was like, ‘Dang. Why are we doing this here?’” Gerber said. “... And to see it now, it’s amazing.”