Rendering of a 600 sq. ft. cottage Veterans1st of NEW hopes to build as part of a tiny homes veterans village in Green Bay (Veterans1st of NEW)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — An affordable housing community for veterans in Brown County is one step closer to coming to fruition.
On Wednesday, the county board voted unanimously to authorize the donation of 3.5 acres of land just off St. Anthony Drive in Green Bay to Veterans 1st of Northeast Wisconsin.
The nonprofit organization has been working for over a year to create a village, comprised of tiny homes, as a safe space for area veterans in need.
Gail Nohr, the founder/program manager/director of Veterans 1st, said the project looks to tackle not only housing insecurity, but also other issues affecting the veteran community.
Last year, when I tried to figure out how many homeless veterans there were, I ended up going to all the shelters and finding out there was about 81 homeless veterans, and about 1,000 that need affordable housing right now. One is too many. The VA also states that housing insecurity and homelessness increases the risk of suicide among veterans. I found out that there was 31 suicides of veterans in Northeast Wisconsin last year and a lot of that is connected to housing, homelessness, housing insecurity. We need to address that.
Nearly two dozen agencies will offer their services to help veterans in other aspects, like mental health and employment opportunities.
Veterans 1st expects the first seven homes should be complete by October 2024 and another seven will be done by 2025.
Comments