Construction Underway For Tiny Homes Made To House The Homeless

The neighborhood of tiny homes that will house homeless people is making progress.

The Eden Village project will provide homes for 63 people.

By this time next year, Eden Village will be a neighborhood of people who are currently homeless.

With some hurdles jumped, Eden Village is now well underway.

The most concrete sign of progress arrived, with cement trucks unloading and pouring the foundation of the Helmerich Community Center.

“That's really going to be where the action is in this whole community,” said Eden Village Founder Brad Johnson.

Johnson says it's the biggest milestone yet.

“We're here, but these things aren't easy,” he said.

He's talking about permits that were long-delayed but are now in place, the order to dig and then fill in a retention pond, but those issues are in the past.

“Now that we've got the slab poured, the wood is ready, so we're really going to see some progress in the next few months,” Johnson said.

The slab will be the building where health and substance abuse care happens, where case workers make sure residents' needs are met.

 “I wanted to take some pictures and actually see it with my own eyes,” said Donald Schlupe.

For the last year, Schlupe has lived in his truck while keeping his window-washing business going.

“So when this came on the news scene, I perked up right away,” he said. “It's going to be a great experience.

He's in the pipeline, hoping to live at Eden Village.

The first 18 residents move in this summer, with the other 45 later in the year.

“We need a lot more than our 63 to meet the needs of our chronically homeless,” Johnson said.

But Johnson is hopeful the progress made on Eden Village will help other tiny home developments go faster. He's put his mark on this one - hoping other helping hands will come along.

It will be a couple of months before Eden Village is ready to start accepting applications.

There are at least 1,000 chronically homeless people in Tulsa waiting on housing right now.