New Roads Pave Way For Tulsa Homeless Housing Project

A new community is being built in Tulsa to help house people experiencing homelessness. While completion of the tiny home village is still months away, crews are making progress on unique roads at the development.

When you think of roads being laid for a neighborhood, asphalt or concrete might come to mind, but at Eden Village, they're trying something a little different.

There is a grand vision taking shape along the Arkansas River in West Tulsa, a mission to bring people off the streets and into a home.

"Eventually, this will be a 63 tiny-home community for folks that are coming out of chronic homelessness,” said Eden Village Founder Brad Johnson.

Johnson can't wait to welcome the first residents into this neighborhood.

"But before we get that we got to have roads and a parking lot, so that's where we are now."

The parking lot snaps together piece by piece and then gets a layer of small pebbles.  

"This is called Oklahoma River Rock,” says Jerad Stout with Anchor Paving.

He says those rocks fill the holes in these plastic grates, making a surface stronger than asphalt that will last 30 years without maintenance. It's also easy to set up, which saves on labor costs.

"This can be a DIY project. As you can see out here, we got a lot of volunteers; we don't have a professional crew out here," said Stout.

The TruGrid surface will cost about $380,000, but Jerad is doing what he can by donating around $50,000 worth of material because he believes in the Eden Village mission.

"If you can help somebody who's not able to help themselves, you're doing something,” said Stout.

This step will help Eden Village get closer to its ultimate goal. 

"Next year we'll have 63 people that were sleeping under a bridge that are going to be living in this community," said Brad Johnson.

Another positive of this material is that it allows rain to drain right through the surface, which means no need to build an expensive water retention pond.