SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Five tiny homes being built for homeless veterans in Sioux Falls are nearing completion, and the Veterans Community Project hosted its first open house Sunday for the public to see them.

Veterans Community Project, which is headquartered in Kansas City, broke ground on this village in Sioux Falls last June.

“We are a 100% transitional housing village of 25 tiny homes. It’s an average of about 10-14 months that a veteran will stay with us before they transition out,” director of development Alisha Grove said.

The homes are for veterans who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.

“Specifically is our mission, and that runs the gamut of why they’ve gotten to that point. We’ve got about a one to eight-ish case manager per individual ratio, and so they work specifically with their case managers, design their case plan with whatever their end goal is,” Grove said.

The space has changed a lot since they broke ground.

“This was all covered in trees. And so since June, so not even a year ago, we’ve progressed this far. Not possible without community members. The city of Sioux Falls has just been amazing,” Grove said.

Steve Johnson saw there was an open house and decided to check it out.

“I have a friend who’s a veteran, so the first thing I did was called him up and I said, ‘hey, there’s this project going on. I saw Veterans Community Project. They’re putting together some homes for homeless vets. It’d be a neat opportunity to see the growth that they’re doing,’ and I’m absolutely just blown away at the project that’s going on here today,” Johnson said.

Johnson has a nonprofit and does photography. He says he’d like to offer that service to the vets that will live here.

“If I could provide a service to take their photographs as something to hang on the wall for them. The veterans might need headshots for jobs and stuff like that,” Johnson said.

And now they just need to put the finishing touches on the homes and do some groundwork with the hopes to have veterans living in them by mid-June.

“It’s going to build a community for them to work together on whatever they might need to work on, so it’s just overall, just a great project,” Johnson said.

“I’ve got a huge love for mission driven work but also to make an impact on one of our most vulnerable populations in our community and in our nation,” Grove said.

They plan to have the entire village of 25 houses done by the end of 2024.