A project aimed at building a small community for homeless veterans in Sioux Falls is seeking more funding after representatives say construction problems resulted in higher bills than they expected — to the chagrin of some Sioux Falls city council members.
Conversations surrounding the Veterans Community Project, which has built similar projects in Kansas City, Missouri, and Longmont, Colorado, have been ongoing since 2019, although it was 2021 when the organization requested rezoning for 5 acres of northwest Sioux land Falls. – land that was later donated to the VCP by vote in the council.
Groundbreaking for the project took place in the summer of 2022, with the aim of building 25 homes.
But at Wednesday’s council meeting, John Holter, executive director of VCP of Sioux Falls, said unforeseen costs with the site, ranging from soil problems to tree root removal because a farmer had once used the site as a landfill, had resulted in $800,000 of income. additional costs.
More: The organization wants to build a small community for homeless vets in Sioux Falls
The ordinance presented to the council Wednesday night, sponsored by Mayor Paul TenHaken, would generate only $200,000 from funds derived from the sale of the city’s liquor licenses.
Councilor Curt Soehl seemed shocked by the problems facing the VCP, asking Holter why the community currently only had four occupied homes and six employees, and asked why other funds could not cover these costs.
Holter responded that as a nonprofit, financing it and how it could be used was complicated, but he promised to sit down with council members and answer any questions they had.
More: Small hometown breaks ground, ‘could end veteran homelessness’
And it seems like there are quite a few questions. Soehl initially tried to push a second reading of the ordinance to September 12, but Councilman Rich Merkouris, who agreed the project had “not gone well,” offered a replacement date of June 18, saying he wanted to do that. ensuring that the project can help more people and that money is not wasted if possible.
Soehl and other council members agreed to the June 18 date, but he strongly emphasized that he would like to see a lot of information from the VCP within the next two weeks, including a presentation at an information meeting.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls council members seek answers from tiny home community
