More Than a Home: Building a Village for Veterans
For veterans facing homelessness, having a roof overhead can be an essential first step, but that alone cannot address every challenge homeless and wounded veterans face.
That idea became the foundation for the Nine Line Foundation Veterans Village, a Savannah community of tiny homes created to give veterans experiencing homelessness a safe place to regain their footing and begin building a path toward independence.
The Veterans Village was designed as transitional housing rather than a final destination. Veterans participating in the program would have the opportunity to work with counselors, career coaches, and community partners as they prepared to find employment and ultimately transition into housing of their own.
As Nine Line Foundation founder and Army veteran Tyler Merritt described the philosophy behind the project: “housing first, not housing only.”
That distinction is at the heart of the Village.
Through partnerships with organizations including the Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless and Georgia Southern University, the vision extended beyond shelter to include vocational training, career counseling, food, clothing, and other resources that could help veterans establish greater stability in their lives.
The Village itself also became an example of what can happen when a community comes together around its veterans. Volunteers, skilled tradespeople, businesses, entertainers, sponsors, and members of the local community contributed their time and resources to help construct the tiny homes. What began as an effort to build housing became a much larger community effort to support the people who would eventually call those houses home.
Nine Line and the Nine Line Foundation have always believed that supporting veterans means recognizing the individual behind the uniform. Military service may be one chapter of someone's life, but transitioning into the next chapter can bring challenges that are difficult to face without a strong support system.
The Veterans Village was created to help provide that support—not as a handout, but as a place from which veterans could begin moving forward again.
Because ultimately, the most important measure of the Village isn't how many tiny homes can be built. It's how many veterans can walk through their doors, regain stability and purpose, and eventually leave ready to build a home and future of their own.
617 Names. One Promise to Remember.
When Children Needed Help