News
Erie Sports Center to Provide Tiny Homes for Homeless Veterans
Friday, October 7th 2022, 5:58 PM EDT
Updated:
Erie Sports Center owner Troy Bingham is using his facility as an agent for change.
"I'm at a stage in my life where I don't need much more, and so I can help give back to other people," said Bingham. "That's what I'm determined to do."
Bingham is teaming up with the Veterans Miracle Center and Bookwell Travel out of Connecticut, to build tiny homes for veterans on the sport center's property.
"When I was asked to get involved with veterans, it was just a natural transition for us to say, yes of course," said Bingham. "It's another group of people from the city and region that we can help with our facility."
The plan calls for the development of 20 tiny homes for veterans who are homeless or transitioning back to civilian life.
"We started this concept of building tiny homes, acquiring land over the whole east coast," said Bookwell
Travel founder Brian Gates. "There's two of them right now. There's one 326 square feet, it's the one bedroom. The other one is 545 square feet. That's the two bedroom."
The group also plans to build a greenhouse and solar field next to the homes, which will provide the veterans with jobs.
The veterans will be able to grow their own food plus produce to sell to local grocery stores.
"The greenhouse will generate a half a million tons of food a year," said Bingham. "We need about 15 to 20 veterans to manage the greenhouse on a regular basis, so it makes sense to house them on site."
Veterans Miracle Center director John Kowalcyzk will help provide transitional services to the veterans who live there.
"Our thing at the Veteran Center is always how can we help the veterans and how can we help the community," said Kowalcyzk. "We're always looking for new things to do."
Bingham says they hope to break ground on the project in the early spring, and have everything up and running by June of 2023.
This story is supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.