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A charity that builds tiny homes for military veterans struggling to stay off the street hopes to establish a village in Hamilton.

Homes For Heroes Foundation is asking the city or province to donate an acre of land for the village.

“And we would like some investment by both parties into the build itself,” president Dave Howard said.

The Alberta-based charity has built villages for veterans experiencing homelessness in Edmonton and Calgary.

More recently, the Ontario government provided provincially owned land for a future community in Kingston.

The villages include 20 modular homes that are under 300 square feet, recreation space, gardens and a counselling office.

“We’ve identified 100-plus veterans in need in Hamilton,” said Howard, noting the ballpark figure draws on information from Veterans Affairs Canada.

They could be in various degrees of homelessness, including on the street, couch-surfing or precariously housed in rooming houses, he said.

A 2016 study flagged homelessness among veterans as a “growing concern in Canada.”

Of 697,400 veterans, roughly 2,950 were shelter users; they made up 2.2 per cent of the homeless population, noted the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness paper by Stephen Gaetz, Erin Dej, Tim Richter and Melanie Redman.

Referencing a 2011 study, the paper identified addiction, mental health, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and trouble transitioning to civilian life as principle factors.

“We want our veterans to be part of a community,” said Howard, explaining this involvement as a key element to securing permanent housing.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger said his office met with Homes For Heroes in recent months to hear the charity’s pitch, which he called “very viable.”

Eisenberger said city staff are looking for potential sites, but no presentation has been made to council.

“If we were to land on something,” staff would make a formal report, he added.

Howard said Homes For Heroes would provide on-site counselling to support the veterans, who would pay around $600 a month to rent the small homes and contribute to the village’s operation.

For each village, the organization puts $500,000 into a reserve fund for repairs and maintenance, he noted.

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