A veteran community project has been proposed by the Western Slope Veterans’ Coalition in Silt. 

This tiny neighborhood can be seen as you drive down Ninth Street and Grand Avenue, and will feature multiple homes specifically for veterans. 

The WSVC provides emergency funding and resources for veterans in the valley, like counseling, monetary aid and support. Now, they’re looking to build homes for the people they’re trying to help. 

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“These are for low income. The problem we see in the valley is the cost of housing is so high,” said John Kuersten, general manager of Kuersten Construction, which will be building the homes if they’re approved. “We looked down the river, to Rifle and Silt, to house the most amount of people for the least amount of dollars, since dollars are hard to come by right now.”

The project would mean veterans who live in Garfield County wouldn’t have to leave the community for places like Grand Junction and others even further away. 

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“They can be disabled, senior citizens on social security, between jobs. This helps fill that need,” Kuersten said. 

The homes would cost around $1,300 a month (this could change), for lease only, owned by the WSVC, and would be within walking distance of the RFTA bus stop, library, dollar stores and schools, for the vets with children or grandchildren. 

“A tiny home by definition is 600 square feet or smaller,” Kuersten said. 

There are two single family units, which are 1,064 square feet apiece and 10 single occupant units within five duplex buildings, which are 364 square feet. A manager’s quarter will be 1,060 square feet and the community building will be 936 square feet. 

“The community building is meant to be a gathering space for the veterans to maybe have a pool table or game room and also be a private room for a VA counselor if they want to come in,” Kuersten said. “We also talked about having a garden space.”

The project started when the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. in Denver closed and offered the WSVC $100,000. 

“They asked what we would do with it and we talked about it,” said John Pettit, a board member of the WSVC. “We came up with this idea, exploring the opportunities for tiny houses, and the community and nonprofits overwhelmingly supported it.”

Pettit said Garfield County Commissioner John Martin brought the WSVC to Kuersten to get the idea rolling further. 

“The bigger vision was, ‘how do we help on a more permanent basis our most at risk demographic’?” said Jeremy Oates, President of the WSVC. “Our unhoused veterans and families, or at risk of becoming unhoused, low income, those who are in a precarious state, fiscally, housing or environmental.”

Oates said that having a community could also be therapeutic for the veterans that stay in these homes and they’re hoping to contract an outside therapist/counselor from Grand Junction. 

“There’s no discrimination in this project other than veteran status and age,” Oates said. To be eligible for this housing, a veteran must be over 40 years old. 

All the homes will be handicap accessible, with roll-in showers, big doors and room to move shower chairs around. There will also be 14 small storage units for personal belongings or bicycles. 

“We want to bring resources to the veterans,” Oates said. “To have an outside support system.” 

The WSVC will be presenting to the Silt Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday at Town Hall at 6:30 p.m. It’s being presented as a preliminary plan to see if this is something the town wants. 

“We took an informal presentation to them prior and we got some good feedback from the planning commission,” Kuersten said. “We also spoke to the neighbors about it.”

Marc Hogan, the founder of bhh Partners and architect for this project, said they made a few changes to the project after speaking to the neighbors surrounding the land they plan to build on. 

“The change that we made, which I think is helpful, is that we converted four of the small units (two duplexes) into two family units,” Hogan said. “There’s an impact on families and kids, and we like that it’ll integrate a community into the town of Silt.”

The team also believes that, along with an integrated community, this neighborhood will aesthetically compliment the town of Silt. 

The WSVC is hoping for people in support of this project to show up to the P&Z meeting on Tuesday, because the more support means more the town will be more likely to approve the construction. 

“Anybody would be excited to be in a place like this,” Oates said.