On Nov. 10, Chatham Savannah Authority for the Homeless (CSAH) in partnership with the National Society of Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA Georgia-Savannah Town Committee) opened the final 12 homes at the Cove at Dundee for veterans exiting homelessness.
This final phase of the Cove neighborhood marks the completion of a 46-home community that includes a tiny clinic by J.C. Lewis Health, a veteran’s garden, an outdoor chapel and pavilion, and a landscaping project sponsored by the Home Depot Foundation. Beginning in 2019, it was the first tiny home community approved for development in Georgia and was all privately funded.
“Today is the culmination of the work of the community, making private investments so this entire veterans tiny house community was built with donor dollars. There's no federal, state or local government money tied up in this community,” said Jennifer Dulong, executive director of CSAH. “All in, about $3.2 million dollars of private donor money and foundation money has gone into building this community.”
There are many reasons a veteran can experience homelessness. Trauma, life experiences, mental health and a lack of family support all make the list, Dulong said.
“Savannah has a responsibility to everyone within our gates. Those that have a home and those that don't have a roof over their heads. As a beloved community we're striving to be and as a hospitality community that we claim ourselves to be, we have to show hospitality first to those within our gates,” said Mayor Van Johnson.
The Cove at Dundee exclusively provides housing for veterans.
“There's no higher service than service to our country, men and women who lay down their lives and we actually have 36 people who live out here right now and three couples living in 123 square feet. So it is definitely a feat in and of itself to live in a tiny home as a couple, but housing is the answer to homelessness.”
Lemarsha Coleman and her husband are one of those couples. Originally from New York, they’ve lived in Savannah for seven years and at the Cove for two years.
“Quiet,” Coleman says about the community, who describes her home as peaceful with good neighbors. “It’s tight, but it’s livable,” she said.
“I'm grateful for this because I didn't know where I was gonna go,” Coleman shared. “It’s like a steppingstone for people that [are] veterans that just [are] getting out of the service and getting out on their own. That's how basically it is with us. It’s a little steppingstone, you know, a little fall back and then down the line, you just get your own [home].”
Dulong believes homelessness can be solved with affordable housing opportunities. She said, “The maximum amount of rent anyone would pay here is 400 dollars a month, that's affordable. Two hundred and forty is the minimum amount of rent, that's all inclusive of utilities. And this community, there's never been an eviction, so everyone is stably housed out here. Some people have been out here for up to five years. We don't have limits on the time that people can live out here. It's however long that individual needs to stabilize in life.”
The Cove at Dundee may be complete, but a nearby project is already underway. Dulong is working on building forty homes next door for families and children exiting homelessness. “They’re larger iterations of tiny homes. So right here in the city of Savannah, we'll have 86 small homes for people needing to exit homelessness. Housing affordability, housing access, housing inventory is a critical need in our community, it’s a critical need across the United States of America and tiny homes are very affordable to build.”
To learn more, visit www.homelessauthority.org.
