‘A Place for Everyone’: Concord Tiny Home Community Envisioned as Stepping Stone to Permanent Housing

The first time the idea came to Teri Gladstone, she was helping serve lunch under the overpass on Storrs Street.

The “feels-like” temperature was fifteen below zero, and she worried about the people walking over to the lunch station from downtown side streets or through the frozen grasses near the bus station.

Gladstone had recently read an article about tiny homes as a short-term housing solution for people living outside. Someone should do that in Concord, she thought to herself.

That was 2013. The number of unsheltered people living in the capital city was a fraction of what it is now, twelve years later.

As a part-time staff member for several years with the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness, Gladstone helped support people in the process of finding housing.

“There are folks out there, they were really excited about getting into an apartment, but they weren’t ready,” Gladstone said. “They had other things that they needed to deal with first.”

Gladstone is moving closer to putting her plan into action. She’s founded A Place for Everyone, a non-profit aimed at creating a tiny home compound in the city. The idea has gotten a more open response from city leaders than other proposals, like one for a city-run sanctioned encampment, that have similar aims. Gladstone points to similar, successful programs in other states, but resources – land and money – are the next step and major hurdle towards realizing the vision.

In two phases, the plan is for 30 standalone, roughly 350-square-foot units that would include a minimalist kitchenette and bathroom, living space and a fold-down Murphy bed.

“It’s not permanent housing: the whole idea is to not be too comfortable there, so that they want to move on to get into an apartment of their own,” Gladstone explained. At the same time, “Part of the program is to get them to learn to become a better tenant and a better citizen in the community before they go into an apartment.”

Residents would pay a reduced rent, but be required to do work for the community – tending a shared garden, doing basic building and lawn maintenance, collecting trash, and more. A shared clubhouse space would provide laundry, a full kitchen, and meeting areas for classes and case management.

The tiny home community wouldn’t have its own case workers, sobriety counselors or other social support staff, but would partner with other local organizations that would connect with the residents. It would be staffed round the clock with a property manager.

In what’s called transitional housing, residents get an on-ramp to the life and responsibilities of full-time tenancy, and advocates have pointed to benefits for people to secure – and keep – an apartment after becoming homeless.

“There are people out there that have the potential, but they can’t go directly from the camping area at the lake or under a bridge, and go directly into an apartment,” Gladstone said.

Things like mental healthcare, substance use counseling, financial skills, or the routines of being a good neighbor take root in a tiny home community.

“You can try to work with folks on those things while they’re still unhoused, but it makes it much more challenging to help them when they’re still living in the same environment,” Gladstone said.

Local case and outreach workers have also pointed to having consistent, stable contact with clients as a key factor in successful efforts to get permanent housing.

A Place for Everyone would work with local service and outreach organizations, like the Coaltion to End Homelessness and the Community Action Program, to find and approve residents. Tenants would need an income sufficient to support the reduced rent. The community would follow similar rules around substances as the Coalition’s winter shelter: sobriety is not required, but drug use on the property is not permitted.

There are models for tiny home communities as a transition out or prevention of homelessness across the country. One Gladstone sees as a particular inspiration comes from Columbus, Ohio.

Vista Village started taking in residents for its 41 tiny homes in January, per reporting in the Columbus Dispatch. Its new residents were people experiencing homelessness, leaving prison, veterans and individuals aging out of the foster care system.

It was built with $8.5 million of fundraising, largely private, with some support from Columbus and the county it calls home.

A tiny home community in Syracuse, New York has provided permanent housing to people exiting homelessness for more than a decade, as described in the Central Current.

More broadly, tiny homes have been seen as a cost-effective tool in the belt of New Hampshire’s housing supply crisis. David Emerson, a Canterbury-based tiny home builder, has joined Gladstone’ board. In Dover, a tiny home community – more robust structures than Gladstone would pursue – seeks to provide affordable, downsized living for people with moderate incomes. It took on its first tenants in 2023.

Gladstone knows there are hurdles ahead.

A Place for Everyone has begun looking for a property in the city, ideally one near downtown services or, at least, the county-run bus line. No matter where they find land, she’s expecting to need to reach out to neighbors.

Cost is a factor, too. A Place for Everyone officially got its 501(c)3 status this summer, and Gladstone and her board have begun their fundraising effort. The goal is to raise $2 million in the first year. Much of the final costs of the project will rely on what code standards the structures are required to meet, how much the land costs and which builders they work with.

But there is momentum, she said. Their board of directors has grown and donations have started rolling in. She’s met repeatedly over the last few years with city, county and state officials about how to make it work.

“A lot of those people are calling and knocking on the door and saying, ‘Okay, let’s talk about what’s really going on,’ Gladstone said. “Looks like you’re making great progress, and we want to know more.”