<p>(Terre Haute) Tribune-Star</p>
<p>People who exist without a home are not invisible, nor are they unimportant.</p>
<p>Many are broken in spirit, physically or mentally. They may have lost a job, loved ones or innocence on a battlefield. Their circumstances can lead to addictions, which lead to jail stints for public intoxication or trespassing. Such a track record diminishes a person’s chances of finding or keeping a residence. Homelessness follows.</p>
<p>Estimates say nearly 600 people in Vigo County are homeless. A July survey by the Homeless Council of the Wabash Valley counted 566 people in the county as homeless. Brendan Kearns, a county commissioner and longtime advocate for the homeless, said another 30 people should have been included in the July count.</p>
<p>Mental Health America of West Central Indiana is creatively finding ways to house the homeless. The community-based nonprofit formed a partnership with Indiana State University to build a dozen “tiny homes” on empty lots around the 14th and Chase streets area on Terre Haute’s north side. ISU technology students will build the houses. Mental Health America of West Central Indiana, part of a nationwide network, will maintain and manage the structures.</p>
<p>Previously homeless residents will live in them.</p>
<p>Tiny homes are part of a residential living trend across North America and beyond. Millennials and other age groups popularized the tiny homes, often in the 400-square-foot range, as a way to live simply and yet own a home. Mental Health America has adapted the concept as a way to house the homeless in a more permanent way than shelters. Developments similar to the one planned in Terre Haute have spread nationwide from initial starts on the coasts, Mental Health America’s Jeffery Lewellyn told the city Board of Zoning Appeals this month.</p>
<p>The idea is needed here. Addressing the needs of homeless people is a complex, ongoing job. A hard-working collection of groups assists in helping and handling residents without homes. Mental Health America has helped provide housing options here, too.</p>
<p>Myra Wilkey, executive director of the group’s West Central Indiana branch, said the organization has invested about $4 million in the neighborhood surrounding Ryves Hall Youth Center, part of its $10 million in housing developments throughout Terre Haute. That includes the YOUnity Village, where housing includes on-site treatment and support for the chronically homeless. YOUnity eventually attracted 17 military veterans in that situation.</p>
<p>To accommodate the tiny homes project, minimum floor-space requirements and zoning classifications were amended this month by Terre Haute’s Board of Zoning Appeals and City Council, and the county’s Area Plan Commission. The public officials’ support is admirable and necessary. Homelessness here is not diminishing.</p>
<p>Kearns praised Mental Health America’s effort and illuminated the issue at the zoning board’s recent meeting.</p>
<p>“There are so many agencies within Vigo County that are doing what they can to improve our situation, but it’s Mental Health America that’s had the vision to take empty lots in a depressed area, clean the area up, and invest in new, unique and innovative housing and provide it for people at their utmost time of need,” Kearns said.</p>
<p>The cause certainly does not end with the tiny homes project. It does, though, serve as an inspiration for the community to rally its public, private and nonprofit forces to tackle difficult problems here.</p>
