The Enquirer's Going Up series introduces you to need-to-know projects around Greater Cincinnati.
The basics of the Veterans Village in Madisonville
- Address: 5712-5718 Prentice Street, Madisonville.
- Building type: Residential.
- Size: 14 tiny, 267-square-foot rental homes, a gazebo and green space..
- Cost: $3.5 million.
- Developer: Tiny Homes for Humanity.
- Completion: End of 2027.
They're tiny, but for military veterans, they could make the difference between having a roof over their heads and being homeless.
Cincinnati nonprofit Tiny Homes for Humanity has plans for 14 tiny homes built around a gazebo in the back lot behind a Methodist church in Madisonville.
When they're finished by the end of the year, military veterans screened by the Veterans Administration who do not have a home or are at risk of losing their home will be living in the community known as Veterans Village, said Earl Crossland, co-founder of Tiny Homes for Humanity. The group is not affiliated with Habitat for Humanity.
After he retired from his architecture
firm two years ago, Crossland said he wanted to help the homeless. His friend, Army veteranLarry Plum, told him about a tiny home project in Kansas City that houses veterans.They co-founded Avondale-based Tiny Homes for Humanity.
"I decided designing a tiny home would be a good solution to affordable housing," Crossland said. "They can be built less expensively and faster."
What is a tiny home?
Tiny homes typically range from 100-500 square feet. In 2025, the average cost of a tiny home was $30,000 to $60,000, according to Rocket Mortgage.
The 267-square-foot homes in Veterans Village will be the size of a studio apartment and include a kitchen, bed and bathroom. There will be a small front porch.
Residents will rent through the Veterans Administration's rent assistance program, which combines Section 8 housing vouchers with VA services.
Why Madisonville?
Crossland and Plum struggled to find a site for their tiny homes. There weren't many flat parcels of land near a bus line in a community that would welcome them, he said. Just as they were about to give up, Gaines United Methodist Church offered them their property next to the church in Madisonville. The church wanted to develop the land into affordable housing after it had sat vacant for 20 years.
"It's kind of a miracle actually," Crossland said.
Veterans Village has received the support of the Madisonville Community Council and Hamilton County Board of Commissioners, which has put $1 million of its federal Housing and Urban Development money toward the project. In addition, Tiny Homes for Humanity has raised $1.6 million in private financing for the project.
"I don't think in all my years in Madisonville, I've ever seen a project come through that residents have been so uniformly excited and supportive of," said Councilwoman Anna Albi, a Madisonville resident, during an Oct. 16 planning commission meeting where the project received approval.
When will construction start?
Construction will start in early 2027 and be finished by the end of the year. Crossland hopes Tiny Homes for Humanity will build future tiny homes projects for more types of groups, not just homeless veterans.
"When we founded the nonprofit, we made it Tiny Homes for Humanity so that we would have kind of the flexibility to do (homes) for anybody," Crossland said. "For any type of person."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: New tiny home village aims to house local veterans | Going Up
