 of the 240 square feet houses and it is you know it's what's just lovely is not only are they fully furnished with all new things when they come in but also we tell the better hey this stuff is yours like when you are ready to permanently transition to transition to permanent housing you can take the desk and take the chair you take the table the benzers the TV is yours and all the furnishings the real ones actually have cabinets and they have a microwave so there's you know the dishes and all the cookware the bathrooms are you know all the toiletries they have fully functioning kitchens and bathrooms they're designed for veterans that have PTSD issues so the design is on purpose that there is just the one door in the regular homes there's typically a window in the front and then we just put the windows on one side so that they're not looking into their neighbors presentation of the colors and the national anthem is Mark Solomon Navy reservists currently deployed an Iraqi war bet I am also a co-founder of veterans community project five years ago veterans community project was an idea on a napkin a group of combat veterans got together and decided that we wanted to end the veteran homelessness now there have been a million steps between napkin to today yet that was the mission and the veteran homelessness around the country this particular group of combat veterans the founders the co-founders represent service in the army and while we're talking about this any any folks serve in the army stand up I'll talk a little slower for my army friends anyone from the the arm sorry the Marine Corps stand up thank you all for your service especially those in the name so this particular group of combat veterans that started veterans community project represented the Army Marine Corps and the Navy on the surface the co-founders don't seem to have a lot in common we we look different we're from different backgrounds yet there are three things for sure that we do have in common that we recognize that together these make sense so the first thing that we have in common is that every founder understands that the Navy guy is actually the smartest and best looking one of the groups every single one of the founders knows that you can ask them later just go ahead and tweet it out it's a real thing second we all took a note to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic we were willing to defend the country up to and including with our lives third we all found it inexcusable that on any given night a night like tonight there will be 40,000 Americans who took that same oath to defend the Constitution that might be sleeping on the streets 40,000 people every single night in the United States who took an oath to serve their country are sleeping on the streets every single night while inexcusable it's not insurmountable VCP is humble beginnings as a tiny idea on a napkin five years ago has now turned into this we have a village of 49 tiny houses in Kansas City in a 5,000 square foot community center and an outreach center where veterans can just walk in and say I need the same thing is going to happen here soon this church will be a village of tiny houses as well serving homeless veterans we are excited to be a part of the Longmont Boulder and greater Colorado communities and in interest of time for our special guest I've been told to keep it short you're welcome sir so I'm going to introduce a good friend of mine who will introduce our next speaker he's a CEO of Veterans Community Project a Marine and one of my best friends Brian Meyer thanks Martin just so you know we just thought it'd be funny to tell you you had to wear your mask when you talk you don't actually have to smartest there is guys thank you so much I am going to be very brief because Mark said a lot of things very appropriately but I've been fortunate enough over the course of Veterans Community Project to have the opportunity to stand in front of a lot of people and thank them for what they've done for us and what they've done for the veteran community and it's always extremely difficult because how do you describe what we do you know we build tiny homes is transitional housing we're there for all veterans all that stuff but thank you better but I think you know I think what we really do is we construct really living memorials to that idea and promise that we're never going to leave a veteran behind meaning that these villages are a physical representation of the promise and the feelings that we all have that we want to do more for vets and make sure that we never leave someone behind we myself the other co-founders Benny raise your hand Brandon raise your hand when we were deployed it was our job to make sure we didn't leave anybody we deployed with behind well we come back here and this is the community's job to make sure we don't leave anybody behind and I want to congratulate the community because so many times veteran homelessness has thought of this big issue that's that's too large to fix and we can't do anything about it but here what you guys are saying are these veterans sleep on our streets our parks their our brothers sisters mothers fathers we're not going to wait on somebody else to fix it we're going to do something about it ourselves that's what this village is it's living breathing representation and memorial to everything that everybody's done so be proud of it take ownership over it and know that you're really having that impact so thank you all so so much to everyone who supported us right okay sorry I don't want to embarrass you by putting out everybody look at me more importantly I'd like to I'd like to introduce our next very special guest everybody knows the governor here and I do want to say something it means a lot sir for you to come out it means a lot to veterans homeless veterans non-homeless veterans that you would take time to come down make some remarks and just be here and show support for what we're doing it may not seem like it means something but it really means a lot it's gonna mean a lot for every veteran who moves into this village to know that you were here on this day so thank you very much ladies and gentlemen done repose living in Colorado with a pandemic and fires and drought and riots hope starts here hope starts here certainly the best part of my week I think for many of you the best part of your week it's exciting to see the hard work and the vision that is leading to this amazing project right here in Longmont you know I want to thank the co-founders Brian Meyer Brandon Mixon Vincent Morales and Mark Solomon who's deploying in the next 48 hours so mark thanks for for being here today with us and thanks for serving our country and responding to the call the times to protect our freedoms I also want to give thanks to the combat veterans who found it veteran community project really the folks who served our country and helping to end veteran homelessness in our country it's our solemn responsibility to make sure that those who wear the uniform of our country protecting our freedoms that we have their back when they return you know my partner Marlins grandfather Bernie served in World War two and Marlins mother Wendy grew up her first few years in a Quonset hut I have to say the technology and livability has improved quite a bit since that time I've seen pictures I've heard stories it's a lot better and folks who live here will have keycard access to a swimming pool beautiful views of the mountains great great access to really everything they need including the services they need to to get ahead and to succeed and get on their feet and frankly our nation needs to respond to the call of supporting those who protect us because it is a disgrace that on any given night here in the United States in towns and cities across our country about 40,000 veterans go without a roof over their heads and many more face hardships and risk losing their housing and live in unstable housing situations these are brave men and women who saved our country but they've often fallen on hard times sometimes they weren't able to find support when they returned home sometimes they're they're paying the price mentally and physically for what they've seen and what they've experienced while defending our freedoms and Colorado is not immune to this national challenge and of course we are proud of our state's strong military tradition owned over 400,000 veterans my goal as governors to make Colorado the very best place for veterans in the entire country and yet we still have about 1,000 veterans who are homeless in our state and well that number is decreased and has been progress made and I visited projects in Colorado Springs and Cabello and other parts of our state let me be clear that any number above zero is completely unacceptable in the state of Colorado together with our federal partners with the veteran administration and housing and urban development we've taken great strides towards addressing chronic homelessness among our veterans each year we distribute housing vouchers to ensure veterans receive housing and wraparound services and just last year we administered about a thousand of these vouchers and and we are also focused on serving veterans across our entire state we opened up just last year an amazing new veteran service center in Grand Junction and we continue to make sure that we can meet people where they are no matter where you live in our great state our voucher team and Department of Housing continues to provide critical services but we know we know that it does not yet meet the need we know that it is not enough and I couldn't be more grateful for those who donate who contribute who volunteer for veterans community project for filling that gap and filling that gap in an innovative and effective way that frankly we can all learn from on both the public and the private side this vets village that we're celebrating has incorporates methods that have a proven track record of success community based veterans helping veterans it's a holistic view to solving the challenge it means it's housing but it's not just housing it pairs housing with the camaraderie of living in a structured environment with other veterans who walk the walk additional services education health wellness programming access to a nice swimming pool this village when it's completed will really help give a veteran everything they need to live their lives with dignity respect and honor that is their right that we owe them for their service this village is designed to provide not just the physical space but the emotional space the case management services to fully address the underlying causes of each person's situation of each veterans homelessness it's about setting up veterans for success short medium and long-term and by the way veterans means all veterans whether their service was short or whether service was long regardless of how that service ended any veteran who pledged an oath with themselves at risk to serve our country is deserving of our support and I'm really glad to see that there's a more expansive mission here than some of the definitions of veterans that we're able to serve on the public side we have a sacred contract in America with our service members while you're protecting us on bases and battlefields around the world we have an obligation to protect you and your family both while you're in service and when you return to civilian life and on the public side we need to do our best to uphold our end of the bargain of the citizens of our great nation as volunteers and donors to this project you are doing your part to support our end of that part I'm so excited that veterans community project is a partner to address the challenge of veteran homelessness in our state it's a model a model of innovation that we can expand and replicate I'm so pleased and grateful that our state is the very first expansion site outside of Kansas City and I can't wait to be here once the village is complete this will be a much-needed refuge and sanctuary for veterans experiencing homeless and older and long-mount and weld and really throughout northern Colorado I in addition to thanking BCP and Brian and Brandon of incident mark I think we're also joined by Senator Kerry Donovan a great champion of veterans I want to thank Senator Donovan for her work in the legislature and everybody who came together to make this groundbreaking possible with a permanent legacy of knowing that everyone involved can look themselves in the mirror and know that they did their part to help make sure that we honor those who protected our freedoms thank you on behalf of veterans community project again we really do appreciate your support of veterans and also being here today it means a lot to all of us thank you very much okay next up I appreciate everybody if you're sorry if you're out there working on your tan I apologize you're doing great though okay thanks for thanks for coming so next what I want to do is introduce to you one of our great partners we would not be here today literally if it weren't for this particular partner helping with all of the things that are going on right now from a city perspective so ladies and gentlemen if you give me a round of applause for Harold Dominguez a city manager I think we're good hey Brian thanks for not doing to me what you did the mark at the mask I appreciate that you know it's been interesting to see the evolution of this project and I think about a time when and the first thing I actually want to do council members in the audience can can you please stand and former council members that have been associated with this project I want to thank the council for this and a council member pinley what many people may not know this started as a conversation at one point with the council about joining the mayor's challenging challenge to ending homelessness for a better its community and then it evolved and it's been really interesting for me to be part of this it's been a pleasure for me to be part of this and to me the founders and everyone that's been working on this I've learned a lot and for me I can't I did not serve in the military but almost everyone of my uncles did and I had several cousins and for me it's a passion for me to help anyone that served our country based on what I experienced and how I was raised I was raised by a single parent and so I had a lieutenant colonel and a master sergeant in the Marines helped her raise me and started up in that military background even though I didn't serve it so I'm very passionate about this project I want to thank Kevin Molshine Kevin thanks for introducing this to BCP and I think it's a we didn't know we were where we would end up but we're there and I'm really excited to see that come to fruition founders thank you I had the opportunity and I think it was late 19 time has sort of been a different place today because of everything we're dealing with and I have the opportunity to visit the community in Kansas City and just seeing the impact that it had on people's lives and the way they interacted with the vet with the veteran community was inspiring to me literally the day that I showed up there was one individual that was just reunited with his kids he wasn't his kids I believe were in foster care because he was homeless he didn't have the ability to have his kids with him and that day I think was the first day that they were able to play catch in the area in the common area of the veterans village and when you hear those stories and you see the impact that it has on people's lives you have no choice but to want to be part of that and it reinforced the passion that you all have reinforced for me that this is a model as government that we need to learn from we need to embrace and we need to do everything that we can to help those that have defended our country you have inspired me to do better when it comes to homelessness when it comes to things like affordable housing so every day that it gets harder I think of what you all had to do and what you had to overcome to get started and just know that you're in my mind constantly so thank you homelessness is one of the most significant challenges that we face communities states and as a nation and we talked about veterans homelessness so I've had a lot of points that people talked about so I'm going to kind of push those away now every level of government has consistently tried to attack this problem in my 20 year career the one certainty that I've come away with is that we cannot do this as government alone it takes everyone in the community to be part of this and that creates permanent sustainable change in terms of how we support our homeless veterans and how we support our community as a whole long let's know it for coming together and working collectively to address any number of social issues I can sit here and rattle off how we work together to overcome the flood how we've tried to come together in terms of what we've tried to attempt to deal with homelessness and you know really homelessness is no exception we have partnerships with our faith-based community our center folk Boulder County and many other organizations and obviously our residents who become part of this to to house those options for those that are in house there's not a organization better suited to add to the partnership in Long Month and PCP the work that they will undertake will add capacity to our overall system that will allow the city and other organizations to actually help more people and that for me is also inspiring because what we think it support it while this is focused on veterans it gives us the ability to help more people in our community the beauty of this partnership and Brian and I've been talking about it Mark and I've been talking about that talking about it is it just doesn't end with this step the beauty of the partnership is how do we take this and use this as a launching point where we can do more for each other and we can support each other I'm extremely excited to see how we can continue to grow this partnership serve our community and I'm extremely excited to continue working with you all and everyone that's part of this project I've told them when they get ready to build houses you all may not know this I'm a closet DIYer and love to build and one of the first things I want to do is help build a house I want to donate my personal time to this to be part of this project thank you for coming to Long Month and I really appreciate it and I look forward to working with you before you go anywhere we've got something for you as well we're gonna do a photo up also this plaque and recognition of your support and the city's support of us and we really appreciate it so thank Harold wants you to know he's smiling ladies and gentlemen the other reason that we are here is because of a very kind organization that has a big heart and they were willing to put their money where their heart was and so we've got a representative from HMS development this is their land that we're on right now temporarily right we're going to get it eventually right just making sure you all heard it so HMS development is our partner they're the developer of this area here and so we're gonna have Kevin Malshine come up and tell us a little bit about his support thank you this army guys are gonna be here too though by the way I'd like the army guys let me let me start by thanking my wife Barbara over here and then also my partners and our partners in this project we have the Spencer family and the Hinson family who are also here Harold also thank you Harold special shout out to your staff for processing this project with the with a passion that reflects their passion for the vcp and the mission I was just supposed to give you a couple minute overview of how we got to here in 2018 January the city council passed resolution it was in support of the mayor's challenge to end homelessness in the city of Longmont our organization does a lot of development in the city and we try to add a charitable factor to each one so we were recruited to find the right parcel problem is there are a lot of generous churches that wanted to donate land the problem is it's a nimby issue nobody wanted them in the backyard so the mayor badly in the city council had a brilliant idea they said why don't you just put it right your next community which is mountain berk which is where you're at just to give you a scale for it basically this project this community will run all the way up to the back of the back of the home people over there so the we researched how many new home developments have incorporated transitional homeless facilities in their new home development and in the country that number is exactly zero zero and so sadly there's a stigma that goes that that makes it difficult to sell new homes in a place where there's also transitional homeless facilities uh city of Longmont's response to that was well that's great at zero because that means we're going to be the first and uh so we actually did more research we did research in facilities to find where veteran facilities could actually be operated within a new home community we went to california virginia florida our last stop was kansas city missouri to visit a new group called vcp and so i had four hours in kansas city went down to 8900 trost and uh the founders blew me off totally important they ignored me for a reason that i later appreciated which was somebody there was much more important they were helping individual individual veterans so i really came to appreciate that but i got to walk around i got to meet kyle who uh was working a job delivering pizzas and he was working on custody of the children getting custody of the children i got invited in to leo's place leo's a vietnam veteran with a gorgeous dog and leo was making dinner invited me in to talk i came out of that before our meeting and it was really an it moment for me because there's so much when you go to their facility there's so much positive energy between the veterans and the volunteers that i said we're going to turn this from what could be a perceived stigma into a positive so with this community being built there'll be 460 middle class families mostly middle class families living here and they're they're going to have access to world-class amenities traditional amenities clubs etc but they're going to have one brand new and unique amenity and that is compassion and that is community service so you can grab your cup of coffee you can walk down here you can help with that with a resume you can help with the budget you can walk over here and help habitat build eight habitat homes and so we're hoping that at some point in the future we can help not only help the veterans here but help eliminate that stigma that comes with this type of facility and therefore i hope that five or ten years from now when somebody asks the question how many new home communities have incorporated transitional homeless facility hopefully that number is five hopefully it's 10 hopefully it's 50 but hopefully it's not just one i did also want to give you the reason why the founders it's become i have such a strong passion for their mission what i found was what you heard was the four co-founders they're all served in combat zones and when they came back they all will be honest about their struggles that they've had and if i was in that situation i would have ridden i would have run and hide and whatnot not wanted to do anything with it they turned and ran back to help those that are struggling that's their therapy that was their choice number two nobody would have said nobody would have blamed them if they said this is for combat veterans only because we have special issues no they said it's anybody who took the oath to serve their country regardless of discharge status or years of service they also do another thing which is these tiny homes are beautiful and they provide a great shiny penny but for about every tiny home that has a veteran in it they provide services to about a hundred veterans who just walk in with anything from needing a cane to needing a bus ride to needing some help getting a job and it's really an amazing mission now uh i did also want to i'm so in closing i do want to thank bcp because 700 cities have requested to be the first expansion city we're the first expansion city and i want to thank bcp for trusting us without honor there's one last thing in closing which is mark's become a great friend and we want to really wish him a safe and happy returning here from now and more importantly over here if i'm not standing up i've got chastity nickle jack where are you jack oh they're all over i just thank you so much their dad's leaving for a year thank you for coming to longmont and longmont colorado is here for you thank you very much yeah kevin real quick uh this will just take one quick second uh kevin pointed out that longmont is the first expansion city uh if i had to point to one single reason why out of all 700 cities and say that that's it that reason is kevin molshine now he's got a lot of partners and we appreciate that but he was the driving force and if you've worked with kevin you know he's not going to leave you alone he drove it to get it here but anyway so kevin we thank you for bringing us here just as much as you're thanking us for being here so thank you and everybody who's smart now i waited till i got the longest time on the mic you guys could probably sit at this point because this will be a while okay so uh no uh again thanks everyone uh we have some special thanks that we want to give uh to folks and so i want to call people out by name this is by no means the uh entire list and uh i apologize in advance if we left anyone off i just want you to know that we could not be here without the support of the community uh so uh first off obviously governor polis for being here senator donovan thank you again for your support of veterans that for being here as well um we've got a couple of folks from kansas city i want to mention uh teresa lore kansas city city councilwoman stand up if you would please i'd like to take credit for all of the success of vcp with sometimes these guys as well i will tell you that teresa is the reason we're really here uh she is also the person who will not let things go in kansas city when the city was kind of like oh we're not really sure we want to do that she stood in someone's office until they said okay you're going to do it um it was really kind of this shy of a this side of her restraining order is where she was so um so she is an amazing resource and so we wouldn't be here without you so thank you very much kathryn harville's also here uh community america and kansas city also one of our uh big sponsors so i appreciate you coming all the way out here from kansas city and all the folks that came out from uh kansas city appreciate that uh city manager herald demingas we appreciate you the city council members from longmont i know some of you are here if you are if you can stand i would appreciate it we appreciate you thank you we uh again without the support of the community in the city we would not be here as well um kevin um mulshine don hinson and uh ken spencer if you guys stand for us please um i appreciate you hms development they didn't realize what they were signing up for when they agreed to work with us um and uh i'd also like to recognize the folks from walmart there's some folks here from walmart from walmart was our first house sponsor here in longmont so they jumped on board way before anybody else did so i know we've got some folks here stand up if you would please thank you very much um the other folks i want to point out and i won't laundry list it but i again we would not be here without these folks so in your programs if you'll pull this this little uh sheet out okay this is an interactive part you're going to do this i promise you'll like it pull this piece out and so take a look on the the one side it's the invitation on the back side are all of the people who also help make this possible so we want to give them a shout out a round of applause for these folks as well and while you happen to have that out i don't know if you guys are uh wanting to take pictures of me go ahead get your phones out i'm working get your phones out because at the bottom here is a qr code if you would you can donate right now by scanning this qr code with your picture so you're going to take a picture of me and then scan this at the same thing uh and you can donate right here right now so if you are so feeling client i know you've already been very supportive but now is your opportunity to do the same thing covid is hitting hard especially in the homeless community the funds you donate today will go to our response especially this fall as we see folks that really need help with rapid response and our goal is obviously to keep people in their houses uh if they are on the streets we're going to get them help so that's what this is going to so if you get a chance and you want to donate we appreciate that uh with that uh i'm going to bring up uh the executive director of colorado so we'd also like to excuse me so also we'd like to thank actually all of our staff that actually does everything behind the scenes all the all the individuals in the green vcp shirt one that make martin look good um and now i don't want you to forget that oh they're not they're i promise they're not forget paul's paul's going to talk all about it so um i appreciate you guys again thank you very much and so paul come on executive director of colorado i'm going to be covid safe so good morning everybody i'm paul melroy i'm the executive director here in colorado for bcp um huge thank you to everybody that's here today to celebrate this milestone with us um i find it personally humbling to to recognize the level of support that our organization gets from our different donors our partners our and the community and you just heard a lot of that a lot of the names associated with all those folks um we're just we're we're really honored to the that you want to be part of what we're doing um there's a reason the word community is part of our name um the support of the community is critical not only to our organization but more importantly to the veterans we serve um helping these folks attain and maintain a stable healthy productive place in the community is kind of the win-win situation that we strive for you've heard about all the amazing things that have happened to get us to today if you step back from that there are just hundreds of people thousands and thousands of man hours that went into to getting us here and we appreciate every single one of the folks that's pitching in in some way we can't say thank you enough so thank you thank you thank you on a personal note too i i do want to mention a couple people who have been incredibly helpful to me i just moved here a few months ago um kevin ralshine and mark solomon uh have both become my friends um and have been just invaluable and getting getting me situated here and making the transmission smooth so i really appreciate that and to echo what benny was just talking about unbelievable amount of work by the staff i have to to give a shout out to the colorado team here liz and shawn amazing amount of work and i have to i have to cite kelly too from Kansas City who's just done a tremendous amount of work trying to make this happen so thank you but i mean really this is a talk about taking a village i mean there's a huge amount of work that went into this uh and lots more to do um so i wanted to take a moment to talk about the future um our founders have shown that you know the seemingly impossible is indeed possible uh with what they've done in Kansas City so i've been given a blueprint for success here and there's just a there's a tremendous amount of work to do but we've got a pretty good idea where we're going getting the village built is obviously high importance to us but that's not the only way we serve veterans even though our colorado team right now is working out of our homes the high priority is getting a location opened up here in long month for outreach and we're actually doing outreach right now shawn's a shawn's our director of veteran services and uh doing case management right now he's a extremely busy man um we can dramatically increase the number of folks we're we're serving when we can get a place open um we're also looking at some staff here in the near future too we'll ramp up and that'll help us ramp up the number of people we're serving this all happened over the next couple of months this fall the the infrastructure will be going in here on this property and not just here for the village but the entire mountain crop property so it's gonna be a big subdivision here with all kinds of different homes and we're excited about that we are hoping that uh in the early spring we can go vertical on our village on our houses they're stick built for poor foundations and these things are really they're not only built to code but really they're hardy buildings um so we're excited about that and um you know i'd like to see vets moving in next summer that's the that's the goal right now i know quite a number of folks in this crowd here like the volunteer we'll be looking for people to swing hammers and paint brushes but we'll need volunteers to help with ongoing things too when we get our outreach center open well we'll need some people to help us and when we get the community center open in the village we'll be looking for additional help um and hopefully in a post-covid world we'll have more events and things going on where we're out in the community in a perfect world we'd be taking that model tiny house all over the place so people could check it out and see what we're all about so we'll look forward to that day and we'll we'll leave help with those things too so please keep us in mind and please keep in mind as as mark mentioned we still need ongoing financial support even once the village is built we need you to help us make our jobs obsolete that's that's the goal is to end veterans homelessness and put us out of business so that's going to wrap up this portion of things we're going to move on to the the ceremonial shovels of dirt and photo ops what i would like to ask is that our our four co-founders brian mark brandon and venny my colorado team uh kevin don and ken from hms power from the city and body finley uh if y'all would step back to the tiny house we're gonna we're gonna grab some so anywhere in the area doesn't matter we're not here