Officials mark start on homelessness village in southern Pulaski County
A crowd gathers near a rendering of Providence Park — a homelessness village planned for Pulaski County — after a ground breaking ceremony on held May 14, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
After at least a year of planning and land prep, officials in Central Arkansas ceremoniously broke ground Tuesday on Providence Park, a 50-acre homelessness village expected to provide 400 affordable tiny homes in southern Pulaski County when complete.
“The village will provide our most vulnerable residents with a dignified place to call home, will empower them to create a space they can be proud of, where they can feel safe and cultivate the community themselves,” said Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde, who spearheaded the project.
The first residents were initially expected to move into the community this summer, but construction delays pushed the timeline back and the first tenants are now expected in 2025.
At least 100 people gathered Tuesday at Iron Horse Church near the Pulaski-Saline County border to hear from officials as they announced the project’s start. The groundbreaking didn’t take place at the site of the village, but rather a few streets over where officials also marked progress on the Southwest Trail, a path that will connect Pulaski, Saline and Garland counties.
The homelessness village is a $5 million investment Hyde initiated after he visited a similar setup in Austin, Texas, called the Community First! Village.
Arkansas’ Providence Park aims to house the “chronically homeless,” or people who have been unsheltered for at least 12 months. The community will be a more permanent option for folks, and the houses are expected to have a rent attached, though the price is currently unknown.
People interested in living at the village will be required to apply and interview with management staff. Referrals from existing homelessness organizations are also welcome but not required. Potential applicants would need to fit within the housing qualifications, mainly that they’ve been homeless for at least one year.
In addition to the tiny homes, the community is also slated to have its own bus stop, bathrooms and laundry, a communal kitchen, health center, market and more.
“Rather than continuing to stigmatize and criminalize homelessness, the communal focus of Providence Park provides individuals with a way to get back on their feet in a supportive environment,” Hyde said.
The tiny homes themselves will come equipped with a small refrigerator and heating and air conditioning. The space is divided into a condensed kitchen space, a living room and bedroom.
Errin Stanger, who served as the director of Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub for the last 10 years, will lead the village through a nonprofit that shares a name with the housing project.
The village will act as more than just a living space with on-site aid for long-term housing solutions, job training and social integration programs, Stanger said.
Though still in the beginning stages of planning what the managerial crew will look like, Stranger said the village will be staffed at all times.
While officials have made notable progress over the past year, there is still a lot to be done. Providence Park is currently a vast, bare-bones clearing surrounded by forest.
Pulaski County’s project is separate from a similar micro-home village planned on Roosevelt Road in Little Rock. Mayor Frank Scott Jr. spoke Tuesday and complimented the partnership between county and city officials.
“We know it’s going to have an all-hand-on-deck approach to get to functional zero [for homelessness],” Scott said.
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