By Liz Holland

Site preparation for Salisbury’s first tiny home village designed to house the city’s homeless population is expected to get under way soon.

The 25 homes arrived last week in sections and still need to be assembled on city-owned land on Anne Street, said Housing and Homelessness Manager Christine Chestnutt. In the meantime, concrete walkways are expected to be installed this week.

Chestnutt said certain people will be prioritized for spots in the new houses.

“We’ll start with people who have been homeless the longest,” she said. Often, those people are the hardest to put into traditional housing.

The village will be made up of 24 single-occupancy houses, plus one more that will serve as an office, she said. Each house is 8 feet square with room for a bed, mini refrigerator and a microwave.

The houses will sit on beds of gravel and linked with concrete walkways. There will be green spaces with container gardens and a privacy fence.

“It’s going to be their neighborhood,” Chestnutt said.

While each unit will have heat, air conditioning and electricity, there won’t be any plumbing. Instead, residents will use a communal bathroom that will be installed at the site, Chestnutt said.

The bathroom building won’t be delivered until early October, so that will delay move-in dates for residents until later that month, she said.

In the meantime, the city will soon begin seeking community support, including for hands-on projects such as painting, fencing and spreading mulch. The city also will seek donations of items such as bedding and other necessities. Businesses and individuals will be invited to become sponsors at $500 per unit.

Salisbury officials have long sought a solution to getting the city’s homeless population off the streets and into housing.

The tiny house village was originally planned for city property on Marine Road, but after realizing there are “major water and sewer issues” there, it was shifted to Anne Street in the East Church Street neighborhood, Mayor Jake Day said during a February City Council work session.

The city has no funding yet for the Marine Road site, but building a tiny home village there is still planned. There are about 70 chronically homeless people living on the streets, Day said.

The village won’t be open to anyone convicted of a sex offense, homicide or arson.

Before the project could get started, the City Council needed to approve three pieces of legislation.

Since the tiny homes will not have plumbing, the city amended the Building Code which required buildings used for human habitation to have sanitary facilities. The amendment added an exemption for facilities owned or operated by the city for the purpose of providing temporary housing for homeless persons.

The City Council also approved a resolution authorizing the establishment of a temporary housing facility and defining the need for the facility and the services provided. It also authorizes the city administration to develop eligibility criteria, a selection process, and rules and regulations

A third piece of legislation amended the city’s Zoning Code.

The creation of the tiny home village is part of the city’s Here is Home initiative aimed at increasing the city’s housing stock and affordability, while also tackling solutions for the homeless population.

The program, announced in the fall of 2021, has been successful in sparking development by waiving fees for developers and offering a minimum payment in lieu of taxes for Habitat for Humanity and Salisbury Neighborhood Housing Services.