St. Cloud Opens Avivo Village With 48 Tiny Homes for Homeless Adults

A new shelter in St. Cloud is offering homeless adults a locked door, a roof and a path toward permanent housing. Avivo Village has opened with 48 tiny homes, and all 48 residents are now spending their first days there.

Avivo is a nonprofit that also operates a tiny home village in Minneapolis. The St. Cloud site is set up inside a climate-controlled warehouse, and each client stays in a secure tiny home that can be locked.

Jacob Herr, 50, is one of the new residents. He says he has been homeless on and off in St. Cloud since December 2018. "This place, I feel safer here than I would at a public park," he said.

Herr said the staff do not force anything on residents but do encourage them to move forward. He described the approach as asking what it will take to get someone into a home and off the streets for good. He also said that having a window in his space, even one that does not face outside, gives him a sense of having a home. "They make you feel like a person instead of just another homeless person," he said.

The village offers counseling for mental and physical health concerns as well as substance-use disorders. John Tribbett, a service area director for Avivo's Ending Homelessness Division, said the organization has learned from experience, summing up the lessons as pets, partners, possessions and privacy. He said a door that locks and feels safe is something many people have not had in a very long time.

The project is paid for with $7.65 million in state money, $1.1 million from the city of St. Cloud and $115,000 in private donations. Asked whether that is a good use of taxpayer dollars, Tribbett said yes. He pointed to the costs that arise when people are jailed for low-level offenses tied to living outside, when they seek emergency room care, and when law enforcement is used to respond to what he called a social issue.

Julie Ellis, director of Adult and Disability Services in Stearns County, said the model has worked well in the Twin Cities metro area. "Having people on the street or, you know, building encampments and living outside in the wintertime is not something anybody wants," she said.

The opening comes as St. Paul considers similar ideas. Its city council approved an $11 million plan to help people experiencing homelessness on Wednesday, and the plan includes shelter options such as indoor villages. Asked whether an Avivo Village could be set up in St. Paul, Tribbett said the group's crisis response approach could work beyond St. Cloud. He described it as meeting clients where they are, helping them move forward and giving them access to off ramps.