photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Some of the tiny houses being constructed at 26050 Chieftain Road are pictured Feb. 23, 2023. The project, currently a work in progress by LLC Home Works USA, will eventually be a community of 15 affordable homes for young people leaving the foster care system.

Just across the Douglas County line northeast of Lawrence, eagle-eyed travelers along U.S. Highway 40 might be able to spot the small village of tiny houses currently under construction at 26050 Chieftain Road.

While the project is still a work in progress, it’s being billed as a future community of affordable rental housing for young adults ages 18 to 26 — specifically, folks aging out of the foster care system — that property owner and senior project adviser Barbara Sabol hopes will become a blueprint for a model that could be replicated nationally.

The property has been in the family for quite some time, Sabol told the Journal-World in February. It’s where her father was reared by her grandmother, along with six other children. Sabol said she and her sister wanted to ensure the property stayed in the family — and that it was used for a good purpose.

“And the good purpose in this case was trying to provide affordable housing for young people who are leaving foster care,” Sabol said.

So the siblings started Home Works USA. It’s a project of the Bassuk Center, a nonprofit founded by Dr. Ellen Bassuk, a researcher and psychiatrist whose work has had a particular focus on folks experiencing homelessness.

Sabol previously served as the state’s Secretary of Health and Environment and Secretary of Aging and Disability Services under former Gov. John Carlin, and later as the deputy commissioner of New York’s Department of Social Services. Those experiences were a key part of why she chose young people leaving the foster care system as the demographic for this project. Plus, she said, it’s difficult to know what happens to them once they are out.

“What we did know from the data is that foster children — disproportionately males — end up in the criminal justice system, and girls end up in the family shelter system because they typically have a child,” Sabol said.

The community is intended to keep them from slipping through the cracks in such ways. According to Home Works USA’s website, the community of more than a dozen 250- to 400-square-foot houses — similar in size to a studio apartment — will share common spaces and facilities to “support community connectedness, sustain relationships and access necessary services.”

Sabol also noted that the community will eventually have an onsite community manager, who the website says will be a trained social worker who will oversee building and property maintenance and support residents in pursuing education, job training and employment opportunities. Residents will even be provided with shuttle service transportation to Lawrence.

“We have plans for a transportation system that will take them from the location to the bus stop, which is a couple of miles away,” Sabol told the Journal-World.

From there, she said residents can utilize public transit to go to their jobs or to Peaslee Tech or the University of Kansas to pursue an education.

A letter to the City of Lawrence in December regarding funding for affordable housing projects provides a bit more context as to how the homes will function. The letter says the homes will be energy-efficient and include fiber internet access from Midco and electricity courtesy of a solar installation from Good Energy Solutions. The Home Works USA website adds that the units will be fully furnished, and three of them will be ADA-accessible.

The project isn’t exactly new, though. Sabol said they’ve been building for a few years, following a nearly two-year process just to get the project approved by Leavenworth County officials. Since then, much like with many other construction projects in recent years, the coronavirus pandemic and associated supply chain issues have affected the time frame for getting the project done.

Besides the personal investment of time and resources from Sabol’s family, the project is supported fully by grants and volunteer involvement, she said.

Despite those limitations and the pandemic-related delays, Sabol said Home Works USA is interviewing possible candidates to live in the homes now, and she hopes some of the 15 homes slated to be built on the property will be complete and occupied sometime this year. Five of the structures are “near completion” now, she said, with interior amenities like cabinet space and other elements installed.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Some elements of the interiors of the homes, like restrooms and an area housing a bed, can be hidden by sliding closet doors that move independent of one another along a track. The doors were custom-built in Nicodemus, a National Historic Site in northwestern Kansas that was founded by newly-freed slaves in 1877.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Another view shows the built-in cabinet space in one of the Home Works USA community’s units.

The letter to the City of Lawrence goes even further and says Home Works USA is “on the brink” of completing the housing and just needs additional funding to complete final grading, sidewalks, parking and exterior lighting to make the community livable — elements that need to be completed before any of the units can be rented.

The homes aren’t intended to be the only element of the property. There will also be a workshop, Sabol said, where residents can build things using construction or other technical skills, plus a garden and an orchard. One element that’s already complete is a public walking trail on the property.

It all ties in to Home Works USA’s three principles, Sabol said — “home works, nature helps and services matter.”

photo by: Home Works USA

A site map shows how the small community of homes at 26050 Chieftain Road is intended to look when work on the project is complete.

“Those three guiding principles will undergird all the work that goes on here, and we hope that there will be a community of young people who will appreciate leaving a small footprint, who will be able to move to a thriving, productive adult life,” Sabol said. “Most people at 18, 19 have parents and family who are assisting them. Many of these young people did not have that, and so we hope to build a community that will be supportive for them and their desires, their dreams, their hopes, their expectations.”

Folks interested in learning more about the project or volunteering can complete the volunteer interest form available on Home Works USA’s website.