On December 9, 2025, Veterans Community Project Longmont hosted an annual "Light the Village" holiday event. This celebration marked a milestone, coming just six months after construction was completed on the project, with all 26 homes lit up together for the first time.
The project is part of the nonprofit Veterans Community Project (VCP), which began in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2016.
“A group of four combat veterans came together and were seeing some challenges with people coming home and maybe not having full access to services and struggling with housing or food insecurity,” said Jennifer Seybold, VCP Longmont’s executive director.
“Eventually it ended up being this tiny home community.”
VCP now has villages in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and St. Louis, Missouri, with a village in Milwaukee, Wisconsin currently in development.
The idea made its way to Longmont after the city passed a resolution to end veteran homelessness. The city liked the tiny home idea, and brought VCP to Colorado. Construction began in the summer of 2022, and the village officially opened this past June. The holiday party was the first community celebration of the completed project.
While the village was still under construction, veterans began moving in, including Army veteran Patrick Putnam. He was living at the Hope Homeless shelter in Longmont and found out about the project while looking for resources online. The opportunity to move into the village two years ago came during a period of deep uncertainty.
“ I didn't think that I would actually even make it to this age. I'm only 34, which is still pretty young,” said Putnam.
“The dreams of a future, I mean, literal dreams, you know, actual dreams … that you get when you sleep, but then also dreaming of having a longer life, you know? This place started making that seem like a possibility again.”
Putnam was part of the village’s original group of residents. Today, the community is home not just to individuals, but to families as well. Five of the 26 units are reserved for families, which Seybold said is unique..
“A lot of people will avoid shelters because they don't want to be separated,” she said. “Here they can stay together and in a private space. And same goes for pets. We're also pet friendly, so that is, you know, something we want to allow people to stay with their pets. 'cause they're family too.”
Another way VCP differs from many housing programs is that it serves veterans of all discharge statuses. Putnam says it can be difficult for many veterans to access services through the Department of Veterans Affairs due to the circumstances around their discharge, or how much active duty they served.
“The VA is a bit merciless when it comes to how they are towards veterans that have general discharges or otherwise,” he said. “The VCP helps everyone.”
What Putnam describes isn’t unique. Across the country, thousands of veterans live just outside the boundaries of the services meant to support them, often one setback away from homelessness.
“More than 60,000 veterans live on the brink of like one missed paycheck (which) can really be damaging to their long-term stability,” said Seybold. “I think it's so incredibly important that we as a community just look at how we can help one another.”
In addition to providing housing, VCP also provides wrap-around services for the village residents, and support for hundreds of non-resident veterans each year. They partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with other community-based support organizations.
Putnam recently moved out of the village after living there for two years. He is now in permanent housing and is working on a career in IT. He is still connected to VCP Longmont and the community he found there.
“For me it was, this place was more so about the sense of community, not just with the residents, but also with the staff,” he said. “There's the safe place—the place to sleep having my own place. And also the sense of belonging.”.
Putnam plans to continue volunteering at VCP Longmont, to pass on the positive experience he had to new members. The day after the holiday party, the village welcomed three new community members.
Copyright 2025 Rocky Mountain Community Radio. This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including Aspen Public Radio.
