New tiny home village has $300 rent, a gym and free healthcare heres who gets to live there

In Iowa, a brand-new village of tiny homes is rising where rent starts at just $300 a month.Homes come with their own bedroom and kitchenette, and a 19th-century schoolhouse is being transformed into a community hub with a gym, a chapel and free healthcare. There’s a catch, though — and it’s the best kind.The village is reserved exclusively for people who have been living on the streets.Joppa, a Des Moines-based homeless outreach nonprofit, has cleared its final regulatory hurdles to build what it’s calling Joppa Village, a 54-unit tiny home community at 2501 Maury St.

designed to give the city’s chronically homeless population a permanent place to land. City officials have signed off on plans to gut and repurpose the long-vacant former Chesterfield School — a structure that dates to around 1890, built just as the surrounding town of Chesterfield was being absorbed into Des Moines — into the beating heart of the new neighborhood.The Des Moines Zoning Board of Adjustment approved a conditional-use permit allowing the 15,000-square-foot building to be converted into a full community center, complete with a 5,000-square-foot gymnasium addition. City planning documents envision the space offering communal dining, a kitchen, worship facilities, storage and on-site healthcare services for residents.“We are grateful for the Des Moines City Council and City staff’s support of the Joppa Village project to help address homelessness in our community,” Joe Stevens, Joppa’s CEO and co-founder, said in a press release. “This approval allows us to provide permanent supportive housing to individuals who would otherwise be chronically homeless.Addressing such a complex issue requires collaboration, and we are excited to work alongside the City and other community partners to deliver one of many needed solutions.”The homes themselves run between 192 and 384 square feet and include a full bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchenette. Monthly rents range from ...