Tiny homes for veterans planned for Erie Sports Center. Will feature solar power, greenhouse

An online travel company on a mission to build 1,000 tiny homes for veterans in need is teaming with local partners to build its first such community in Erie County.

Connecticut-based Bookwell Travel, in partnership with Erie Sports Center and Veterans Miracle Center Erie, plans to build "Freedom Village," a complex of 20 tiny homes, on the Erie Sports Center property at 8161 Oliver Road in Summit Township. The partners also plan to build a solar field to power the complex and a greenhouse where veterans will be employed.

The partners will formally announce the national launch of the tiny homes project at Erie Sports Center on Friday.

"Nobody in this country should be homeless or looking for food, no matter what," Bookwell Travel founder Brian Gates said. "If we're going to do something about it, we can start by serving those who have served us."

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Homes, jobs and job training for veterans

The one- and two-bedroom Amish-built tiny homes will provide safe shelter for single male veterans and for single female veterans with children, said John Kowalcyzk, founder and director of Veterans Miracle Center Erie. VMCE will coordinate services for veteran residents in conjunction with other local veterans' agencies.

"We want to focus on transitional services for people just coming out of the military, with a place to stay and a job for people who may not have those waiting," Gates said.

A 40,000-square-foot greenhouse by GrowSpan Greenhouse Structures of Connecticut will allow veterans to grow produce in demand for grocery stores, Gates said.

"There's a shortage of good quality produce, 98% of which is grown in greenhouses, a (large number of which) now grow cannabis instead," Gates said.

Jobs at the sports park may also be available to veterans, Gates said, along with training for other jobs.

Veterans working with kids is a win-win, Erie Sports Center owner Troy Bingham said.

"We will be able to provide a home, a job and most of all a purpose for veterans to help them transition to (civilian) life," Bingham said. "And who better to teach kids about respect, discipline and hard work than people who have been in the military, who want to serve their communities and have already served their country."

Erie Sports Center has worked with disabled, inner-city and refugee populations to provide sports opportunities for children, Bingham said.

"Over 1,000 children have participated in programs here for free," he said. "We're look forward to serving our community's veterans."

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A solar field by Associated Energy Developers will generate electricity for the complex, Gates said.

"The idea is to produce enough electricity for the greenhouses, all of the tiny houses and for the Erie Sports Center, too," Gates said.

Seeds of the Erie project

Bookwell Travel began distributing meals to the hungry during the COVID-19 pandemic and in time targeted its efforts to veterans.

"What we found were a lot of veterans homeless or living in poverty," Gates said. The company began providing meals for veterans and current members of the military in 15 states, including 150,000 meals distributed in Philadelphia the day after Veterans Day.

"The meals in Philadelphia served both veterans and active military families on food stamps," Gates said.

Bookwell Travel has also distributed winter jackets donated by Ocean State Job Lot, a Rhode Island-based retail chain, including 5,000 for the Veterans Miracle Center in Albany, New York.

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"Veterans Miracle Center also has a facility in Erie, where the Albany center sent 2,000 of the jackets," Gates said. "That's how Erie came up on our radar. Then we started looking for land here for the tiny homes."

Kowalcyzk, of Veterans Miracle Center Erie, has worked with Erie Sports Center on various projects and helped connect the center with the Bookwell Travel veterans' initiative.

"We were in the right place at the right time and communicating with the right people to make this happen," Kowalcyzk said.

Hope for a quick start to the project, donations

Erie Sports Center has been working on the project with local government and veterans' organizations and is working with Summit Township on permits and other requirements for the community, Bingham said.

The tiny homes will be built near sports fields at the complex. An exact location has not yet been determined.

The partners hope that construction can begin soon.

"We want to start as soon as possible," said Gates, of Bookwell Travel. "Time is of the essence."

Donations for the veterans' project will be accepted on the Veterans Miracle Center Erie website at vmcerie.org. Bookwell Travel additionally will donate a percentage of its booking profits to the national tiny homes project.

Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Freedom Village tiny homes for veterans at Erie Sports Center