Rumshock Veteran Housing on the Verge in Port Jervis
The Rumshock Foundation plans to put ten tiny houses on an East Main St. lot, along with a work skills training program and other supports for veterans in the spring.
Halves of ten tiny houses made by BOCES students in Goshen may soon ride trailers to East Main St. in Port Jervis, where three quarters of an acre has been cleared for Victory Village, designed for transitional housing, skills programs and other resources for 10 homeless veterans. The project is the brainchild of U.S. Air Force veteran William Whetsel, of Highland Mills. He started the Rumshock Veterans Foundation to actualize his idea, hatched in 2019, when he learned that surrounding counties had seven or fewer homeless veterans, while 27 had been identified in Orange County.
Timing for bringing the houses currently depends on Port Jervis Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals approval of aspects of the plan, particularly the tiny house size, 400 square feet, smaller than the minimum allowed by the building code, with 20’ x 20’ interior plus a small porch, sharing a common yard.
“Veterans will be allowed to live there if they work,” said Whetsel. “We’ll teach veterans skills, and then they can move on, but we don’t have a set policy about transitioning out. Different veterans may take different amounts of time. But it’s not a treatment facility. We’re not social workers. It’s for housing and learning skills to be productive in society, a place to live and work.”
However, support groups will meet there, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, and emotional support dogs will be available, he said.
“It’s hard for veterans to ask for help,” Whetsel said. “They’re taught to take care of themselves.”
Work will include e-waste recycling and hydroponic farming, growing produce to sell at stores and stands and feed residents. Those sales would help veteran residents pay their $1100 monthly rent. Energy costs will be offset by solar panels.
Eight houses are already promised to homeless Orange County veterans, including three from Port Jervis, Whetsel said. Two houses are still available. All applicants will be screened by the Orange County Department of Social Services. Whetsel says he expects veterans will do best living together with their common histories of “regimentation, routines and accountability.”
The land was acquired with a $400,000 New York State Housing Authority grant attained with assistance from Jen Metzger when she was a state senator. As for house building assistance from BOCES, Whetsel said, “They called and offered.”
Donations of materials have also been offered by Home Depot, Andersen Windows and Owens Corning. Apprentices from plumbers, electricians, carpenters and laborers unions plan to provide labor to fulfill their community service obligations.
Whetsel plans to bring the tiny houses to the East Main St. site in the spring
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