Meet Tommy and Nancy, Eden Village's first residents. They'll soon move into tiny homes

Show Caption Hide Caption Tommy Yarberry will be Eden Village's first resident Tommy Yarberry will be Eden Village's first resident

Even when temperatures climb into the 90s, Tommy Yarberry can often be found volunteering at Eden Village, a new community of tiny homes for the homeless in north Springfield.

He won't wear gloves and doesn't own work boots; He says he's just fine with his bare hands and a donated pair of golf shoes as he moves mulch and dirt around the 4-acre property. Last week the 61-year-old was busy arranging rocks along sidewalks so they fit "just like a jigsaw puzzle."

"I'm being a perfectionist," Yarberry said as his cracked, bloody hand worked a rock into place. "They told me, 'All you gotta do is just put the rock down.' I can't do that."

"It's a good deal. It's a real good deal," he said of the housing project. "I'd do anything to help the homeless, 'cause I am one."

Yarberry has been helping out at Eden Village off and on since January — several months before he learned he would get the first home.

Yarberry will be given the key to his house during Eden Village's grand opening on Aug. 28.

Soon after, Nancy Lawrence will be given the key to the tiny turquoise home just across the way from Yarberry's.

Lawrence, 68, is deaf and has been sleeping in her car for four years.

By the end of 2018, there will be 31 formerly-homeless people living in the tiny houses at Eden Village. They will have access to case managers, mental health and medical providers and activities.

Co-founder Linda Brown gets emotional when talking about how quickly Eden Village seemed to come together and the grand opening next week.

"We've journeyed through this far and now we are going to experience a new journey by moving these people in," Brown said. "I'm so excited I can't hardly stand it. I know I will have to have a lot of Kleenex."

Yarberry has been warned there will be a lot of people at the grand opening, cheering for him, crying for him and probably some taking his picture.

"This is good for me," Yarberry said, shrugging. "I'm kind of bashful."

Yarberry sleeps in a tent not far from Eden Village. He has been homeless for three years.

Around 8 a.m. on most mornings, Yarberry pushes his bike out of the woods and then pedals to Eden Village, where he's surrounded by people who care about him.

Longtime homeless advocate Cherie Roderick has been friends with Yarberry for a few years. She was recently given the title of program coordinator at Eden Village.

Watching Yarberry toil away at the landscaping near his future home, Roderick grinned.

"He is so loving and generous. He is the one that helps everyone else," Roderick said. "I have to preach at him to start taking care of Tommy, because he would rather help someone else than help himself."

Roderick said when she and Linda Brown sat Yarberry down two weeks ago and told him that he was selected to receive the first house, he hung his head and cried.

"It wasn't just tears. It was a cry, like a sob from the weight that he carries on his shoulders every day actually lifting," Roderick recalled with tears in her own eyes. "It was like a sigh of relief that the journey he was on is ending and he was starting on his new journey, housed permanently."

The growth of Eden Village

During the Eden Village grand opening at 11 a.m. Aug. 28, Yarberry will be given the key to the red Huntsman House located near the community center.

Purchased by Judy Huntsman and her team at Coldwell Banker Vanguard back in 2016, the Huntsman House was the first tiny home to arrive and served as a model while the property was prepared, concrete pads poured and other homes set up.

Since the project kicked off, 29 homes have been sponsored by families, businesses, and banks. Even the children and teens from the Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau raised money to buy a house at Eden Village.

Fourteen homes have already been moved to the site. There will soon be 31.

Manufactured in Athens, Texas, the homes span about 400 square feet and cost $30,000, with one bedroom, one bathroom and a kitchen.

Since the property is already zoned for manufactured homes, founders Linda and David Brown did not have to bother with a zoning battle.

Sun Solar donated enough panels to make Eden Village almost entirely sustainable. The Venues church donated a storm shelter. And nearly all of the work that has been done — from building the fence to painting the community center — has been done by volunteers.

"The outpouring of support has been unbelievable," Linda Brown said. "We couldn't do what we've done now without the support of the community."

Eden Village will specifically house individuals who qualify as "chronically disabled homeless" by standards of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Residents, many of whom are on disability, will pay their own rent at $300 a month.

There is no deposit and utilities are included. The actual cost to house someone at Eden Village including all the amenities and services offered is about $550 a month, said COO Nate Schlueter, so the nonprofit will continue to seek donations and grants.

In Yarberry's case, he is able to work and pay his own rent. He recently lost a full-time factory job, but continues to find odd jobs through a temp service.

Schlueter said there is no pressure on Yarberry to get a full-time job at this time — Yarberry is welcome to hang out and move rocks around until move-in day.

As soon as Yarberry has an address, is able to shower and wash his clothes, he'll have no trouble finding work, Schluter said.

"He's already paid his first month's rent. He is good to go," Schlueter said.

Schlueter said there are more than 60 applicants right now.

"We feel like that definitely justifies a need for us to go ahead — as soon as we can get debt free at Eden Village — and build a second park in Springfield," he said.

The task of going through the applications and determining who most fits the criteria falls on Schlueter, who was involved in a similar housing project called Community First in Austin, Texas.

Meet Nancy

As soon as the electricity is hooked up, Nancy Lawrence will move into the Sunrise Cottage. The Sunshine Cottage was purchased and decorated by the folks at Great Southern Bank.

Lawrence, the woman who is deaf and has been sleeping in her car, spoke to the News-Leader last week by passing a notebook back and forth and then later with a sign language interpreter.

She said she's been sleeping in her 1998 Buick for the past four years. Her husband, who is also deaf, was homeless with her for the first two years but was put in a nursing home in 2016.

Lawrence visits him every weekday. He used to worry that she would be hurt or murdered while alone in the vehicle, she said.

Once she learned she was getting a house at Eden Village, her son has allowed her to stay with him.

"I miss having a home and a safe place," she said. "I am excited about watching TV and using the video phone. I'm really excited about the video phone. I hope I can get that."

Lawrence went on to explain that with a video phone, she can have conversations with her other deaf friends all over the country. She used to have one, but lost it when she became homeless. That's not all she lost.

"I don't have a Bible. I lost my Bible," she said. "I need to get one."

She is looking forward to having a kitchen again and cooking. It's been four years since she's made cinnamon rolls, she said.

Asked if it was scary to sleep in a car, Lawrence said it was after her husband was put in the nursing home and she was alone.

"I would use blankets. I would cover up my whole body and try and hide," she said, adding that she'd park just about anywhere in Springfield, but felt safest in Walmart parking lots.

She said she's felt lucky to have had a working vehicle these past four years.

"It's warm during winter," she wrote in one message in a reporter's notebook.

Lawrence said she and her husband became homeless after being evicted from the house where they had lived for 16 years.

She said she and her husband are still very much in love, even after 28 years of marriage and now being unable to live together. He is 82, diabetic and has suffered strokes.

She smiles when asked about their early days. They met at a Missouri School for the Deaf Homecoming football game.

He courted her for four years, driving from Kansas City to Springfield every week with candy and red roses for Lawrence.

"He asked me many times. He's like, 'When are you going to marry me? When are you going to marry me?'" she signed, laughing at the memory. "So I let him marry me."

Roderick noticed the reporter and Lawrence looking around the outside of the tiny turquoise house and offered to unlock the door.

Inside, Lawrence's eyes lit up as she showed the reporter around. She seemed thrilled with the decor, paid for and picked out by Great Southern Bank employees.

"Queen, queen, queen," Lawrence repeated, stretching her arms out as though she were going to hug the bed.

She opened the kitchen cabinets and marveled. Her kitchen is stocked and ready to use. The pantry, too, was filled with almost anything she'll need to kick-start her new life.

The pillows sitting on the front porch chair say "Home Sweet Home." A knick knack sitting on a table in the living room says "Welcome Home."

"Thank them," Lawrence said of the people at Great Southern Bank. "May God bless them."

Meet Tommy

After years of sleeping in tents, homeless shelters and in abandoned buildings, Tommy Yarberry is most excited about the little things.

"I'm looking forward to locking the door. I want to be able to do that again," he said during a break from his landscaping projects. "I want to be able to get in the refrigerator. I miss that — having a way to keep food cold."

He also likes the idea of being in a gated community, where residents can come and go as they please but visitors must check in.

"I'm looking forward to someone else being able to tell people no instead of me having to tell them," Yarberry said. "They'll tell them no, where I can't. They are going to fix that problem for me."

Schlueter nodded.

"It's at our discretion," Schlueter explained. "If you look like a drug dealer, we are going to ask that you give us your fingerprints, come back in 20 minutes and we will let you know if you can come in."

"He is looking forward to people not taking advantage of him," Schlueter said, smiling at Yarberry. "He gets consistent paychecks usually so people ask him for things. And he wants to help everybody and then he ends up without any money."

Yarberry said that until recently, he worked 12-hour shifts at a factory where he watched a conveyor belt and made sure all the boxes were straight.

But one night, after several hours on the job, Yarberry said he felt hypnotized from staring at the conveyor belt and dozed off for a second.

"I guess one of the higher-ups seen me," he said. "They fired me."

"Especially when you are homeless, it's hard to do 12-hour shifts," Yarberry said. "You are tired. You can't eat. You ain't got a place to really shower down there in the woods."

Yarberry, a Willard native, said he'd like to find a job in the heating and air-conditioning industry. He has years experience in the field, he said, but always managed to mess things up due to drinking and drugs.

He said he "burned out" on that lifestyle years ago and is hopeful he will find full-time work once he is settled.

Roderick said she has no doubt things are going to improve for Yarberry as soon as he moves in.

"I know this is just the beginning for Tommy," she said, eyes starting to water again. "No more living in a tent. No more wearing dirty clothes because he can't find a place to wash your clothes, no place to take a shower.

"There are just so many hurdles that are in front of them. They want to do good. They want to work, but they can't because things keeps getting in their way. Things that we take for granted like showers and sleeping."

More about Eden Village

Eden Village is a project of The Gathering Tree, a nonprofit organization that operates an evening drop-in center for homeless people.

The Gathering Tree purchased the 4.5-acre tract of land at 2801 E. Division St. in 2016. It was already zoned for manufactured homes.

According to Linda Brown, the final cost of Eden Village is going to be around $3 million.

The city of Springfield is providing more than $300,000 in federal grant money to Eden Village. It's part of $4 million in grants the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is requiring the city to spend on community projects by March 31.

The money is in the form of a loan, which does not need to be paid back unless the property is sold.

The HUD money helped with infrastructure improvements, such as constructing a road, a parking lot, and installing a main water line.

Eden Village also received the 2017 Federal Home Loan Bank Des Moines Competitive Affordable Housing Grant for $750,000. That grant was sponsored and distributed by Central Bank of the Ozarks.

Eden Village will specifically house individuals who qualify as "chronically disabled homeless" by standards of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Residents, many of whom are on disability, will pay their own rent at $300 a month.

There is no deposit and utilities are included.

At the heart of Eden Village is the community building. The 4,000 square-foot building anchors the community and will provide residents with a large communal kitchen, a food pantry and laundry facilities. It will also have office space for caseworkers and medical professionals.

In the center, residents can attend NA or AA meetings, play bingo, watch movies, have community dinners and just hang out in a safe environment.

There will be a vegetable garden and a butterfly garden, stocked full of colorful flowers to feed the pollinators.

A memorial garden will provide people a place to rest after they pass away. A granite columbarium will be constructed to house up to 48 cremated remains.

There is a bus stop across the street and a grocery store a few blocks away. If they don't have a vehicle, residents can use a wagon to carry their groceries home.

Because it is located next to Shady Dell Early Childhood Center, sex offenders will not be allowed to live at Eden Village or be on the property.

The property was a former trailer park that had been in disrepair for some time.

Last fall, the preschoolers from Shady Dell helped plant flowers at Eden Village.

"We are just glad to see it cleaned up," Shady Dell principal Anitera Jackson said that day. "It was an eyesore especially for our kids on the playground. Seeing those (old trailers) wasn't pretty."

Want to go?

Eden Village Grand Opening is 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 28 at 2801 E. Division St., Springfield.