OM Villages

Our villages are run by the formerly homeless residents that now live in the villages.  They work cooperatively to govern and operate the villages.

304 N 3rd Street

Our original village, purchased in May 2014, with a ribbon cutting on November 6, 2014.  Since creating the village we have been able to add a kitchen and community room, greenhouse and we currently have 8 residents in 2023.

This location has our woodshop, a store, a greenhouse for our spring plant sale and raised bed gardens with produce to share with the neighborhood.  The woodshop, greenhouse and store make enough money to pay for annual operating costs for the village.

In 2023 we need to complete the road in the back yard, plant more perennials, cut down a tree to make room for the 9th and final house which we will build at our newest location on S. Stoughton Rd.  We are also adding solar in 2023 to help reduce costs.

This village will be essentially completed with the 9th house unless we decide to build on to the west side of the building to have indoor storage for our woodshop.

1901 Aberg Avenue

This village was built in the first year of the pandemic.  We purchased Wiggie’s Tavern in October 2020 and with the help of over 400 volunteers we built 36 conestoga huts that allowed people to start moving in by Thanksgiving 2020. Renovations to the building include shower rooms, laundry room and a residential kitchen.  With temporary zoning from the city we were able to move in 28 people by the end of January 2021.

In 2022 we started transforming the asphalt to greenspace by adding timbers, gravel and dirt as well as started moving the conestoga huts to the locations that the permanent wooden houses will be.  This will reduce the number of people living at the village from 28 to 22.

In 2023 we will finish landscaping and moving the conestoga huts, install solar as well as begin moving the larger wooden houses to site once they are constructed.

By 2024 we hope to have a food/drink/ice cream cart that can serve as a way to create revenue to pay for the operating costs of the village.

205 S. Stoughton Road

We purchased our latest property on December 28, 2022.  Our plans for this building and about one acre piece of property are still being developed.  Initially we will be using the property to build our larger wooden houses.  As the larger houses get built, we will be moving the conestoga huts to this property.

If we get zoning approval, we will begin allowing people to move into the conestoga huts at our new property once we add showers, laundry, kitchen and other living amenities to the building.