Skip to main content
College of Design 
Affordable Housing + Sustainable Communities

Micro Housing for Homeless and Disabled Veterans

October 16, 2018

Veteran homelessness is a state and national problem. The North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness has a particular focus on ending veteran homelessness in North Carolina. One contemporary solution to veteran homelessness is micro-house villages. Micro-houses are small, complete, single dwellings that range from 150 – 400 square feet. Micro-house villages are groupings of micro houses on a single property that allow residents to live independently while benefitting from supportive services.

The Micro Housing for Homeless + Disabled Veterans was a research and design project conducted by the School of Architecture, NC State University and sponsored by the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness. Faculty and graduate students produced research on veteran homelessness and support services, conducted research on precedents and best practices of micro-housing, micro-house villages, supportive housing, and manufactured housing, engaged with various constituencies, and designed prototypical micro-house villages for a range of sites in the Triangle area. The program for the project included housing units, a supportive services building, and associated landscape areas, and incorporated accessibility and other special needs of homeless and disabled veterans. National experts on micro-house villages and local affordable housing providers and advocates participated in the project.

Faculty

  • Thomas Barrie, AIA, Professor of Architecture
  • David Hill, AIA, Professor of Architecture, Chair: School of Architecture

Project Sponsor

Terry Allebaugh, North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness

Project Research Assistant

Alyssa Dohler, Masters of Architecture student

Visiting Critics

  • Davin Hong, Living Design Lab, Baltimore , MD
  • Omar Hakeem, Design Director: bcWorkshop, Dallas, TX

Advisory Committee

  • Sarah Desmarais, Associate Professor of Psychology, CHASS
  • Andy Fox, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
  • David Harris, Wake County Human Services Housing Division
  • Mary Haskett, Professor of Psychology, CHASS
  • David Maurer, Maurer Architecture
  • Lewis Sadler, Sadler Construction/Wake County Home Builders Association)
  • Jeff Smith, Military and Veterans Programs Liaison, NC Dept. of Health and Human Services
  • Abbie Szymanski, Executive Director, Partnership to End Homelessness

Students

Austin Corriher, Ross Davidson, Alyssa Dohler, Kal Fadem, Ryan Kilgarron, Katie O’Campo, Justin McNair, Elenor Methuen, Amelia Murphy, Scott Needham, Nicole Simeonsson

Awards

Watch the video here

Read the report here

Micro Housing for Homeless and Disabled Veterans

Research

Selected Projects

Images