High Point tiny home village honors homeless veterans, parish donors

A six-home tiny-home village in High Point was dedicated to homeless veterans on April 11, giving the project a clear purpose and a new name, the Bob and Michele Valliere Veterans Community. The build, which can serve Guilford County residents experiencing homelessness, is Tiny House Community Development Inc. founder Scott Jones’ third Triad development in the past 10 years, and the first he has devoted exclusively to veterans who need stable housing.

The village was named for Bob and Michele Valliere after the couple began working with Jones in 2024, following local coverage about the need in Guilford County. Valliere, a Vietnam veteran, saw the scale of the problem firsthand: county homelessness rose from 452 people in 2023 to 641 in 2024, and Jones said there are around 80 homeless veterans in the area, mostly single but with families in need too. For many neighbors, that is the sharpest measure of why this project mattered.

Each of the six homes carries the name of a military branch, and the homes were furnished with new donated furniture from Bob’s Discount Furniture. The naming ceremony marked a milestone for a project that had already taken years to assemble and had been through earlier versions that included more homes and a community center on Smith Street. Even with those shifts, the goal stayed the same: build small, dignified homes that could give veterans a real foothold back into stable life.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish played a major role in making that happen. Parish supporters raised $40,000, enough to sponsor the two-bedroom Coast Guard home, after initially setting a goal of $20,000 for a one-bedroom unit. A separate $10,000 gift from a retired Air Force colonel helped push the larger home into the project. Parish ministries also kept showing up in practical ways, serving blueberry pancakes on Tuesday mornings at Jones’ Greensboro community, helping build the High Point homes through IHM Habitat for Humanity, and supplying household items through the Christmas Giving Tree ministry.

What makes the High Point village stand out is not just the size of the build, but the mix of faith support, veteran advocacy and hands-on volunteer work behind it. After years of fundraising delays and changing plans, the ribbon-cutting gave the project a concrete finish line and turned a local housing need into six small homes with names, furnishings and a clear mission.