Honor Home at Patty’s Place nears blessing, veterans tiny house village advances

The grounds at Honor Home at Patty’s Place were blessed Friday at 413 E. Fifth St. in North Platte, marking another visible step for the veteran tiny home village just south of The Connection. Fr. Sorensen of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church led the blessing as the project moved from planning into full site preparation.

The village is being built to provide veterans experiencing homelessness with permanent housing and supportive services, according to The Connection homeless shelter. Ashley Lewis said the effort is meant to give veterans a place to rebuild, reconnect and find support, while showing what a community can do when it works with purpose.

The site itself carries local history. It sits on the former location of a house and a row of motel rooms, and the Honor Home name honors Patty Evans, who once operated the Cycle Sport business from the property. That shift from old roadside use to a permanent housing community gives the project a strong sense of place as it takes shape block by block.

Crews were finishing the third structure and preparing the ground for the first three foundations, along with the infrastructure needed to support the village. The project is planned as an eight-unit community and is part of The Connection’s three-phase housing development initiative, launched in 2020 and expanded in 2024 with Phase II, Honor Homes at Patty’s Place.

The Connection was founded in 1994 and now operates as a 65-bed shelter serving roughly 250 to 350 men, women and families each year. Its tiny-home village is meant to extend that mission into permanent supportive housing, giving veterans a shared community and a more stable path forward than emergency shelter alone.

Mid-Plains Community College in Ogallala has become a key partner in the build. Its Ready-to-Work: Building Construction Homes for Heroes program received a $20,000 Ratcliffe Foundation boost in November 2024, and the work is also supported by a Teaching Nebraska Trades grant from the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority. The first student-built structure was purchased by a board member and family, helping move the project ahead, and MPCC said that building was later repurposed as a laundry facility for the veteran community.

Local backing has continued to build as well. In January, the North Platte Downtown Association donated $1,787 to help cover utility lines and foundations. With the blessing complete and the ground work under way, Honor Home at Patty’s Place is now visibly moving toward the day veterans can move in.