The Tunnel to Towers Foundation held a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday for its new Memphis Veterans Village.
The organization purchased the shuttered hotel located on Riverdale Bend Road and officially began renovating the property to turn it into a housing and treatment facility for over 100 homeless veterans.
The shuttered hotel will be completely renovated with new flooring, furniture, fixtures, and appliances. Each veteran housed at the facility will have their own independent living space.
In addition to providing independent living spaces, the first floor of Veterans Village will offer on-site comprehensive support services for its housed veterans.
Support services for the veterans at Veterans Village will include job training, benefits assistance, education assistance, medical care access, mental health support and PTSD counseling, and addiction treatment, according to the organization.
The Memphis Veterans Village is expected to be fully operational next year.
Tunnel to Towers launched its Homeless Veteran Program in 2023 which has since provided housing assistance and services to more than 5,000 veterans.
The program’s goal is to “help homeless veterans reintegrate into their community, as well as provide veterans who are at-risk of becoming homeless with the support they need to not backslide into homelessness.”
Other assistance offered by the program for homeless veterans include temporary hotel accommodations, move-in assistance, basic needs assistance, transportation assistance, rental arrears assistance, mortgage arrears assistance, and utility deposit or arrears assistance.
The organization currently operates Veterans Village locations in Houston, Texas; Riverside, California; West Los Angeles, California; and Phoenix, Arizona.
In addition to the Memphis facility, the organization is also in the process of renovating and building additional facilities in Bradenton, Florida; Mableton, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; Charleston, South Carolina; Buffalo, New York; and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The Tunnels to Towers Foundation also honors American veterans by providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and by building specially-adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders.
Since its founding, the organization has raised over $500 million and delivered over 1,200 mortgage-free homes to the families of American veterans.
For more information regarding eligibility for the Memphis Veterans Village, visit https://t2t.org/homeless-veteran-program/#Eligibility.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Tunnel to Towers Groundbreaking Ceremony” by Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
