They decide when to wake up.
For someone living outside, many of those ordinary choices disappear.
Avivo Village cannot recreate every aspect of having a permanent home. Its rooms are small, bathrooms and other facilities are shared, and residents ultimately need somewhere permanent to live.
Yet the private-room model restores a measure of control.
That can matter enormously for people who have experienced trauma.
The model also acknowledges a basic reality: human beings generally function better when they feel safe enough to sleep.
Avivo reported in a 2021 program update that many new residents spent their first days sleeping extensively after arriving, reflecting what the organization described as chronic sleep deprivation among people who had been living outside.
Only after that initial period of rest and stabilization could staff begin building relationships and working through health, housing and other needs.
That sequence is revealing.
Before expecting someone to rebuild a life, it may be necessary to give them somewhere safe enough to rest.
A Model That Others Have Watched
As Avivo Village began producing results, interest in the concept spread.
Local officials discussed developing another location in south Minneapolis. MPR News reported in 2023 that the Minneapolis City Council had set aside $1 million toward planning and development work for another possible indoor tiny-home village.
The City of Minneapolis has described the model as one designed to create a safe, secure and service-rich environment while connecting residents to permanent housing.
The concept has also influenced discussions outside Minneapolis.
In 2024, officials in St. Cloud considered a shelter modeled partly after Avivo Village, demonstrating how the North Loop experiment had become a reference point for other Minnesota communities searching for alternatives to traditional congregate shelter.
The project has received recognition from design and urban-development organizations as well.
But replication requires caution.
Avivo Village is not simply 100 small boxes placed inside a warehouse.
The physical structures are only one component.
Its staffing, security, case management, health services, harm-reduction practices, public funding and relationships with outreach teams are essential parts of the model.
Building tiny rooms without those systems would not produce the same program.
The architecture creates privacy.
The services create a pathway forward.
Both matter.
Not a Complete Solution to Homelessness
It is also important not to romanticize the project.
Avivo Village has 100 spaces.
The demand for shelter and affordable housing is larger.
People continue to experience homelessness in Minneapolis and throughout Minnesota. Encampments have repeatedly appeared, disappeared and relocated. Affordable housing shortages remain a significant challenge.
Even Avivo's leaders have acknowledged that their capacity cannot meet the entire need.
And no emergency or transitional shelter — regardless of how innovative — can substitute for an adequate supply of permanent affordable housing.
That distinction matters.
A community could build excellent shelters and still fail to end homelessness if residents have nowhere affordable to go afterward.
The ultimate measure of success is therefore not how many tiny homes can fit inside a warehouse.
It is how many people can eventually leave those tiny homes because they have obtained safe, stable housing.
Avivo Village is best understood as one piece of that larger system.
It provides a doorway.
Permanent housing must exist on the other side.
From a Warehouse to a Place of Possibility
The original idea behind Avivo Village sounds almost surprisingly simple.
Take a warehouse.