Build private sleeping spaces inside.
Keep the facility open around the clock.
Reduce unnecessary barriers.
Let people bring their pets.
Give residents privacy.
Put case managers and services nearby.
Help people address mental health, addiction, medical, employment and financial challenges.
And keep working toward permanent housing.
But simple ideas can challenge long-held assumptions.
Avivo Village asks communities to reconsider what emergency shelter should look like.
Perhaps shelter does not always have to mean dozens of beds in one room.
Perhaps privacy should not be considered a luxury reserved for people who already have housing.
Perhaps people struggling with addiction should not have to become healthy before they are allowed somewhere safe to sleep.
Perhaps the person who repeatedly refuses a traditional shelter is not refusing help itself.
They may be refusing a form of help that does not work for their circumstances.
That is what makes Avivo Village noteworthy.
It is not a miracle cure for homelessness.
It is not permanent housing.
And it cannot serve everyone who needs assistance.
But the results show that it has reached people who had previously remained outside.
Through July 2026, 873 people had passed through its doors.
Three hundred thirty-nine had moved on to safe, permanent housing.
Hundreds more had received shelter, case management, health services or other forms of support.
And hundreds of potentially fatal overdoses had been reversed.
Behind each statistic is an individual story — someone who once slept in a tent, vehicle, encampment or another unsafe place and was offered a different option.
For some, the first step toward rebuilding their life was not an apartment.
It was something much smaller.
A bed.
A little room.
A door that locked.
A warm place during a Minnesota winter.
And people nearby willing to help them figure out what came next.
That is ultimately what Avivo Village represents.
Not 100 tiny homes as an endpoint, but 100 opportunities to begin again.
Sources
Avivo — Avivo Village: Official program information and updated impact statistics through July 2026, including 873 individuals served, 339 transitions to safe permanent housing, 261 overdose reversals, services offered, Housing First/harm-reduction model and funding information.
Avivo — “Avivo Village reaches significant milestone: 300 people housed in permanent housing”: Official June 2025 announcement documenting the Village's 300th transition into permanent housing, its wraparound services and its development as a two-year pilot beginning in 2020.
Hennepin County: County reporting on pandemic-era shelter reforms states that Avivo Village and Homeward Bound were housing-focused from their beginnings and employed housing case managers; the county described their housing outcomes favorably within its single-adult shelter system.
City of Minneapolis: City documentation describes the indoor-village model as 100 tiny shelters within a warehouse, designed to provide individual living space and connections to wraparound services and permanent housing. City records also document public investment in the program.
MPR News — “Avivo Village shines as solution for unsheltered homelessness in Minneapolis”: Reporting on the project's origins, resident experiences, private units, low-barrier approach, input from people living in encampments and its role within Minneapolis' wider homelessness response.
MPR News — “Resident of tiny home village welcomes safety, security, stability of Avivo”: Reporting on resident Jessica Eull, privacy and security inside the individual rooms, services, operating costs and efforts to explore a second Village.
Minnesota Star Tribune — “‘Tiny house’ indoor village for the homeless opens March 8 in Minneapolis”: Contemporary reporting from the project's launch detailing its warehouse conversion, private rooms, public financing, shared facilities and on-site mental- and chemical-health support.