A tiny homes village, where rent is under $300 per month, is being developed to help people experiencing mental illness

Three of the tiny homes in the village.

Courtesy of Alaina Money-Garman

• A tiny-home village in North Carolina is being built for people recovering from mental illness. 
• There are 15 homes, and a farm on the property with therapy animals and counselors.
• The homes cost between $50,000 and $60,000 to build. Rent will be about $250 to $300 per month. 

Tiny homes could be life-changing for some people struggling with mental illnesses in North Carolina — thanks to a new development that will be completed later this month.

Fifteen homes are being built at the Farm at Penny Lane, a 40-acre therapeutic farm in Pittsboro, North Carolina, located about 30 minutes southwest of Chapel Hill. The village will offer those that move into these homes — all of whom struggle with severe mental illnesses — with access to affordable housing, mental health services, and counseling.

Mental health and housing go hand-in-hand, according to various studies. Housing insecurity exacerbates extreme mental-health issues, and some 21% of those experiencing homelessness have severe mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

"A lot of the challenges that our clients are facing is that they don't even have a basic place to lay their head and even think about solving their problems," Thava Mahadevan, who help found the the Farm at Penny Lane in 2009, told Insider.

In addition to stable housing, there is a self-sustaining farm in the heart of the village, providing access to healthy food, as well as animals like chickens and bunnies.

Community amenities that foster interactions like beehives, a learning center, and a walking trail all serve as alternative therapy for those with mental-health struggles, according to the University of North Carolina.

"We are really looking at social determinants of health. Things like affordable and safe housing, healthy eating, meaningful relationships," Mahadevan said.

The concept is a collaboration between XDS, Inc., a nonprofit Mahadevan founded, and the University of North Carolina.

They will sift through 2,000 prospective residents from UNC's Center for Excellent in Community Health to select 15 people who will move in this November, Spectrum Local News 1 reported.

The tiny-home lots from above.

Courtesy of Alaina Money-Garman

Most of the prospective applicants have a "severe and persistent mental illness," Mahadevan said, including major depressive disorder, substance abuse disorders, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Most are part of a supplemental income program, and receive $750 in income each month, he said.

Residents will pay a third of their income towards rent, which comes out to around $250 to $300 per month, Mahadevan said, and they can renew their year-lease for as long as they want. For context, the average rent in Pittsboro is over $1,500, according to RentCafe.

"It's an example of how we can move towards affordable housing in a more creative way," Alaina Money-Garman, CEO of Garman Homes, which led the construction of the homes, told Insider.

The homes were designed to promote mental and physical health

Each of the 416-square-foot homes cost between $50,000 and $60,000 to build, Money-Garman said.

The one-bedroom units include open shelving in the bedroom and transom windows — narrow horizontal windows located towards the ceiling. These windows allow light to flow throughout the house, while also providing privacy.

Garman Homes positioned the homes so that many of them are perpendicular to one another — not lined up in a straight row.

"The research shows that people with serious mental illness can have episodes outside that could then unintentionally trigger someone else on their front porch," Money-Garman said.

It gives those living there, "the power to opt in and out of the community," she added.

A blueprint for future affordable housing developments

Ultimately, Money-Garman hopes the program goes to show that building affordable housing for those in the most need is possible.

"Affordable housing is not going to happen unless we all step in and be ready to donate our time or talent or treasure, or all three," she said. "So we really want to use this project as an example to learn from and to hopefully inspire people to repeat it in their own towns and municipalities."

"The goal is to be able to scale this pretty quickly in other places," Mahadevan said, to "figure out how it can be done all across North Carolina and beyond."

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