Building hope: RAV works to bring tiny homes for homeless Veterans to Fayetteville

By Eddie Velazquez, posted Jun 12, 2026 on BizFayetteville.com

The planned development will feature five tiny homes, a community and services hub, ample green space and outdoor gathering areas. Image provided by RAV.

Redeploying American Veterans (RAV) is aiming to solve one of the most pressing issues facing Veterans in America: homelessness.

To do so, Shawn Batien, the executive director of RAV, and his partners are proposing raising a village around vulnerable Veterans. Batien and his partners don’t just mean that metaphorically; they plan to build a village of tiny homes in Fayetteville to house former U.S. Military members and provide them with stability.

“The goal is to be able to provide wraparound services for homeless Veterans, starting off in the Fort Bragg-Fayetteville area,” Batien said. “There are people who come from different walks of life, who have different background stories; some are better off than others. And we want to have someone who’s capable of handling that transition, and get them into a tiny home.”

The village of tiny homes would include a community center and other services that can help Veterans achieve self-sufficiency.

“We provide the opportunity via a home, and then to get individuals fiscally trained, educated and into a livable wage,” Batien said. “That term is important for us, so that we get an individual into a position where they can not just live paycheck to paycheck, but they’re able to accumulate some wealth, and that they’re able to get a savings program, and then eventually segue into a home that they can call their own.”

RAV is currently in negotiations with a donor who is willing to contribute land to the organization, just shy of an acre, according to Batien. He added that, according to city laws, that parcel will accommodate at least five tiny homes.

Batien said he expects a resolution to those negotiations to come around mid-June. “

Then after that is getting the construction and the surveying and all that stuff done, so my hope, my aspirations right now are to have a community that’s been up and running with tangible results by 2030,” he noted.

To build the homes, RAV expects to get some help from community partners. The organization has had some exploratory conversations with Fayetteville Technical Community College to collaborate with the college’s engineering program for services.

“Whether that’s leveraging their engineering program via material building, but trying to get FTCC involved in the community in a way that’s meaningful through their engineering program,” Batien said. “We’ve also had a couple of conversations with some other Fortune 50 companies, and then also involved in the Home Builders Association of Fayetteville, specifically, so being able to leverage the community college and hopefully leveraging the network that is the Home Builders Association to help provide some services or support, or at least alleviate some of the pressures.”

Wraparound services entail connecting Veterans with the local U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs branch for assessments of their physical and mental health.

“And then get them into some financial education classes to get them smart on today’s economy,” Batien noted.

From there, through RAV’s partnerships, Veterans can be connected with a potential job or an education program that can pipeline them into a role they may have the requisite skills or passion for.

“And just getting into that position, back on their feet for about a year, and then back out into their first home in a long time,” Batien said. “Wraparound is mental, physical health, financial responsibility and education, getting someone pipelined into a position where they have a livable wage.”

Batien said some city and county officials are on board with the organization’s mission; now RAV’s objectives are to convince officials to do more.

“Anybody that’s on record is going to go ahead and agree that providing services and support for Veterans is a great cause, and it is right,” Batien said. “People want to see land and movement to make sure that their investment is worthwhile, but we also need the investment in order to move forward, so it’s just a bit of a being in the middle.”

To learn more about RAV, visit their website at ravusa.org.

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