Nonprofit Lady Veterans Connect seeks funding for tiny-home housing and services for women veterans

Addie ("Addie") Maddox, director of the nonprofit Lady Veterans Connect, described a volunteer-run program that provides transitional shelter and connection to benefits for women veterans and said the group’s eight-acre campus can house as many as 32 women at a time. "Our property sits on 8 acres, and we can house up to 32 women veterans who are in transition," Maddox said during a Kentucky Commission on Women livestream marking Kentucky Women Veterans Day.

Maddox said volunteers currently provide a roof and referrals but the nonprofit is not equipped to deliver clinical mental-health services or the steady funding needed to expand capacity. "With the small volunteer group that we have, we're not a mental health care place. We just provide a roof, a safe place to be, people who'll get you connected, to the resources and benefits," she said.

Maddox described a plan to build tiny homes as a phased project and called for state support to move it forward. Panelists and commissioners said state funding for KDVA's women veterans program and formal inclusion of women veterans on advisory boards would reduce reliance on unpaid volunteers and make services more reliable.

There was no formal appropriation or legislative vote during the livestream. Maddox said the organization will continue fundraising and volunteer recruitment while seeking partnerships with KDVA and policymakers to secure funding and clinical support.