AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta opened its first tiny-home village for young adults leaving foster care on Wednesday, as a local nonprofit cut the ribbon on a Merry Street campus paid for entirely by donors.
Twenty-five cottages are ready. Co-founder Jackson Drumgoole said about 60 youths are already waiting for a unit and that the first residents should move in within roughly two weeks.
Ground broke on Merry Street in March 2025. Wednesday’s ceremony drew city leaders and supporters who walked the finished homes before the keys start turning over.
Mayor Garnett L. Johnson told future residents the micro-campus sits inside a larger Augusta community ready to encourage and support them beyond the gate. Johnson leads the consolidated Augusta-Richmond County government as mayor.
The nonprofit’s program materials describe the Augusta village as housing paired with schooling options, trade certificates, counseling on campus, job coaching and structured supports for ages 18 to 25 who leave foster care.
Wednesday’s briefing matched that menu: life-skills coaching, mental-health counseling, workforce pathways and education help as residents work toward independence. Drumgoole said the group hopes to grow the model after the first cohort settles in.
Georgia emancipates many foster youths at 18 with thin family safety nets, a gap the Merry Street project is built to close one cottage at a time. Organizers framed the village as a long-awaited answer for CSRA young adults who age out without a permanent address, and they already plan to look at expansion once the first wave of residents is stable.
