Students seem to have a ‘love it or hate it’ kind of relationship when it comes to large school projects, but for a couple of high school students in Kingwood, Houston, their school project actually has a major impact.
They were tasked to help out returned veterans and, armed with nails and hammers, and they did exactly that.
It’s hard to put an exact number on the number of homeless veterans in the United States, but ideally, this number shouldn’t exist at all.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development believes that there are roughly 40,000 homeless people who have to sleep on the streets, and it’s also estimated that another 1.4 million veterans are actually considered to be at risk of homelessness.
While there are a lot of veteran support groups all over the country, having a roof over your head is absolutely essential.
That’s also something that these students realized, so they immediately put the skills and knowledge that they acquired at school to good use.
The teens started building tiny homes for homeless veterans, and they recently finished their second one.
They measure at a little bit more than 209 square feet, but they’re extremely cozy homes and are equipped with all the essentials you could think of.
A normal-sized bed, comfortable kitchen, cabinets, table, chairs, it’s all there.
Tiny living has been a trend over the past few years, and it offers a bunch of advantages. They’re relatively inexpensive to build, and a fairly large team can handle one of these tiny homes rather quickly.
“I’ve been working on this house for two years,” C.J. Schoettlin said to 12NewsNow, who is an architecture and engineering student at Kingwood Park High School.
The student program gets in touch with veterans who are in need of help and housing, and these students are more than willing to help out.
Edward Rodriguez, a veteran, and former U.S. Marine returned home years ago, but he lost pretty much everything when he had a stroke.
“It totally upended my life,” Rodriguez told. “I lost my house, my job and found myself in need. I’d always been independent, a marine, the hero, do things by myself, and then I found myself humbled, so to speak.”
After he found the Students Helping Veterans project, his life changed forever.
He was actually the recipient of the very first tiny home that these students built, and he believes it has truly saved his life.
The students just finished building their second home and hope that they can continue this absolutely beautiful project for many more years to come.
When it was raining or freezing, the high school teens didn’t particularly enjoy constructing these tiny homes, which is a lot of work in the first place. However, knowing that their efforts would pay off and that the home would be given to someone who truly needed it and deserved it, that just made everything so worthwhile.
“At the end of the day we are just kids,” C.J. added. “ Trying to give back.”
As for the second house, a homeless veteran will be able to call this cozy tiny place ‘home’. It will be relocated to the Langetree Retreat and Ecocenter in Liberty County.
What an absolutely amazing and heartwarming student project!
Be sure to check out some footage of the proud students and their constructions in the video below.
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