The North Collin County Habitat for Humanity is embarking on a project that hasn't been done before. The project comes just as the program celebrates its 25-year history in the community. Plans call for a 35-unit storage container community in east McKinney.
"They said, how can we maximize this piece of property to the highest and best use to serve the most families?" President Celeste Haiduk-Cox recalled in conversations with Habitat's planners.
It is a new concept for Habitats country-wide. J.D. Lee with JDL Group, which is an advisory group that works with all development stakeholders, says the community is meant to provide affordable and sustainable housing.
"You can create some really unique housing. We just don't wanna get people in houses. We want people to call that house a home eventually," Lee said.
Storage containers for homes is not a new concept, but it is not exactly an old concept either. Lee says at the ratio of the U.S. imports to exports, the number of storage containers available is astounding.
"We're not sending product back as fast as we're getting product in," he said.
Some families have already expressed interest in the homes, and ground-breaking isn't scheduled until early next year.
"The cool thing is they can be put together very quickly," said Haiduk-Cox.
The biggest need now is for materials and for volunteers to donate services toward the project. For inquiries about how to help or how to apply for a habitat home, click here to visit the following website.