This April, about 300 Montana FFA students worked together to build a tiny house out of a shipping container at the state FFA convention in Billings. Now, Big Sky High School agriculture teacher and FFA adviser Tom Andres has his eyes on the next step: a full program where shop classes build tiny homes for affordable housing.
At the convention, students worked long shifts to complete the house within five days, doing everything from wiring to plumbing. On Oct. 16, the tiny house sat perched in the Missoula Public Schools agricultural center for a visit by Gov. Greg Gianforte, who came to highlight the work done by the students.
“We wanted it to be perfect for whoever’s in there,” Spencer Hielle, a senior at Frenchtown High School, said.
For about three years, Andres has been working on this program. It goes like this: A shipping container full of all the supplies to turn it into a home gets dropped off behind a school shop, the kids build it over a semester, and then it gets sold to a buyer to provide affordable housing. The construction process gives kids hands-on experience in the trades, such as plumbing and wiring, and the free student labor takes the ticket price down to the cost of materials, about $25,000. But schools don’t have that amount of money lying around, Andres said — so the houses need to be funded up front. He’s looking for a partner who’ll buy the units before they’re built.
“Everything was built by the students,” Andres said. “It was designed with a kid in mind to be able to do it.”
