Montgomery Nonprofit Transforms Shipping Containers Into Veteran’s Homes

MONTGOMERY, TX -- A local non-profit organization is changing the lives of homeless veterans by using old shipping containers to create homes, that will one day spawn a veteran-owned community in Montgomery County.

Mark Cook, co-founder of Green Zone Housing, said repurposing the containers into living quarters makes a lot of sense. (Sign up for Patch’s daily newsletter for your neighborhood.)

In fact, Cook, who worked in overseas oil fields for several years, slept in a few of these and knows the durability of these containers first-hand.

“They can withstand winds. They're water-tight. They're economical. And they're everywhere,” Cook told the Houston Chronicle.

The containers are a common sight along the Houston Ship Channel where cargo ships from around the world, stop after passing through the Panama Canal.

The mission of Green Zone Housing is to provide a refuge community for homeless and at-risk veterans and ensure they can thrive by acting as their own support system for their fellow veterans.

According to an Associated Press report, the Houston area has one of the largest homeless veteran populations in the U.S., with nearly 80,000 in the city alone.

The first home was built from a 40-foot rusted old container that had previously been used as a fireworks stand.

The first Green Zone Home on display in Montgomery County (Image: Green Zone Housing)

The first home was unveiled on Veteran’s Day 2016 in Magnolia, and has been used as an exhibit Jim’s Hardware in Montgomery, to show residents in the area that there is value in repurposing these containers to provide a real home to those who served our country, and somehow ended up on the streets.

Since the unveiling last year, Green Zone Housing has been working to help create this unique community in Montgomery.

Each of the homes cost about $20,000 to build, a bargain compared with the cost of building a new home, and include a bathroom, sleeping area, appliances, kitchen and

However, the container homes, are also much smaller than an average home, often less than 1,000 square feet in some cases.

The program works much like Habitat For Humanity, being that the recipient of the home is required to help build their home, paying in sweat equity, according to their web site.

The participating veterans will be exposed to new skills related to building their own home, such as welding, carpentry, plumbing and electrical work.

Michael Bradford, the lead builder for Green Zone Housing, spent 20 years as an underwater welder in the U.S. Navy and has experience building living quarters out of shipping containers.

“You have the basic frame already built for you. You have the structure, it's there,” Bradford told KPRC. “So all we're doing is we cut out the space for the windows and doors … but once that's complete the interior build is very quick.”

The first home is currently being built by and for U.S. Army veteran William Franks, who will live on a pad site at Camp Hope in Houston once it’s completed in the next two weeks.

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Overall, the entire process takes about six weekends to complete.

Once their veteran’s own home is completed, the veteran homeowner helps the new veteran to build the next home, with the process continuing until the Green Zone Community is completed.

However, the non-profit, which is really still in its infancy, is looking to acquire at much as 15 acres of land that will become the Green Zone Community, whose focus will be to help other veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The goal is to have an office on the property to administer the non-profit as well as facilities for veterans such as a chapel, gymnasium and space for those vets who want to live there in the community.

To learn more and/or support this program, visit www.GreenZoneHousing.com

Image:Joycelyn Kinghorn via Flickr

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