For about three weeks, Torryn Gray has been spending his days learning the basics of homebuilding.
One of those days involved using a nail gun to attach the studs that will connect to the other walls. On another day, he helped build planter boxes for a garden. Soon, he’ll learn electrical skills.
On any given day, Gray and others can be found on the Wesley House lot constructing homes for victims of the May tornado. Like many other volunteers leading groups across the city, they’re coming together to help rebuild north St. Louis. The difference here is they’re teenagers.
“I see this as an important way we can help out people,” 15-year-old Gray said. “Giving them houses and a place to sleep, a roof over the head, some kind of form of shelter.”
They’re part of TinyHomeSTL, for which about 40 teenagers are rolling up their sleeves, putting their work gloves on and learning carpentry, roofing and electrical skills while building.
The group has an ambitious goal: 100 homes.
“Me and other carpenters, we can build 100 houses in a couple of weeks,” said TinyHomeSTL founder Erion Johnson. “We’re teaching the youth how to rebuild St. Louis because we want St. Louis to be rebuilt the same way or stronger. We don't have enough trades out here.”
And after weeks in the program, some teenagers said they’re already honing their skills.
“I learned how to use electricity,” 13-year-old Garrison Pounds said. “I already got the drift of it.”
They’ve built about 13 of the 10-by-12, 120-square-foot houses. They’re meant to be temporary and lack indoor plumbing. The group is adding electric wiring to the homes but needs a source of power — generators in the short term and maybe the electric grid later.
Johnson said the plan is to lease the houses for free for two years, and TinyHomeSTL will do maintenance on the houses every three months.
The program does two things simultaneously: helping people who lost their homes while teaching younger people valuable trades.
“The kids keep building these tiny scales of a home, when they get to that big scale of a home on a bigger jobsite, it'll make sense to them,” Johnson said.
The program has already put a battery in some of the kids’ backs.
“I’m here to help people, maybe make a business when I get older,” 16-year-old Taran Henderson said.
TinyHomeSTL has been building the homes for about five weeks, and that time hasn’t been without its challenges. Much of the seed money came out of Johnson’s pockets, but as the program continues, so does the need for more funding. He started a GoFundMe for the project with a $50,000 goal — so far they’ve raised just shy of $5,000.
They’ve also been slowed down by rainstorms and high temperatures. Johnson wanted to build the homes inside the Monarch Building on Martin Luther King Drive, a Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority-owned warehouse. A spokesperson for the St. Louis Development Corporation, which runs the LCRA, said the space isn’t permitted for people to build inside but is willing to help Johnson find another space.
Johnson has been trying to find a different space for the group to work. The volunteer-led group is an important program that gives displaced people a different option for a temporary home, said Johnson's representative on the Board of Aldermen, Shameem Clark Hubbard of the 10th Ward.
“For any individuals that don't want to go to the long-term shelter, don't want to go to the temporary shelter, don't want to go to even the hotel rooms that have been offered here, this is the opportunity for them that gives them more stability,” Hubbard said.
The tiny homes could also help people for years to come. Johnson aims to store the homes that aren’t in use somewhere and when another disaster strikes, there’ll be extra homes.
And the tiny houses have attracted a lot of attention across the state, including from members of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus.
“If Kansas City had this situation happen, we'll have houses stored here that we can put on the diesels and move them down the road,” said Missouri state Rep. Michael Johnson.
Johnson learned about the program through Rep. Yolonda Fountain Henderson. She said she appreciates that the teens participating will be able to take their new skills beyond the current project.
“I'm getting some work done on my shed at home,” Henderson said. “So I'm looking like, OK, maybe I can get these children in my house and finish my shed.”
For Gray, it’s all about taking matters in his own hands and doing what he can to help out his community.
“We have to come together and take charge,” Gray said. “By doing this, we can help out people in however many places by giving them somewhere to get away from the cold, the heat or just any kind of form of shelter.”
