Lipscomb students build ‘emergency home’ for displaced people in Tennessee

By Tosin Fakile

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WNEM) — Some engineering students at Lipscomb University are providing a different kind of housing option for people in need in Humphreys County.

The 12-foot by 7-foot structure tiny home was built by students last semester and faculty ni the Engineering Department said the micro-home will provide emergency housing to residents in Humphreys County, an area still recovering after floods in 2021.

“When we were looking at projects for our students to be involved in, the possibility of building a tiny home here that the students could use to support an area with local need was just a great project,” David Elrod, Dean of Lipscomb University College of Engineering, said.

The project took 16 students and almost 3-1/2 months to build.

“Every week we had separate roles to do, separate projects. Roofing, flooring, the deck you see on the floor,” Lipscomb student Corey Confer, who helped build the tiny home, said.

And students built the home, making sure it could work at all times for those who would need it.

“We built this one so it could run either connected to the grid, connected to the local power supply through a 110-volt line or 240-volt line,” Elrod said. “If power was not available, it is set up to have solar power in a stand-alone system.”

Confer was one of the students who helped build the micro-home, a project which he said when he started, he didn’t know it would make a major impact.

“It’s a lot to take in, honestly, that I get to be on a project of this scale not knowing all that to begin with when we started this project,” Confer said. “When we started back in August to where we are now and realizing it’s actually happening, it’s a great feeling.”

“It’s great for them to be able to see they can use their gifts, their talents to make that kind of difference,” Elrod said.

Elrod said they are hoping they can build more for the organization in Humphreys County to help people.

Building the tiny home was done during the weekly lab time for students and the project was part of the department’s Peugeot Center for Engineering Service in Developing Communities.

Faculty said both current students and graduated students helped make the tiny home happen. The lumber used in the project was donated by one of the graduates who owns a lumber company in Clarksville.

The home was loaded on the back of a truck on Friday and will be delivered to Second Chance Ministry in Humphreys County on Saturday morning.

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