Hurricane Milton was characterized by historic tornadoes that destroyed around 125 homes in Florida in October.
Now, tiny houses are popping up where destruction once landed, and the homes are being filled with families who lost their livelihoods from the hurricane. Behind the life-changing initiative is a group of teenagers.
Project Lift is a nonprofit that works with youth aged 14 to 25 on their mental health and teaches them how to work with their hands, according to West Palm Beach Florida News. The organization has only been around for a year-and-a-half, but it is making gigantic strides.
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Move somewhere else 🌎 "We thought we were just going to do, you know, some scholarships and some fun events, but it turned into a pretty major effort," Casey Cass, president of Casco Tools and CEO of the nonprofit "Save our Salerno," told West Palm Beach Florida News.
The nonprofit's goal with the tiny homes is to get families who need them moved in while their homes are being rebuilt. As long as funding is still coming in, the nonprofit is still at work.
Tiny homes are a great solution for long- or short-term living. Surprisingly spacious despite the name, they offer extremely low costs for utility bills. They also demand less waste within the home, a concept that goes against overconsumption tendencies within the U.S. and other countries.
"A smaller living space means you use fewer resources, produce less waste, and consume less energy," writes United Tiny Homes. "Since tiny homes are often built with environmentally friendly materials and use sustainable building practices, they are a more eco-friendly housing option."
All these benefits are small in comparison to the mental health of the teens working on the project. They utilize sustainable sources, and working with their hands has drastically improved their mental health.
"To fundamentally get a person to change, they have to understand that they're not takers, but they're givers," CEO of Project Lift, Robert Zaccheo, told West Palm Beach Florida News. "Those kids that worked on this building, they just gave more than the typical person would ever give in their entire life by actually working on the house that was given to a family."
While only two homes exist in the neighborhood now, many more will begin to sprout in the coming year, all built with sustainability and community improvement in mind.
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