Shipping Containers From Makeshift Border Wall Being Converted Into Homes

An Arizona non-profit is taking large shipping containers officials had used to prevent migrants from crossing the Mexican border, and turning them into tiny homes for people aging out of the foster care system.

Based in Tucson, the company's called Wholistic Transformation, and is a faith-based organization that's transforming the thousands of white shipping containers — previously stacked at the border by the state's previous governor, forming a makeshift border wall — into livable spaces.

Bryan Benz, the founder and CEO of Wholistic Transformation, intends to create a community of seven tiny homes on two adjoining lots.

Each one-bedroom tiny house will feature a full kitchen as well as a bathroom and a washer and dryer. Their future occupants will have a say-so in the interior design of each shipping container.

A federal court recently ruled the wall of shipping containers, placed along the state's 370-mile border with Mexico last summer, was illegally built, and needed to be removed. Those thousands of shipping containers are now being made available to non-profit organizations for use. If any are still available by October, the state may sell them at public auction.

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, about 20,000 youth exit the American foster care system every year, after reaching the age of 18. These teens are usually left to their own devices, with not much guidance, and cut off from needed government services. The foundation notes that half of the homeless population in the U.S. spent some time in the foster care system.

Benz told USA Today the community, which will be located next to a church in Phoenix, will come complete with a "resident justice navigator," someone who'll be paid to analyze police data and work with local law enforcement to make more equitable changes to policing.

Benz is raising money to fund the project, which has no definite timeline. The entire community will take between $400,000 to $450,000 to create. The $800 rent expected from future occupants would pay for the community's ongoing expenses.

Benz told USA Today he hopes this project inspires similar communities in other cities with vulnerable populations who struggle with housing security, including veterans, the elderly, and parolees.