Nathan Maher stands in front of a house he’s helping build. “A little white box that I got to put a little bit of effort into help make. That’s what I see,” described Maher, a junior at Floyd County High School.
Maher and his classmates have been building this home since August, riding a school bus to this work site during their three-hour building and trades class.
They’re helping build new home for a family whose house was too dilapidated to repair, the first of eight houses Floyd County is rebuilding through a new grant from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.
“This is doing major rehab and sometimes as in this case as you can see an entirely new home, if the home was in poor enough condition,” said Lydeana Martin, Floyd County Community and Economic Development Director.
Floyd County is in need of several hundred more affordable housing units, while the entire region is in need of approximately 5,000, said Jennifer Wilsie, Director of Housing for the New River Valley Regional Commission.
For the past several years, the NRVRC has been partnering with a grassroots Floyd Initiative For Safe Housing, or FISH. Volunteers with their group have repaired and remodeled dozens of homes across the county. FISH is now partnering with the county and the state to help get more affordable housing rebuilt in the area. This is the first time high school students have helped with the housing project as part of their class.
“Anytime we can get kids outside of the classroom is where real world learning happens,” said Jessica Cromer, superintendent of Floyd County Public Schools.
Floyd high school junior Addison Allen said she loves this experience of learning to use power tools, while also helping a family in her community.
“And seeing from the start to the end is probably the coolest part of the house,” Allen said.
Their building and trades teacher, Ross Snead, noted that even the students who don’t go into the construction industry will benefit from the hands-on learning.
“It’s something you built or something you did,” Snead said. “Once it’s complete, you know you can look back and say you know I had a hand in doing, but also you’re helping a community and everything at the same time.” Snead said they’ll also be better able to do repairs to their own homes in the future.
The students will continue working on this home through October.
