High school students from Allegany County spend part of the weekend installing a transitional shelter at the House of Mercy on Ormond Street. The ten by thirteen foot structures may provide a solution to the lack of beds for homeless individuals in Rochester.
The students from Andover High School raised the money to purchase, build, and transport the shelter to Rochester on Saturday.
Their technology and engineering teacher, Zach Owen, said, it’s a convenient alternative to a traditional homeless shelter.
"It takes very little skill to assemble. Within a few hours, you've got a very safe, strong, stable building which can be disassembled and then reassembled on a different site, as well."
For now, the House of Mercy is trying out Shelter 2.0 as a pilot project.
"We may ask a couple of our folks if they want to try it out, sleep in (it) over a few nights and kind of ask them how it was, what they think of it, is it something that could be viable for other people," said Kelly Finnigan, director of operations at the House of Mercy, which has exceeded its 82 bed capacity most nights since its new shelter opened in March 2017.
There is a vacant, one-acre lot across the Ormond Street shelter. The property is owned by the city of Rochester, but Finnigan said there has been an internal discussion at the House of Mercy about the possibility of using that land to create a tiny village of these mobile shelters.
"Maybe that could be an option. It's a great location close to us, so we could provide services to folks and they could come eat at the House of Mercy and take a shower or do whatever else they have to do at the House of Mercy but then they could live across the street."
Finnigan said the House of Mercy has not talked to city officials about the idea yet.
Teacher Zach Owen says his students are proud to be part of a possible solution to the transitional housing shortage.
"Not only to make the building, but to actually see it have an impact on people makes it really real for our kids,” he said. “I think it really connects them to their community; it connects them to their education and it makes what they're doing important."
The shelter is fully insulated and sheathed with open-vapor building wraps, but not heated.
The cost of the Shelter 2.0 that was installed at the House of Mercy was approximately $2,800. “And we didn’t skimp on building materials,” said Owen.
