Rooms of a display home manufactured out of recycled shipping containers are seen at the Governor's Housing Conference at the Hampton Roads Convention Center Nov. 20, 2019. Two homes produced by indieDwell are being donated by Virginia Housing Development Authority to Newport News Redevelopment and Housing Authority. (Jonathon Gruenke / Daily Press)
Hampton — The Newport News Housing and Redevelopment Authority soon will own two houses made from shipping containers, making the city the second in the state after Richmond to have the new-age housing concept.
Chris Thompson, director of strategic housing for the Virginia Housing Development Authority, said he thinks this type of container house could help fill the gap between Virginians seeking affordable housing and the housing stock.
At the Virginia Governor’s Housing Conference in Hampton, housing authorities, government officials and real estate professionals got an opportunity to see a pair of shipping container houses built by Idaho-based indieDwell.
The houses consist of multiple shipping containers joined together. The exteriors have roofs, windows and siding, and largely look like a regular house. The interiors show few signs that the structure was once used in shipping.
Reuse of the container helps cut down on costs, and the houses are built in factories, removing the variables of a traditional outdoor construction, said Pete Gombert, executive chairman of indieDwell. Along with having lower manufacturing costs, the houses are transportable so they can be assembled on-site.
Typically, Gombert said, the homes are sold in bulk. The company has built apartments, workforce housing and is working on student housing at a college.
Gombert said by the nature of shipping in the country, the United States imports more containers than it exports, making the containers readily available. He said the company tries to purchase containers that would have ended up being scrapped — many of those may have only been used once or twice.
There’s a fair amount of skepticism that Gombert deals with — living in a series of shipping containers may not sound appealing. But once people see one, they usually decide that it feels like a normal house, he said.
Thompson hoped showing the houses at the conference would make attendees from across the state more aware of the container concept. He felt the container homes and other types of manufactured homes could boost the overall housing stock in the state, particularly in areas that need more affordable housing.
He said the state authority chose to donate the houses to Newport News to support the local authority’s efforts in redevelopment. The authority will get the houses at the conclusion of the conference Sunday.
The two houses Newport News is getting are 960 square feet, made from three containers and have three bedrooms and two bathrooms. According to a flier in the houses, they cost $119,000, not including various permitting, transportation, contractor and other costs.
Karen Wilds, director of the Newport News Housing and Redevelopment Authority, said the houses could be a good fit for Hampton Roads, which has a shortage of affordable housing and plenty of containers at its ports. Currently, Wilds said, the authority isn’t planning to purchase shipping container houses until it sees the reception they get.
Wilds said the houses could be an “out of the box” solution to multiple problems. For the two houses the city will have, Wilds said the authority needs to find a permanent location for them and then will plan to sell them.
Josh Reyes, 757-247-4692, joreyes@dailypress.com