The lives of average persons are filled with mostly modest goals: earn a decent wage, settle down and live comfortably. But Chris Collins recognizes that even ambitions as humble as those aren’t easily achieved by everyone. That’s why his own goal concerns helping often-marginalized people achieve theirs with his H.O.P.E. Initiative.
Through H.O.P.E., or Housing Our People Everywhere, Collins seeks to use scrap or recycled metal rather than wood as the chief material in a structure’s framework. The result, he said, is not only a sounder, cheaper house, but one that is easier to make.
The mission of H.O.P.E., he said, was to provide affordable and environmentally friendly housing for everyone. But the more immediate concern was at-risk people. Helping prison parolees, as well as struggling veterans and the homeless, was crucial for functioning society he said. His hope was to build enough halfway houses, with one occupant each, to ensure that every parolee in the country had a private place to live.
Collins said a cold-rolled steel stud framing machine could make eight studs a minute and that the homes that were built with the studs resulted ultimately “won’t burn, won’t absorb water, (were) stronger, termite free, mold resistant, seismic and recyclable.”
“You put steel in the end of it, you tell the computer how many of them you want, and the machine will bend all of the material into a structural stud that exceeds every building code in the county,” he said, adding that homes could then be build around that framework.
“We can use the scrap, discarded materials from natural disasters. Besides all the cost and insurance advantages of houses made of metal versus wood, I can put twice as many studs as wood two-by-fours in the big cargo crates that ends up weighing the same, so it saves money anyway you look at it.”
SPECIAL NOTICE FROM H.O.P.E.: Veterans for hope day is April 28th, all veterans and supporters of veterans meet at your town courthouse and bring a dime; we will end homelessness in the United States on that day using scrap metal from natural disasters to house our homeless we will use the boys and girls club as well as high schools to teach our kids about how to create and live in a green world. For more information, see the Veterans for HOPE DAY Facebook page.