A city of Fort Worth board gave its seal of approval to a new kind of housing that could serve as a blueprint for affordable developments across the city.
Fort Worth-based developer Trulli Yours Property Group is building a “smart” container home at 1110 Nowlin St. in the Rock Island neighborhood just north of downtown.
The two bedroom, two bathroom home will be roughly 1,300 square feet and built to match the aesthetics of the surrounding neighborhood, Trulli Yours founder Michael D. Sturns said in a Nov. 14 meeting of the city’s downtown design review board.
The “smart” part of the house comes from an eco-flow solar power system and internet connected appliances, Sturns said in a phone interview the Star-Telegram Tuesday.
The house will be constructed from two 40-foot shipping containers and one 20-foot shipping container stitched together with a sloped roof on top and a front porch, according to designs submitted to the board.
The benefit of this kind of housing is it can be built off-site while the development goes through the necessary city permitting process, and then be quickly set up on the empty lot once all the permits are approved, Sturns said.
The goal is to go from permitting to having a move-in ready home in four to six months, Sturns said.
The average number of months to build a single family home in the United States 7.6 to 12.1 months, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The speed and ease of development should make this a more affordable option for residents, Sturns said.
He plans to work with housing nonprofits like Fort Worth Housing Solutions to rent out the house at a rate that would be accessible for housing voucher recipients.
After this first house and a pair of other rental homes in the pipeline are built, Sturns said he plans to shift to building similar homes for purchase.
The vision for the company came from Sturns wanting to create an affordable housing option for his college-age son.
He said he didn’t see a housing model that would provide the affordability needed for his son to thrive, so he decided to create one.
“If I can do it for my son, I can do it for a lot of people’s children, and I can do it for a lot of families,” Sturns said.
After getting approval from the downtown design review board, Sturns said the Nowlin Street house could be installed as early as the first week of December.