Humble ISD

▲ Humble ISD students build tiny homes for veterans through the Big Heroes, Tiny Homes program.

Big heroes, tiny homes

by Bobby Hawthorne

David Anderson sleeps safe and sound these days because Al Segura couldn’t sleep one night. “I was having a restless night,” says Segura, then an assistant principal in Humble ISD. “So, I got up and started scanning through Facebook. I saw that veterans in St. Louis were building tiny homes for homeless veterans, and I thought, ‘Why can’t our students do that?’” The next morning, Segura ran the idea past a fellow administrator, then called a teacher he thought might be interested. Four years later, Anderson — a U.S. Navy veteran who spent 25 months on a combat logistics ship in the Persian Gulf during Desert Storm and returned home with PTSD — was handed the key to the front door of a 240-square-foot house he could call his own. Today, Segura leads “Students Helping Veterans: Big Heroes, Tiny Homes,” which has expanded to three of Humble ISD’s six high school campuses. With help from Operation Finally Home, which provides funds via the Lowe’s Foundation, HISD

Humble ISD

County: Harris ESC region: 4 Superintendent: Dr. Elizabeth Fagen 2020 enrollment: 44,952 Number of schools: 46

students have finished five tiny houses for homeless vets and are on schedule to finish three more by the end of May. From the beginning, Segura said, the effort has been driven by two core values: (1) Students run the show. They raise money and solicit donations. They champion the cause, speaking to anyone who asks. They design the home, making decisions about colors and materials and other aesthetics. They build the home — every square inch of it. If there’s a hitch, they iron it out. (2) For homeless vets, it’s a hand up, not a handout. Missi Taylor never set out to teach construction management or architecture engineering, but she lost her part-time job as an architect when the Houston economy went south in 2008, so she took her mom’s advice and contacted Trey Kraemer, who was Humble ISD’s associate superintendent of high schools. As luck would have it, HISD was opening a new high school, Summer Creek, and the Texas Legislature had recently passed House Bill 5, which made it easier for college graduates to acquire alternative teaching certificates. Taylor filled out forms and answered questions and was hired to teach architecture at Summer Creek. She remained there for three years, then transferred to Kingwood Park, where she’s been for the past 10. She was the second person Segura called after his restless night without sleep. No one had to ask her twice, though she knew the job wouldn’t be easy. Money had to be raised and partnerships formed. A job site had to be established. Kids had to be trained. They also had to sell the program to school leaders and the community. Then, they went to work. Taylor said she remembers the terror of watching the first house loaded onto an 18-wheeler to be transported to the Langetree Retreat and Eco Center in Liberty, 56 miles due east. “We watched the forklift pick it up, and the house shook, and it looked like it was going to fall,” she says. “My heart was racing. All of this money. All of this hard work, and it looked like it was about to crash into the ground. But it didn’t. So, we watched it leave on the 18-wheeler, and we just stood there and said to ourselves, ‘Oh my God, we did it!’” By “we,” she means “my students.” “These kids are passionate about learning and doing and giving,” she says. “Because I’ve taught them every year, I have a good idea of who’s going to be the project leader the next year. I always tell them, it’s like being in an office. You start in an office, and you’re usually the low man on the totem pole, and your work makes you get promoted every year, so by the time you’re a senior, you’re either a leader of the project or you’re a captain of one of the teams.” This year’s team leader is Clark Bennett. He took Taylor’s construction management course only because, “I couldn’t do another class I wanted to do, and this became the class I wanted to do.” So, what’s it like? “I come out here every day and build,” he says. “I’ve learned that I can think of something, draw it, build it and bring it to life. I’ve also learned I can work with all kinds of people. I can help them to be better at what they’re doing.” What’s it like meeting the recipients of the houses? “It’s interesting, to say the least,” he says. “They’ve gone through a traumatic situation, and they’re like, ‘This is so amazing that you’ve done this for me. Thank you, so much.’ We get a lot of thank-yous.” Putting students like Clark in charge and trusting them is essential, Segura says. “Probably the greatest thing is to put faith and confidence in students because when we first came up with this idea and approached some people about it, there was a lot of skepticism. It was, like, ‘Good idea, but good luck with that.’ But look what we have today.” Another of the program’s core goals is to see this effort replicated nationwide.

▲ Missi Taylor is a teacher at Kingwood Park and the sponsor of the Big Heroes, Tiny Homes project.

Senior Clark Bennett

▲ Students in HISD have completed construction on five tiny homes for vets thus far, and expect to complete three more by

May 2022.

“What’s remarkable is that these kids are doing something for someone they don’t even know.”

“It’s always been our vision that this would spread,” Segura says. “And we’re willing to help anyone with anything. We had a lot of unanswered questions when we started, but we didn’t wait for the answers. If you wait, you’ll never get started. We took a leap of faith, and it’s been a matter of everybody helping everybody.” Asked if he cried when he was handed the keys to his new house, Anderson replies, “I’m almost crying now. It’s hard when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from or where you’re going to lay your head at night.” Now that he’s been given a hand up, he’s working to plug himself back into the system, connect with the Veterans Administration to deal with lingering PTSD issues, and get back on his feet. “What’s remarkable is that these kids are doing something for someone they don’t even know,” Anderson says. “They’re making a tremendous impact that otherwise probably would never be made.” Segura seconds that sentiment. “When the students give them the key to their new front door,” he says, “these veterans go from being homeless to once again having hope.”

BOBBY HAWTHORNE is the author of “Longhorn Football” and “Home Field,” published by UT Press. In 2005, he retired as director of academics for the University Interscholastic League.