Bowling Green man receives new shipping container home after being displaced by tornadoes

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - One man in Bowling Green is celebrating his new home.

The December tornadoes displaced him and since then, he has had to resort to temporary housing.

“It’s awesome, we’re glad to be comfortable and like we know we don’t have to get up and move again for at least a long time, and it’s just exciting,” says Austin Hyde, who just moved in to his new home, an upcycled shipping container.

“When we heard about the disasters in Western Kentucky, we wanted to try to find a way to bring all of our resources to bear in those communities. And so one of the ways that we found a partner was with an existing partner of ours Land Betterment, and so they provide the container homes, which can be short term, intermediate, or permanent housing,” says Brenda Weaver, Community Ventures President of Housing and Lending.

Hyde recalled losing his home back in December.

“It wrecked our duplex or their neighbor’s house got it worse than ours, but it destroyed the house. But thankfully, nobody was hurt,” said Hyde.

Hyde was then forced to seek temporary housing.

“We went to the Housing Authority and then Rene asked if we were interested in a storage unit house and hooked us up with Habitat for Humanity and all that and we kind of just waited and we got all figured it out, adds Hyde.

A partnership between agencies helped Hyde received the first unit here in Vette City.

“We provided a sponsorship for this first unit here in Bowling Green, so that we could have an opportunity to cover the cost of having the unit put together, shipped, set up on the lot, and then also provide the utilities for the the resident for 12 months,” also says Weaver.

“They’re safe, they’re wind rated up to 150 miles an hour, so we never want to have somebody move from an affected area into a home they don’t feel safe in, but they’re also environmentally positive, says Kirk Taylor, the president of Land Betterment, who provided the container home.

But what makes a shipping container home unique?

“Container homes are actually old transport or storage containers that have been repurposed for housing and the beauty of them is they can be fit up to be a nice, decent affordable housing unit fairly quickly,” adds Weaver.

For Austin, he’s just glad to be home.

“Thank you, and we appreciate it more than anything and it’s just awesome,” expressed Austin.

Hyde also says don’t be scared to ask for help, there are agencies that can help in your journey of rebuilding.

To learn more about Community Ventures, click here.