photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Workers erect prefabricated exterior walls at a lot at 520 Perry St. in North Lawrence. The build is a partnership between Tenants to Homeowners and Build SMART, aiming to bolster Lawrence's housing capacity via rapid-build homes that can remain affordable in the long-term through the housing nonprofit.

On Monday morning in North Lawrence, the beginnings of a 500-square-foot home went up in less than three hours.

The prefabricated building process was a partnership between housing nonprofit Tenants to Homeowners and Build SMART, a Lawrence-based company that manufactures and ships the components of homes such as exterior walls to be assembled on site.

The two entities invited local leaders and the public to a lot at 520 Perry St., where exterior walls were erected for Tenants to Homeowners’ smallest build to date. Nicholas Ward with Tenants to Homeowners said the plot of land it’s being built on will go into Tenants to Homeowners’ portfolio as a community land trust — the nonprofit will own the land and keep it in a permanent trust, and anyone who purchases the home would only be purchasing the house, not the land. That means that each time the home resells, Tenants to Homeowners will maintain its subsidy for building it and the owner will get a percentage of its increase in value and equity, but the homeowners agree to sell the home at a restricted price to keep it affordable “in perpetuity.”

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

A work crew maneuvers a prefabricated wall into place at 520 Perry St.

Ward said thanks in part to Build SMART’s focus on developing energy-efficient building materials, homes like this one will be able to sell for less than $100,000.

“That’s really a tough thing to do in this market, but we want those workforce, entry-level homes for people to be able to come into and build equity,” Ward said.

David Boyer, the president and CEO of Build SMART and Prosoco, a specialty construction chemicals manufacturer also partnering with Tenants to Homeowners, said this building process has another benefit in that it can help turn over homes to other contractors installing features like electrical and plumbing systems more quickly. Boyer said Build SMART’s prefabricated builds are meant to be a complement to local trades; that’s evidenced by their work with Hicks Classic Concrete, Alpha Roofing and McCray Lumber, all out of Lawrence, to contribute other building materials.

Tenants to Homeowners executive director Rebecca Buford said her hope is that homes like this one will also address what she sees as the biggest housing challenge in Lawrence: supply. Earlier this year, Douglas County leaders learned that according to a supportive housing needs assessment, there’s a need for nearly 400 units of supportive housing in the county.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Tenants to Homeowners executive director Rebecca Buford speaks during the live build event at 520 Perry St. in North Lawrence Monday, Nov. 14, 2022.

Capacity is another part of that issue, Buford said, but that’s a hurdle that can be cleared thanks to the rapid build time for prefabricated housing.

“The idea that we can build these over the winter and have 20 of them waiting for us in the spring and we can put them together in a few weeks is really, really exciting,” Buford said.

Buford added that these units could be ideal for folks experiencing homelessness, an issue that’s been especially prevalent in community conversations recently because of the city-run campsite in North Lawrence. She said building these homes for folks in need of a high-quality rental with supportive services wrapped in — not just homes for purchase — was something she’s thinking about a lot as the weather has cooled.

“There are people just blocks away from here that are sleeping on the ground, under cardboard or in tents,” Boyer added. “We need to be able to leverage the knowledge we’ve got and try to create a model that can be a cost-effective model that can be replicated over and over, as Rebecca says, to help house the people that are most in need.”

Douglas County Commissioner Karen Willey and Lawrence Mayor Courtney Shipley both gave remarks at the event, and lauded the project for its affordability and additional energy efficient benefits.

“It’s exactly what we dream all partnerships in Lawrence will be,” Shipley said.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

At 11:30 a.m. Monday morning, a little over two hours after construction began, all of the home’s prefabricated walls were standing in place.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

After the walls went up, workers nailed long pieces of plywood into their tops to prepare for roofing installation.