Group to construct 30 tiny homes in Valdese for hurricane victims

Do you have carpentry, roofing, or electrical skills, and want to use them to help displaced victims of Hurricane Helene in the mountain counties?

Then Valdese will be the place for you Saturday morning.

A group called Patriot Relief founded by Concord real estate agent Leigh Brown will be building 30 tiny houses at the old junior high school located at 301 Church St. NW in Valdese beginning at 8 a.m.

The small buildings – some are 8-by-12 feet and some 10-by-12 – will be constructed on skids so they can slide into place in areas where homes have been destroyed. They won’t be big, fancy, or permanent, but they will get folks out of tents and put a solid roof over their heads.

“The goal is just to get somebody out of the weather,” Brown said. “We can get them out of a tent, get them out of a tarp, until they figure out the rest of the housing solution. So, we know this is not permanent. This is not perfect by any means, but it is something, and we're going to make them a gift to the recipients.”

Each building will be insulated and will have one electrical outlet. A generator and a propane heater will be included with each unit. The group has 15 houses ready for insulation Saturday. The remaining 15 will be built from the ground up.

Brown said many of the homes will likely end up in Yancey County, which suffered mightily from the floods and high winds brought by Helene when she hit the area a month ago.

Local volunteer fire departments are vetting the prospective recipients and prioritizing them based on need.

“The thing I found to be interesting about North Carolinians is they would just as soon have you go do it for somebody else instead of for themselves, even when every single thing they have washed away,” Brown said. “And so, we're basically saying, well, ‘the fire department told us to bring this to you.’

“We can use them as a scapegoat,’ she added with a laugh.

Brown said Patriot Relief currently has about 100 volunteers and is seeking as many as it can get. Workers don’t have to be trained – there is plenty of unskilled work to do. All you have to do is show up at the site.

A local church is providing breakfast and lunch for the group. Jim Jacumin of Valdese has donated the workspace, and Brown hopes to leave the place spotless and use it for round two later.

She said Burke County is an ideal location for the project.

“Where y'all are located is ideal for being close enough that we can deliver, but far enough out to not be a burden, because we did not want to be a burden on the hurting communities,” Brown said.

“Our communities have done an amazing job pulling this together all over every county. And you know, we're just one of the many people bringing solutions. But if you add everybody up, boy, it's the picture of who North Carolina is.”

For more information about the group and how you can help, check out the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PatriotRelief.