Tiny House operating in new High Point facility

HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) —  After six months of uncertainty, Tiny House Community Development has a new home. It is moving into a new building that will serve as a warehouse for two of the nonprofit’s programs.

The programs support two of the nonprofit’s missions: helping the homeless and the environment.

“The last six months have been really challenging,” Tiny House Community Development Executive Director Scott Jones said.

After six months without a permanent warehouse building for its foam recycling operations, THCD said there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

“We just got very fortunate to find that listed, and we negotiated with the owner of the property, and he liked what we do as a nonprofit in saving the environment, and he just loved the nonprofit idea of helping the homeless and getting them jobs and getting them housed, and we couldn’t beat this rate, so we took it,” Jones said.

In Oct. 2023, the nonprofit was given two months to leave its warehouse location in Greensboro on West Gate City Boulevard.

After five years there, they left because the rent nearly tripled. Half a year without a building has impacted operations.

“We’ve been operating the Styrofoam recycling program out of a 20-foot shipping container behind our resource center,” Jones said. “It was very difficult.”

The new warehouse is off Business 85 on Elon Place in High Point. There’s some work that must be done. They need to pour a concrete floor, add bathrooms and have utilities turned on.

The nonprofit sees a bright future in the new location with plans to expand.

“We actually have two companies, one in Mebane, North Carolina, and then one in Virginia … that’s providing us a semi-truck load a week of Styrofoam, which will allow us to run five days a week and keep all that material out of the landfill. And we will be able to add an additional person to our team,” Jones said.

In the warehouse, they employ unhoused people to operate the foam recycling program and to do construction projects.

Three bays at the new facility will be dedicated to the construction of tiny homes, which will be up for sale.

“They can make a wage, and we can work with them to get them housed,” Jones said.

The warehouse’s operations help the nonprofit support itself while benefitting the environment and the homeless population.

Monday through Friday, the new warehouse location on Elon Place in High Point will serve as a Styrofoam recycling drop-off site. It will be one of 15 drop-off sites the nonprofit has in Guilford County. The nonprofit also has a drop-off site in Alamance County.

The nonprofit estimates the new warehouse in High Point will be fully operational in six to eight weeks around September.

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