How Americans Are Building $2,500 Wagon Homes For Homeless People

How Americans Are Building $2,500 Wagon Homes For Homeless People Tracy Joscelyn used to sleep under overpasses, keeping one hand on her belongings and waking at every footstep. Today she locks the door of her own Conestoga Hut — a $2,500, 60-square-foot shelter shaped like a covered wagon, built by volunteers in a single afternoon. The design came from Erik de Buhr, who built the first one in 2011 for a single mother during the Occupy Eugene encampment — then tested it on his own family before asking anyone else to trust it. What started as a zero-dollar idea is now Community Supported Shelters: 250+ huts, a seven-figure annual budget, and a design other cities are now copying wholesale. It's not permanent housing. No plumbing, no foundation, no address. But for residents like Tracy, it's the first locked door they've had in years — and for some, the first solid ground to eventually build something bigger from. This is their story. Subscribe and stand with the people finding real solutions, brother. #HomelessVeterans #TinyHomes #VeteranSupport #HomelessCrisis #CommunityAction #survivalstories