Drake University community comes together to build tiny houses for the homeless

As part of Drake University's national day of service, students, staff, and alumni, as well as other volunteers, grabbed hammers, nails, and wood and got to building tiny houses that will be used to shelter the homeless.

Drake teamed up with Joppa, a nonprofit that assists the homeless in Des Moines, to build the tiny houses, which will be placed in a community Joppa is designing. The houses are just 100 square feet, and the goal is to let a homeless person move in so they don't have to worry about their living accommodations as they search for work.

Drake's football team started things off by building the bases, and the homes were finished by campus groups, staff, alumni, and friends of the university last weekend. "This feels like a very tangible solution," Alex Ghekas, a junior at Drake University, told The Des Moines Register. "Each house we build will take someone off the streets and give them somewhere to go."

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