Cherry Creek Innovation Campus students supply 6 tiny homes to women exiting homelessness

CENTENNIAL | Six tiny homes built by high school students at Cherry Creek Innovation Campus last school year were towed away from campus Monday morning.

They are set to become part of a tiny home village for women exiting homelessness.

The homes were created by the Innovation Campus’ infrastructure engineering class. The Innovation Campus, which opened last fall, is designed to offer hands-on learning experiences to district students in industries that need more skilled workers. 

“It’s a wonderful thing these students have done,” said Don Rauh, one of the infrastructure engineering teachers.

Mike Degetis, the project manager and a math teacher at the Innovation Campus, said that he wanted to find a meaningful project for the first year’s students to do. By building homes for the Village, they were able to learn trade skills as well as “what it means to give back to the community.”

Colorado Village Collaborative organizer Hannah Fageeh said that tiny home villages “bridge the gap” for groups of people who often feel uncomfortable or unsafe in group shelters, including single women, transgender people and LGBTQ couples.

“LGBTQ people living on the streets often feel left out of the shelter system,” said Village employee Dorothy Leyba.

The Innovation Campus’ homes will be part of a 14-home village at the Clara Brown Commons in Denver. Each home can house a single person or a couple. They’re about the size of a studio apartment.

Beth Stevens was at the campus to watch the homes be moved. Stevens’ daughter Morgan was inspired to take the class last year by building projects she had done on mission trips with her church. She loved the class and is now majoring in construction management at Colorado State University, Stevens said.

Sam Goetz was another of the infrastructure engineering students who helped build the homes. He signed up to take classes at the Innovation Campus because he was curious about learning about other opportunities besides college after graduation, he said. A senior this year, he’s considering pursuing a career in the industry.

The project was cut short by the pandemic, when the school district went online-only in March. At that point, only the frames of the homes were completed. Teachers and volunteers worked through the summer to complete the homes.

Rauh said he was at school six days a week over the summer working to get them completed, which included installing electrical, drywall, insulation and putting on the roof and windows.

Watching the finished products be taken away is “a great feeling,” he said.

The students were really disappointed that they weren’t able to finish the homes during the school year, but “that’s just the way it goes with COVID,” he said.

This school year Innovation Campus students will have in-person class once a week, and Rauh said they will continue to make homes for the Village.