The 12-year-old boy and his dog sat on a couch in not just any home, but one made from four recycled shipping containers.
"I like it, I liked moving in here," Jonelle told CNN on a recent September day. "It's a home for us."
Two years ago Jonelle, his father John and four siblings received the keys to their four-bedroom container apartment and it seems like a glimmer of hope in the quest to get Los Angeles County's estimated 66,000 homeless residents off the streets.
John Kilgore said his family constantly moved from floor to floor and the couches of anyone who would take them in. That is, until he got a call from homeless advocates that he'd been approved to move into a recycled shipping container home.
"When we walked in, man! Their faces lit up," John Kilgore said of his family's reaction to the new home. "They were all smiles and so happy. And that made me happy."
Much-needed housing
Recycled shipping containers are a cheaper alternative and faster way to provide much-needed housing to homeless families and veterans, and others who may be experiencing hard times, including during the coronavirus pandemic.
Besides four bedrooms, the Kilgore's furnished unit has one bathroom, a kitchen and a small front room.
Their complex of stacked shipping containers is made up of seven other units, housing 32 people, a community room and a room for a resident manager.
John Maceri, CEO of The People Concern, a homeless services agency and key partner on the project, explained that an on-site social worker helps the formerly homeless tenants with everything from how to pay rent to arranging transportation and obtaining health care.
"That manager is a facilitator and connector to community resources so that people reintegrate back into the community," Maceri said.
The Kilgore's complex was built by Flyaway Homes, which describes itself as a non-profit organization aimed at finding solutions to the homeless crisis.
Flyaway homes reports a second refurbished container project is under construction in South Los Angeles, and three others are in the pipeline.
"We recognize a solution is building enough permanent supportive housing rapidly at an affordable cost in order to make a difference," said Flyaway Homes' Chief Operating Officer Kevin Hirai.
Hirai says the second complex being built will include 16 two-bedroom units that house up to 33 people, including unrelated roommates, like in a college dormitory. Other shipping container units are rising up throughout the country and world, including in Detroit, Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
Shipping container apartment complexes for veterans who are homeless have been built in Orange County California and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Clifford Beers Housing is teaming with American Family Housing to construct the five story Isla Intersections wedged into a lot near Harbor Freeway Station on the Metro in Los Angeles.
Containers: You can move them, stack them
Builders say shipping cont
