Giving Compass' Take:

• YES! Magazine reports on an architecture program at Auburn University, where students design and build affordable homes for local families in need.

• How might this efforts inspire other programs to engage young change-makers in housing solutions? What can we do to support more low-cost designs for permanent housing?

• Here's why creating affordable housing opportunities means talking equity.

Each year, beginning in the fall, a group of third-year architecture students from Auburn University take up residence in a small rural Alabama town to begin building a house.

In the winter, when a new semester begins, they are replaced at the Newbern, Alabama, project site by another cohort of 16 students who finish up the job and prepare the house for its new occupants.

The 20K Home Project began 13 years ago as a challenge to architecture students at Auburn to build a $20,000 house, with $12,000 in material and $8,000 for labor.

The idea was to create “the perfect house” for needy families in rural areas where dwellings are often substandard and where affordable building can be a logistical challenge.

To date, the student-led project has designed and built homes for nearly 30 households as part of Auburn’s Rural Studio, an off-campus, hands-on architecture program that has also constructed community centers, a library and other projects around Hale County, where Newbern is located.

Read the full article about Auburn students building affordable houses by Deonna Anderson at YES! Magazine.