STC partners with non-profit to design affordable housing
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South Texas College architecture students are collaborating with a non-profit to help design affordable housing in the Rio Grande Valley.
Affordable housing with a beautiful design, that's what Valley college students are trying to make of ten acres in rural Edinburg.
"For me, it's not fair that a low income family is not able to afford such a nice home," Civil engineering technology student Daniel Cantu said.
Cantu is one of 18 students in STC's architectural design class.
He and his classmates were tasked with coming up with an affordable housing development for Border Issues of Texas, a local non-profit.
"We are working on a project called Mi Casita project, which is a project that is going to build homes for families who have somebody with a disability or can't afford homes," Vice President of the non-profit, Cesar Quintanilla, said.
The organization will also partner with University of Texas Rio Grande Valley engineering students in the fall. Quintanilla says they saw it as an opportunity to give students hands-on experience, while encouraging them to give back to the community.
"We have a lot of talent in both universities, both UTRGV and STC and what better way to have students build a future for somebody who's going to be very grateful," Quintanilla said.
Students at STC spent the entire semester designing the plan with guidance from their instructor.
"We worked a lot with having very small square footage. So I think we were limited under 2,000 square feet, so that for many students, was fun in and of itself trying to play with having less space and how to make everything fit into that," STC Architecture instructor Mario Serna said.
The 10 acres of land for the affordable housing development was left behind by the founder of Border Issues of Texas.
The organization is still working on getting funding through grants and donations to build the homes the students came up with.
Watch the video above for the full video.
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