Tiny houses built by local high school students up for auction

Two tiny houses constructed by local teens are up for auction in Santa Barbara.

The 230-square-foot homes were built from the ground up by high school students in the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

The Tiny Houses program is supported by The TRADART Foundation, a non-profit supporting Career Technical Education (CTE) and Industrial Arts in local high schools.

The Tiny Houses program was funded by a $50,000 grant from the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara, and $25,000 in funding from the district.

The partnership resulted in the building of three fully-functioning homes by students at Santa Barbara High School, Dos Pueblos High School, and San Marcos High School over a two-year period.

The program is offered to Advanced Woodworking and Construction Technology students, to teach them hands-on skills in the building and trade industries.

With guidance and oversight, the students constructed the tiny homes complete with a bathroom, kitchen, and loft on top of trailers making them completely mobile.

Two houses are for sale to the highest bidder. The third house will be donated to a local nonprofit, Hope Refuge, a retreat center that addresses the trauma, abuse, abandonment, and neglect of a sex trafficking survivors.

The money raised from the sale of the two tiny houses will enable the program to continue through the next two-year cycle.

The auction ends on June 10.

For more information about the Tiny Houses program and the TRADART Foundation, click here.