The Neighborhood Center of West Volusia is rolling ahead with a roughly $1 million experiment in small-scale housing on its DeLand campus, turning retired shipping containers into a tight-knit cluster of finished homes. The plan calls for eight affordable units set up as transitional housing, plus a community office and shared outdoor space next to the nonprofit’s existing shelter. Leaders at the center say the design is all about keeping residents close to case managers and the support services they already use.
As reported by the Orlando Business Journal, the Neighborhood Center expects to spend about $1 million on the project and has brought in Innovar Structures to handle the container conversions. According to the Business Journal, the units are meant as short-term, lower-cost homes for people exiting homelessness and trying to stabilize.
In its 2024 annual report, the Neighborhood Center labeled the effort a "Recycled Container Home Community" and listed partnerships with Innovar and Goldberg Construction to design and outfit the units. The cluster would sit on the nonprofit’s property along S. Woodland Boulevard, using land that opened up after a former family shelter on the site was demolished.
DeLand’s Planning Board cleared a key hurdle last year by approving rules that allow tiny-home communities. That move, which local officials and the charity say helped pave the way for the container plan, was detailed by Spectrum News/News 13. At that hearing, Neighborhood Center leaders told the board the finished homes would include roofs, siding, and porches so they would not resemble bare shipping containers, and supporters argued the project could give households leaving shelters another rung on the housing ladder.
Where the Units Will Be Built
Innovar Structures, which operates a container conversion plant in Wauchula, will handle most of the heavy lifting off-site. The company says on its Innovar Structures website that it will produce the upgraded shells and interior systems at its factory on U.S. Highway 17, then ship them to DeLand for installation. Innovar markets multi-unit container developments and modular apartments, so the DeLand cluster fits squarely into its assembly line approach.
Cost and Capacity
Using the $1 million project budget reported by the Orlando Business Journal alongside the center’s eight-unit plan, the back-of-the-envelope math comes to roughly $125,000 per home. That number is a simple average, not a full build-out price. It does not include site preparation, utility connections, or the nonprofit’s ongoing support services.
Leadership at the Neighborhood Center and Innovar acknowledge that foundation work, plumbing, electrical systems, and shared outdoor improvements will push the real cost higher. Those extras are part of turning industrial containers into livable homes and making the small campus functional for multiple households at once.
Why the Nonprofit Is Pushing This
The Neighborhood Center has operated emergency and transitional shelter programs for decades, and in its public materials, it says the pressure to add quicker, more flexible housing options keeps rising. Recent reports from the organization highlight heavy demand for services and describe a campus footprint that staff say makes this kind of clustered container community a practical next move.
Before any dirt turns, the project still needs final city approvals and standard building permits. The nonprofit expects to work through those reviews in the coming weeks, according to Spectrum News/News 13. If the timetable follows a typical public process, site work and unit deliveries could start later this year, although officials say they are still hammering out a detailed construction schedule and long-term funding for operations and maintenance.
