In March of 2000, a three-bedroom house built by state prisoners was loaded on a truck and driven through the streets of Saginaw, Michigan, to a site where a young Hispanic woman and her four-year-old son were to make their home.
Eight Level I (minimum-security) prisoners from Saginaw Correctional Facility worked under the direction of a department employee who had extensive experience in house construction. Actual construction began in late December, 1999, inside the security perimeter of the facility, and was completed on March 14, 2000. Doors were hung, trim and molding added and the kitchen and bath cabinets were installed. The only work not performed by inmates involved the electrical, heating and plumbing installation. To allow the house to be moved, it was constructed on steel beams, and on March 19, it was attached to a truck and moved to its site by a professional house mover.
On March 27, 2000, the 1,050 square foot house, which had cost $35,000 to build, was dedicated. The House on Wheeler Street became the first home in the world ever constructed within a prison by inmates for the Habitat for Humanity program.
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