How Humbuildt Fits Humboldt

As Arcata’s (and the rest of the world’s) population continues to expand and the land vs. price ratio continues to dramatically shift, we are seeing not only an increase in the homeless population, but also a growing number of young people that are choosing to remain at home well into their late twenties. Housing these days has become more expensive than the average young family can afford, forcing them to rent longer and look for alternative options. 

Isaac Lyons (third from right) and the Humbuildt Homes crew. Submitted

Isaac Lyons started his ADU project, currently attached to his contracting business known as Humbuildt Homes, to create potential solutions to the housing crisis that seems to have public officials stumped. The inventive modular structures he proposes (and builds) create a more affordable, easily transformable option that can fit into smaller spaces and make creative use out of the space they occupy. If you want a home that is larger, all you must do is attach multiple units together for a cohesive union of the pieces.  What he envisions goes beyond the standard single family ADUs that have become increasingly more popular as the search for global housing solutions continues. When successful, he plans to introduce the concept as a potential solution to the homeless crisis that prevails throughout Humboldt County. The number of unhoused individuals in Humboldt County is the highest per capita compared to all others in California, and voters often express huge concerns about the declining tourists population that many believe is a direct result of this issue. In the past few years, county officials have struggled to comply with both state regulation and voters to come up with concrete solutions to the county’s expanding homeless population and often, potential plans are scrapped or deadlocked because of different opinions. Lyons, who is a licensed owner of his own contracting company, is also one of the socially conscious Humboldt natives who decided to put his skills to work in finding a viable solution to a very complicated problem.

These ADUs would be compact, easy to streamline (so would not require many laborers to construct), and have a very low price point, but still be functional and well-made. The completed domicile would hopefully be affordable enough for the county to both commission and maintain, as well as humanizing and respectable for the itinerate individuals that they would house. 

What’s in the future?

While he enjoys the process of customizing each project, he looks forward to having the capability of quickly building the components at his large Arcata shop and simply assembling the pieces at the designated build site. The act of creating this streamlined process would make the units a lot less expensive than having to do a complete build on undeveloped land; something Lyons hopes will make the units more attractive to the city officials and voters of Humboldt County. This means that the units can be constructed almost anywhere, opening up a lot of options that either would not, or could not be considered before. Though this ambition would be enough to keep any regular contracting company busy beyond belief, there are other aspects of modular buildings that Lyons would like to explore as well that include sizing options, utilizing different (and non-traditional) material combinations, and integrating as much locality into his projects as possible. 

The format of this project makes it open to creative experimentation in many different directions. As the success of Lyons’s company grows, one thing he keeps in mind is the sustainability he is confident will soon be a key to all future development. Operating with sustainability as the primary target is quite a time-consuming process given the quantity of interesting new variations in non-traditional building materials, some of which are already abundant within Humboldt County. 

“Humboldt County has a lot of underutilized resources that we hope to incorporate into the design of our homes, including hemp,” says Lyons. “This county has a lot of useful hemp byproduct that could be going to use.” Utilizing these non-traditional materials could be a huge competitive edge in the cutthroat ADU market. Lyons mentioned a compound called “hempcrete,” an environmentally supportive concrete-esque material that has been recently developed and introduced into the building community. 

This kind of research, however, is quite young so many companies, Humbuildt Homes included, are making sure these methods are viable in terms of their structural integrity and durability. Hemp is just one example that has multiple uses applicable to builders that contractors are only now starting to explore. An even larger plan Lyons has incorporates the county’s reclaimed or problem wood into his designs. Using almost exclusively reclaimed wood for the buildings lends the homeowners whose homes border the redwoods a big hand when their properties begin to experience overgrown and dangerous trees, coupled with chaotic weather conditions that threaten both their homes and their lives. Lyons partners with a local Arcata portable millwright to come clear these felled (and almost felled) giants and turn the wood into usable materials for his homes.  

I had the opportunity to see a new home he and his crew are working on recently, and was stunned by the attention to detail surrounding every brace, stud, and joint. Using the Sue-meg Native American landmark (formerly Patrick’s Point) in Humboldt County for creative inspiration for a client with Native heritage, the large home looks like the modern cousin of the traditional, semi-buried multi-family homes in the Sue-meg village. What impressed me the most was that Lyons and I had spent a good deal of time discussing his ADU projects when I saw the full-size home he and his team built, I was taken aback with the melding of the ancient  style with modern segmentation. The home looked timeless and unique, and I instantly understood that he would take on and build to success any challenge ordered from his company. I finally felt like I understood why he felt the different goals for his company were all necessary to illustrate for this article. When people see someone as talented as he and his team are to be working on the overall dream of making Humboldt County a more sustainable, welcoming and caring place for all residents, I hope that it drives inspiration for fellow residents to work harder together to solve the big issues that divide the county and participate in the creation of a more beautiful future.