Pipes, president and CEO of The Affordable Homes Group in MountHolly, plans to build homes and homeless shelters out of the8-by-40-foot ISO heavy-gauge steel shipping containers that can befrequently seen stacked up at American ports. The cost would be around$20,000 and they would come with everything a normal home comes with -separate rooms, working plumbing, deck space and more.

Pipesattended a Mount Holly planning board meeting on Monday to obtain finalapproval for a house to be developed on Filbert Street in Mount Hollyfor sale as affordable housing. Once the plans are approved, Pipes saidthey hope to begin the project by the end of the year.