BARC hopes to build workforce housing with recycled materials

By Mae Stier

Sun contributor

From the outside, it may seem surprising that a recycling company would be interested in building homes. But for Andy Gale, President of Bay Area Recycling for Charities (BARC) in Traverse City, the move makes complete sense. Not only is it an opportunity for their organization to step up the “reuse” portion of the “3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” but it also enables Gale to return to his roots in construction. And, perhaps most notably, it could offer access to more affordable housing that northern Michigan desperately needs.

BARC began in 2008 when Gale moved to Michigan from Colorado. In Colorado, Gale received his degree in Construction Management from Colorado State University in 1989 and spent years working with engineered wood products for Trus Joist, a world leader in the industry. When he moved to Michigan, he was looking for the opportunity to reinvent something and decided to focus on recycling, even though he admittedly knew nothing about it when he started BARC.

While not initially a large part of their business, Gale always intended BARC to recycle materials for construction projects. Gale’s construction roots go back to his childhood when his dad would take him out of school to bring him to a job site and sort materials to reuse from the dumpster. That knowledge stuck with Gale, and he worked to integrate more opportunities for reuse into his recycling business.

A couple of years ago, that intention was reignited when someone approached Gale and asked, “Can you recycle a house?” Yes, Gale thought. “You can take everything off of a building and get it down…to the studs,” he explained. “You might wind up throwing 20 percent of it into the landfill, but 80 perfect of that house is lumber and concrete and things that you can … turn back into products.” And so, Bay Area Recycling for Charities began recycling buildings.

BARC started reusing the building materials by building planter boxes, picnic tables, backyard tiny houses, and “glamping” buildings. Soon, Gale connected with architect Jess Glowacki of EcoPhi Architecture, who has a similar vision of repurposing construction products for new designs. Around the same time, Gale was approached by Bruce Odom to purchase Odom’s retail company, Odom Reuse, when it closed in 2019. While the retail model did not align with BARC’s plans, Gale hired Odom’s two employees as lead carpenters, enabling BARC to have its own construction team. They plan to partner with area contractors to oversee their building projects.

BARC’s mission with its construction work is to diminish homelessness and add workforce housing in the region. They are now waiting for the right contracts to propel these plans forward. The lumber is there, and they are ready to build as soon as the funding and property is available.

The focus on workforce housing hits close to home for Gale, acknowledging that, at times, his employees struggle to find housing in the region. As Gale considers what projects come next, it may be that the first step is to develop housing for his own employees, buying property to build houses for their team and other workers in the area. Gale’s care for his employees is evident, and he considers BARC as much an employment company as anything else. Gale says they create “green-collar jobs” and his employees stay with them because they believe in the mission.

Recently, BARC has worked with regional businesses on deconstruction and reconstruction projects, and they hope that these opportunities continue. In 2021, BARC worked with Jody and DC Hayden of Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate to deconstruct the former Anchor Hardware building on M-22 in Empire. Upon deconstructing the building, BARC built an educational room that currently sits on the property, as well as a model for the tiny homes they hope will be used to address homelessness in the region.

Late last fall, BARC connected with 9 Bean Rows to learn more about their needs for housing employees. 9 Bean Rows is a farm and bakery located outside of Suttons Bay, known around the county for their croissants and pastries. In November, they put out a public call on social media asking for assistance housing employees. Like many other businesses in the region, 9 Bean Rows has experienced difficulty recruiting skilled employees due to the lack of affordable housing throughout the region. Owner of 9 Bean Rows, Jen Welty, says the housing problem “inhibits employers’ growth potential” by limiting the available workforce.

To potentially address housing for businesses throughout the region, BARC has created plans for homes of variable sizing, from 400-800 square feet, available to be constructed of mostly reclaimed materials. The combination of smaller house sizes and reused materials would drastically reduce the construction cost and overall price of these homes. Gale estimates that they can build them at approximately $150/square foot, which is about half of where building costs are currently. While most townships and villages within the county have minimum units for dwelling sizes (up to 720 square feet in Leland and Elmwood Townships), BARC is already working with Leelanau County’s Building Department to ensure their support for these reclaimed, economy-sized homes.

To fund these projects, BARC is currently applying for various grants, with letters of support from individuals like Welty. If BARC is able to secure grant funding, they hope to build prototype homes to model subsequent projects after. In the future, Gale imagines their building projects will be a mixture of homes built on BARC-owned property, potentially offering housing solutions for their employees, as well as homes built on property owned by other business owners and developers.

While BARC waits for these projects to get underway, they stay busy working on a residence in Leelanau County, the first private home they have deconstructed and rebuilt. They’re deconstructing a house on Hammond Road in Traverse City, “reverse engineering [it] into panelized pieces. They’re 8-foot-wide by 24-foot-long roof trusses and 8-foot-wide by 12-foot-long floor systems.” The reconstructed house, which will sit in Leelanau County, will look similar to the original house, with a slightly modified layout.

Gale hopes to continue generating these types of housing projects so that when someone reaches out in the future with a building in need of deconstruction, BARC will already have a use for it. While their mission is to address workforce housing in the region, Gale imagines solutions can come by working with both the businesses and individuals directly who need housing.

Beyond workforce housing, Gale has a lot of hope for what these smaller structures could offer to our community, especially when considering the growing homeless population throughout Leelanau, Grand Traverse, and Benzie counties. Homelessness is higher than ever in northern Michigan. Last year, a study from the University of Michigan revealed that 11.4% of current students in Leelanau County experienced homelessness by the time they were in the fifth grade; that percentage is 15.5% in Benzie County and 10.2% in Grand Traverse.

While BARC is not equipped to offer all the necessary services to care for those experiencing homelessness, Gale envisions a network of partnerships that allows them to do what they do best: reuse building materials to build safe spaces to live. He sees the potential to build communities where individuals have a private 100-square-foot structure adjacent to community kitchens, restrooms, and living spaces. There are examples of similar systems that have worked around the country. “People popping up little 10-house communities … we can learn from those.”

Gale says his goal “at the end of the day is to recycle houses. To take that material out of the landfill and give it a second chance. That is where I am going to be the expert.” Gale acknowledges that he will need partners to address homelessness and workforce housing in the region; his expertise is in construction and recycling. He envisions partnerships with other organizations to help fulfill BARC’s mission, leading to robust housing solutions throughout the region and more recycled houses along the way.