On any given Wednesday, in the hours before San Marcos High School's class time, Warrior Village Project Founder Mark Pilcher delivers school supplies Chris Geldart’s students need. Pilcher doesn’t drop off the typical pencil or eraser – instead, he drops off necessary class materials for Geldart’s Construction class, like lumber and door frames.
Pilcher plans to construct 12 movable tiny homes and a community center for every village. To him, 12 is symbolic: the number of marines in a squad, veterans in a support group; and ideally, people in a tiny home community.
Homes follow national construction codes and are inspected virtually at each campus. Once completed, a moveable tiny home can be placed anywhere in the nation, given that it follows city-specific zoning laws.
So far, Warrior Village Project has only constructed one home; but they have expanded their operations by 400%. This semester, they’re operating out of three high schools: SMHS, Rancho Buena Vista High School and San Pasqual High School, building four movable tiny homes.
Each home is in a different stage of development – most evident at SMHS, which houses two of the four tiny homes. They estimate both houses to be completed by the 2025 fall semester.
“This is our first house,” student Max Hackett said. “[The entire class is] learning a lot from building this.”
Hackett is a part of what Pilcher and Geldart call the “A-Team”: a group of four advanced students who don’t require as much technical guidance as their peers. Both Juniors, Hackett and Grey Boysen have taken Geldart’s class since their first year at SMHS.
“My returning students have a little bit more knowledge of what’s going on,” Geldart said. “I can check-in on them a little bit less, which pairs well with having a second house.”
The other movable tiny home at SMHS is comparatively less-developed, still being built by other students who have newly come into the program or have less-advanced technical skills.
Pilcher doesn’t face any pushback when integrating the Warrior Village Project’s goals with school officials. The relationship benefits the school as much as it does Pilcher: he reaches out to various companies like Dixieline and Baker Electric for necessary construction materials that students need to learn building skills; in return, he receives completed movable tiny homes, built to national code.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s trial and error,” Boysen continued. “It gets better with every iteration – every graduating class. Then, the next class will come over and they’ll start a new house.”
The project didn’t always have this strong of a foundation. Pilcher’s first house – a stick-built house, built and completed shortly after the pandemic – was installed as an ADU at a Wounded Warrior Homes residence.
“When you build a house that way, the plans have to be approved by the jurisdiction where it's going, and then it has to be inspected by the jurisdiction where it's going,” Pilcher said.
Stick-built houses are traditionally built and inspected on-site. But with houses being built by students on-campus, the inspection process becomes more difficult. Additionally, homes must also be legal within the city that they’re inspected for.
The Warrior Village Project's second house sat until it was eventually sold; Pilcher was unable to find a suitable site in a cooperative jurisdiction. Using that money, Pilcher pivoted to building movable tiny houses.
“We couldn't make it work under that model,” Pilcher said. “[We now build] movable tiny houses, which are built to a national code, so it doesn't matter where they're going.”
Today, Pilcher’s movable tiny homes use the same construction plan. Pivoting plans allows him more flexibility when creating tiny home villages in San Diego County.
“We still have the zoning and permitting issues to deal with, but that’s getting better all the time,” Pilcher said.