As houses go, the 320-square-foot former shipping container that Austin Hyde and Andrea Jones moved into Thursday would hardly qualify as a dream home.

Unless you’ve been displaced by the worst natural disaster in your city’s history and forced to hop from hotel to hotel for seven months.

“This means the world,” Hyde, 26, said Friday as he stood in the tiny living room/kitchen area of his new home along Regis O’Connor Boulevard in Habitat for Humanity’s Durbin Estates subdivision. “We were jumping back and forth between hotels and then in a camper.

“Now we won’t have to pack in a month or two.”

Hyde and Jones, his girlfriend, were displaced by the December 2021 tornado that destroyed their duplex off Porter Pike Road and had since lived like nomads.

Now they know that the erstwhile shipping container will be their home for the next year, and that news made the one-bed, one-bathroom digs seem like the Ritz-Carlton.

“Being in the hotel and not being able to cook was hard,” Jones said as she eyed the home’s smallish stove. “We’re super grateful.”

That gratitude extends to a lot of people and organizations who made it possible for the couple and Jones’ 3-year-old daughter to finally have stable, albeit tight, living quarters.

The shipping container was refurbished by Indiana-based Land Betterment Corp., an environmental solutions company best known for its work upcycling former coal mining and industrial sites.

Hyde and Jones are able to live for a year without rent or utility payments in the tiny dwelling thanks to Lexington-based Community Ventures, a nonprofit that put up the $24,000 sponsorship fee.

“We do a lot of work to try to build or rehabilitate housing,” said Brenda Weaver, president of housing and lending for Community Ventures. “When we heard about the tornado, we wanted to find a way to get our resources into the disaster area.”

Working with Land Betterment, Weaver found a way. And, with the help of Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Rodney Goodman, she found the place.

Goodman had a site for the container home in Durbin Estates, so all that was needed was a suitable resident.

With the help of United Way of Southern Kentucky and the Housing Authority of Bowling Green, Hyde was identified as a potential tenant.

“We’re grateful to be a part of this,” said Katie Miller, the Housing Authority’s special projects director. “We received funds from United Way for case management, and we have housed 28 families affected by the tornado.”

Miller can add to that list now, with Hyde and Jones setting up housekeeping in the cozy container.

Hyde, a Warren Central High School graduate who has been working as an apprentice tattoo artist at Bowling Green’s Mad Tatter, hopes the new home will put an end to what has been a difficult few months living in the Comfort Suites and Best Western hotels and briefly in a camper.

“Our duplex was hit,” Hyde said, recalling those early-morning hours of Dec. 11. “Luckily, we weren’t there when it happened.

“It was scary. My main goal now is to get back on my feet. This home will definitely help us.”

That help may extend beyond the one year of free rent and utilities. Hyde said he has already discussed with Goodman the prospect of becoming a homeowner through Habitat.

Goodman, meanwhile, is already looking to expand on the container home concept as a way to help others like Hyde.

“Rodney has a vision of doing two more,” said Land Betterment President Kirk Taylor. “You already have the infrastructure here, so that reduces the cost.”

Taylor said Hyde’s new home is the 22nd container home Land Betterment has completed, and he’s hoping to do more.

“We have 15 containers down in Alabama,” he said. “We’re just looking for community sponsors and property.”