The Unity Homes Difference

Unity Homes prototype - a project of the Healthy Building Network - being built in Gulfport, MSUnity Homes Inc.’s innovative approach to home construction allows us to provide the homeowner with the best possible dwelling at an affordable price. We apply modern-day production efficiencies with high-quality craftsmanship and materials to deliver the best possible home at an affordable price.

• No profit taking!

Unity Homes, Inc., is organized in the state of Mississippi as a non-profit corporation.

Unity Homes, Inc. exists for the charitable purpose of promoting, manufacturing, and installing healthy, high-quality, energy-efficient and affordable modular homes, while stimulating local and regional economic growth through long-term job training and employment opportunities.

Nonprofit corporations are formed for the purpose of serving the public or for a purpose other than the pursuit or accumulation of profits. This means that we have no shareholders, and that more consumers can afford a terrific house.

We exist to advance a mission – to prove that houses can be built with healthy materials at a price affordable to people in all communities, including those struggling to rebuild after the terrible hurricanes season of 2005.

Our income stays at home, which means increased production capacity, better materials, and better wages for our workers.

• In your neighborhood and accountable

Most modular housing manufacturers wash their hands of responsibility once a module leaves the factory. For Unity Homes, Inc., that’s just where the responsibility begins.

Unity Homes, Inc. offers unparalleled customer service. Our field operations team will work with customers before, during, and after they have moved into their new home. Together, we determine which floor plan, elevation, and options match what you desire and can afford. Then, we will ensure that your building site, including the foundation, is prepared for a Unity home.

When financing arrangements are final, our team of skilled homebuilders will begin to build your home in our Columbia, Mississippi facility. Within a short period of time, your home will be ready for delivery. We will ship the house from our centralized location in Columbia, Mississippi to anywhere between Baton Rouge and Mobile, Gulfport and Vicksburg. When the modules arrive, our Unity Homes field teams will set the homes on your foundation in one day.

Within three weeks, our field crews will complete the final touches on your Unity home, then accompany you during a final walk-through of the home to discuss any questions that you may have about your new house. We will explain how to operate the features of a Unity home, as well as illustrate how to maintain it. We will provide the homeowner with a comprehensive manual, and a one-year warranty in our name. We will arrange to visit again and will always be ready to help with questions or concerns.

Unlike most other modular home companies, Unity Homes, Inc. takes full responsibility for each step of the process, because we are accountable for each step.

• A Great Investment

A home built to Unity Homes’ specifications builds equity in every sense. Unlike many homes offered at our price points, these will gain value over time, due to their superior construction, and high-quality, energy-saving and healthy features.

They are built to resist the powerful storms that can sweep through our market area. For example, on the Unity Homes prototype, the nail specifications on 40-year shingle roofing materials are rated to withstand 130 M.P.H. winds.

And from the factory floor to the kitchen floor, we avoid materials that harm your health. We call this “green” building.

What is a Green Home?

When we built a prototype of a Unity home in North Gulfport, Mississippi, the homeowner decided to paint it a light shade of green. While that is one way of greening a house, a “green” home implies an even deeper shade that reaches far into the home’s interior, back to the factory floor and beyond.

"Green" building involves the use of building practices and materials that use resources efficiently, while constructing healthier, more energy-efficient, and environmentally-friendly buildings.

Unity Homes Sample Floor PlanUnity Homes, Inc. takes particular pride in a comprehensive approach that extends from home and local community to the global environment. For example, Unity Homes’ specifications and design take into account, to the greatest extent feasible, the impacts of extracting, producing, using and disposing each component.

Our company recognizes that the building industry and its products have a great impact on the natural environment, human health, and the economy. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), buildings in the United States account for:

• 39% of the nation's total energy use;
• 12% of its total water consumption;
• 68% of total electricity consumption; and,
• 38% of the carbon dioxide emissions.

In addition, research has established the connection between poor indoor air quality caused by airborne contaminants and the health of building occupants. As residents of FEMA trailers know far too well, air pollutants like formaldehyde come from the materials of the building in which they live.

A Deeper Shade of Green

Our company is determined to do its part as a leading edge participant in the green building trade, which is the fastest growing sector of the construction industry. Every year, new products are designed and released on the market, and industry leaders are driving these innovations caused by consumer demand.

But most manufacturers’ definition of “green” housing is limited to energy efficiency. And even then, energy efficient appliances and state-of-the-art HVAC systems are generally sold to people and developers who can bear higher up-front costs.

Unity Homes, Inc. goes far beyond this definition: we believe that every home should not contribute to respiratory problems, cancer or other illnesses associated with building materials. Our specifications put this belief into practice.

Unity Homes Sample Floor PlanHere’s how the Healthy Building Network and Hickory Cosortium applied “green building” principles to the Unity Home prototype’s specs in North Gulfport:

• Low-VOC paints perform well while protecting occupants from exposure to chemicals linked to asthma, liver, kidney or nervous system damage and chemical sensitivity.
• Kitchen cabinets made with no or very low emissions of formaldehyde protect occupants from exposure to this chemical linked to asthma and cancer.
• Using Linoleum flooring made of natural ingredients (linseed oil, pine rosin and wood flour on a jute backing) instead of phthalate-containing vinyl or wall-to-wall carpeting eliminates a major collector of bronchial irritants that cause asthma attacks.
• Timed bathroom fan with computer control insures a healthy regular fresh air supply to inhibit mold growth, protecting walls and lungs.
• Aluminum termite shield and termimesh plug all penetrations eliminating the need for injection of harmful pesticides.

Materials that are particularly heavily utilized in affordably priced homes, like vinyl and formaldehyde, exacerbate the disproportionate health impacts suffered by low-income people in general. For example, childhood asthma rates are reaching epidemic proportions in low-income populations. The avoidance of products known to be asthma triggers – such as vinyl, particleboard, and wall-to-wall carpeting – will reduce asthma attacks in the home.

Energy Efficiency

Backed by the intellectual capital of our team of leading engineers and architects, Unity Homes are also exceptionally energy efficient. Unity Homes’ features translate into real savings on utility bills. As generations of Unity Homes evolve we will add renewable energy systems, such as solar hot water heating; and we will increase the amount of locally-produced materials that meet our environmental and human health criteria.

Unity Homes, Inc. marshals the cost savings generated by our innovative business model, and applies them to higher quality “green” materials and designs that provide long-term value to the consumer. The result: a house that is healthier to live in and less expensive to operate for the same price as a conventional “affordable” home.