OGDEN (KSNT) – A tried-and-true process has recently been brought to the U.S., and more recently to Kansas.
Thanks to the 2019 Farm Bill, hemp is allowed to be used in new affordable homes built by Habitat for Humanity with the help of volunteers and students at Kansas State University. Michael Gibson, an architecture professor at K-State, has been working with Habitat for Humanity of the Northern Flint Hills since 2020 to help confront the affordability crisis in Manhattan.
Gibson has led a seminar where his students, in collaboration with the non-profit, have built affordable homes in Ogden. During his fall 2024 seminar class, Gibson completed some research on what they can use in this home that would not only make it affordable but also allow it to be net positive.
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“I was approached by some people from the Kansas Hemp Consortium, and they had some material available to experiment with,” Gibson said. “So, we worked with someone who was named Angel Romero, who’s from western Kansas and also was an early adopter, and worked with him. So, I taught a seminar for two consecutive years where the students got comfortable with the material.”
During that time, the students and Gibson were able to figure out that Prairie Band Ag had been growing hemp for about a year and were able to use locally-sourced products in these homes. Something interesting about hemp is that, before World War II, it was industrially grown in the U.S. where it was used to make products such as ropes and fabrics. But in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, industrial hemp was banned across the country.
Now, the plants grown on the reservation all start from the soil when the season begins in late March to early April.
“The growing periods is about, you know, anywhere from 90 days to 120 days,” said Zach Gill, the production manager at Prarire Band Ag. “So, within that respect, the time for harvest, you probably add another three weeks to that. So, relatively a couple of months, you can have a crop grown, fully harvested, and processed within the border, within the processing facility for downstream applications like housing.”
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What makes these micro-houses unique is the fact they are net-positive for the homeowners due to not only the hempcrete-insulated floor and the hemp wall insulation, but also thanks to the solar panels as well.
“It’s going to be super energy efficient,” said Josh Brewer, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of the Northern Flint Hills. “It’s going to have some solar panels up on the roof. So, right in time for summer, whenever you’re getting those really hot temperatures, whoever owns this home is going to see their energy bills stay pretty consistent and low because of the super insulation and because those solar panels, that’s fantastic habitat for humanity, also had some other affordable houses around the area.”
Brewer also told 27 News the house in Ogden will be the first house in Kansas and the first Habitat for Humanity house in the country that will be using hemp insulation. This home is expected to be finished late spring, early summer, for the first owners.
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