A personal journey to learn what it means to build home — by hand, and together.

The Beginning

Making Home began with a simple question:

What would it take for someone without a home to build one—by hand, for themselves, and for under ten thousand dollars?

I’m Matt Rising, and this project started as a personal experiment — to learn what it actually takes to build a small, lasting home, and to share that process openly.

I’m not a builder by trade. I’m learning everything for the first time — from framing a wall to understanding how a nonprofit works — and documenting that process as I go.

Making Home is part apprenticeship, part movement.

I’m learning from builders, teachers, and communities who’ve reimagined what shelter can be: human-scaled, made from simple materials, and built together.

Along the way, I’m capturing what works — the materials, plans, and systems — and sharing it all so that others can follow, contribute, or adapt these ideas in their own communities.

This isn’t about charity. It’s about participation, mentorship, and skill-building — helping people rediscover the power of making with their own hands.

The Learning

The Vision

The long-term goal of Making Home is to become a nonprofit program where unhoused people can apply, learn, and build.

Each phase of the program will center on three outcomes:

  • Learning: a hands-on curriculum that teaches essential building and design skills.

  • Building: homes made with natural, low-cost materials that people will live in.

  • Teaching: each participant helps train the next cohort, multiplying the impact.

Every build becomes both a home and a classroom, proving that human-scale housing can be created for a fraction of today’s costs — and that anyone can learn how to do it.

The Future

Making Home is still in its earliest stages — the part where questions outnumber answers.

I’m learning what it takes to start a nonprofit, what it means to build ethically and sustainably in cities, and how to organize a movement that can last.

The Invitation

This journey will only reach its destination through collaboration — through people offering wisdom, mentorship, friendship, and skill.

If this vision resonates, you’re invited to follow, contribute, or join the making. Visit the Get Involved Page, pick a lane and send us information!

Because none of us can make home alone.