Every year, tens of millions of shipping containers move via water, rail and road, carrying cargo around the planet.

The ubiquitous and nondescript steel boxes are always on the move, but plans are in the works to park a few of them in Duluth and convert them into self-

contained homes for some of the community’s hardest-to-house residents.

Rick Klun, executive director of Center City Housing Corp., has a line on two shipping containers already and plans to begin working on plans with Doug Zaun, a principal partner at the Wagner Zaun Architecture firm in Duluth, this week.

“We’re looking at building a prototype using the first storage container, and we anticipate construction could begin by the 15th of May. After it’s done, we would have some people live in it and critique it,” he said.

Kevin Johnson, a 40-year-old Two Harbors native, said he believes converted shipping containers could help fill a serious void in Duluth’s housing market. Johnson has a prior conviction for drug dealing and only recently found a stable place to live after spending more than a year illegally subleasing an apartment.

“It can be a nightmare to find a decent place to live, and Duluth is an especially difficult town if you’ve got a felony record,” he said.

Donn Hawn, a 47-year-old who has struggled with homelessness himself and now serves as a volunteer at Duluth’s CHUM emergency shelter, said he has a friend who had to have eight fingers amputated this winter because of frostbite suffered while out on the street.

“It’s a depressing place to be,” Hawn said. “I wouldn’t wish homelessness on my worst enemy.”

He, too, sees promise in the idea of developing former shipping containers into homes.

“The people I’ve talked to at the shelter all think it’s a great idea,” Hawn said.

Klun said there’s little financial risk in exploring the concept.

“I feel we can do this, because even if we try it and choose not to build a number of them, I think we can probably turn around and sell one without losing a lot of money,” Klun said.

Klun said used containers can sell for $1,000 to $5,000 apiece and noted that local volunteer labor will be used to keep development costs to a minimum.

Zaun’s firm will propose several possible designs for the 320-square-foot container. He will work within the confines of a steel envelope that’s 8 feet wide by 40 feet long with a 9½-foot ceiling. Zaun noted that containers have successfully been used to develop housing around the world and have been converted into attractive living spaces at a relatively modest cost.

“It’s a fun exercise to try to get your head around,” he said. “But I’m confident we can meet the challenge, and this steel shell can be transformed into something people will find appealing.”

Zaun predicts a prototype should be ready for inspection this spring or summer.

“When this idea becomes a tangible home that people can walk through, that’s when I think the bulbs will start lighting up,” he said.

While a unit of conventional affordable housing typically costs about $60,000 to $90,000 to develop, Matt Traynor, a community organizer for CHUM, said shipping containers have been turned into homes at a cost of $30,000 to $50,000 per unit in other communities.

“I think this will definitely happen; now it’s more a question of how many we will see,” he said.

“Duluth being the community it is, we’ve proven we’re willing to try something different and a little more creative,” Traynor said.

Zaun said every effort will be made to engage the community at large.

“We’re saying this is something we want to explore, and the community response will be interesting,” he said. “Ultimately, if it develops, it will be very important that it be recognized and accepted by the community.”

If Duluth proves receptive, Zaun said the container homes eventually could be clustered together in small neighborhood developments or scattered individually across the city.