Ken Kelly wants to save the world, one steel box at a time.

The Naples single dad and roofing company president will be flying down to Haiti this month to test a scheme for turning empty shipping containers into homes for Haitians displaced by January’s earthquake. The roof of the units is key to making them work, and Kelly was instrumental in creating the design.

“I was flying from Los Angeles to Dallas, and struggling with the roof design, and the guy sitting next to me asked what I was doing,” said Russ Lambert, president of Hope Contained, the nonprofit organization he founded to turn the idea into reality. “It was Ken. I told him I was working on a poverty housing system, and he said, ‘I’m a roofing guy. Can I help?’”

“By the time we landed he had designed a roof with a containment system, which lets us catch water on the roof, and insulates it too.” Impressed by Kelly’s knowledge and enthusiasm, Lambert’s organization asked him to sit on their board.

Ocean shipping containers tend to pile up in ports, such as Port au Prince, where much cargo is shipped in but not a lot of exports originate. Hope Contained has devised a way to turn the containers, which can be bought cheaply, into homes.

“Each home can sleep a family of six, or can be designed in a dorm layout, for orphanages,” said Kelly. He and his son Austin, 15, are flying down to Haiti at the end of June to help build the first five homes in what they are calling Project Haiti, and two of the units will be set up as dormitories for an all-girl orphanage.

While the containers have a limited useful life at sea, they will last for 50 years on land, and are earthquake, hurricane, fire and vandalism-proof. Hope Contained can install the homes, complete with furniture and a micro-farm, for under $5,000 apiece.

Kelly’s containment system turns the entire roof into a catch basin or cistern to provide gravity-fed water for drinking and irrigation. A reflective membrane on top helps cool the structure, and prevents evaporation. A special paint called Hyperseal provides insulation for the walls.

“Reflectivity is the key,” said Kelly. “Even after three years, the walls have a solar reflective index of 86 percent. It will be 8 to 10 degrees cooler inside the unit than outside,” important in the tropical climates where these homes will go. Acetylene torches will be used to cut openings for doors and windows into the 3/16” steel walls of the containers.

The structures can become dwellings in very little time, said Lambert. In Haiti, they expect to build five homes in five days. But Hope Contained is thinking far beyond the first prototype projects. They hope to build 100 villages of 40 to 50 units each in Haiti, and are already expanding the concept to other countries.

“Our goal is not to build these ourselves,” said Kelly. “We will provide the plans, the engineering, all the information for free, and the concept can be replicated anywhere you have surplus containers.”

Lambert said they have hired 20 workers in Haiti to handle the fabrication of those units, primarily the church members who will own and move into the homes. Kelly’s roofing company is translating the plans into Creole.

The Mexican government has already approved a village of the container homes, to be built in the Yucatan, 120 miles from Playa del Carmen. “The government gave us the land, and the homes’ residents will provide the sweat equity to build them,” said Kelly. He credits Habitat for Humanity’s Sam Durso for the concept. The two worked together on Collier County’s Affordable Housing Advisory Commission, where Kelly is immediate past chairman.

Kelly is current chairman of the county’s Code Enforcement board, in addition to running his companies, Kelly Roofing and Energy Saving Solutions. He also puts his flying ability to good use, serving as a wing commander for AngelFlight, providing free air transportation for children or adults with medical or compelling humanitarian needs.

When Kelly heads to Haiti on June 30, his son Austin will go along, tasked with providing security for the team. Kelly will pilot them in his Cirrus SR-22, an innovative aircraft that provides a level of safety few others can match.

“They call it the plane with the parachute,” said Ken Kelly. “In an emergency, you can shoot a rocket right out of the fuselage, and deploy a parachute that lets the entire plane set down safely.”

Austin is a wide receiver on the varsity team as a freshman at Palmetto Ridge High School, and aspires to be a Marine pilot, perhaps flying helicopters. His father is a licensed helicopter pilot, in addition to being instrument-certified for fixed-wing aircraft. The two will make one refueling stop on their four-hour flight to Haiti, but plan to do a little sightseeing on the way back.

“We’re going to stop in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Turks and Caicos, and Norman’s Cay in the Exumas,” said the elder Kelly. “We work hard and play hard. Austin says the game of life is worth winning, and I say he’s right. This should be a great experience for both of us.”

To learn more about Hope Contained, or make a donation, go to www.hopecontained.org.