Building Solutions
A headline in the Indian River Press Journal reads, “Affordable Housing Hits Record Low.” An editorial notes, “Indian River County is not the only Florida location where home prices are not affordable to the average wage owner.” To anyone paying even a little bit of attention, there’s nothing surprising here. What might surprise you is that those articles were published in 1990 and 1995.
That fact might explain why talking to people who have spent their careers working in this space can become demoralizing. They say things like, “The housing problem’s not solvable,” or “A time machine might help,” or, “Even if everything works perfectly, we’ll need another two decades to catch up.” At some point in the conversation, nearly every one of them uses the word “intractable.”
This isn’t to say that any of those people have stopped trying to make a difference—to their Sisyphean credit, they keep pushing the rock up the hill. Rather, it’s to explain why meeting someone like thirty-four-year-old Brandon Rouer is so inspiring. A firefighter by trade, Rouer spends his own money and his free time building affordable housing for low-income renters.
Rouer started buying rental properties in 2017. He saw it as a means of supplementing his family’s income and building wealth. He started by purchasing a four-unit building in downtown Vero Beach. The residents living there were receiving Permanent Supportive Housing assistance (PSH) through Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council (TCHSC). In this U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program, residents pay a portion of their income (not to exceed 30%) and HUD pays the remainder directly to the landlord. It's a property-based subsidy, meaning that the benefit is tied to the residence rather than to the individual.
Rouer, who got his contractor’s license in 2025, didn’t stop there. He purchased another duplex in Sebastian and then built two homes in Gifford. He currently manages eight rental units, and his goal is to keep doubling his stock with each build. His current project on 47th Street consists of two triplexes, which will be available soon as low-income rental properties, providing affordable housing for an additional six veterans. He expects to continue to work with TCHSC and with another HUD program, the county-administered Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (or VASH) program, to find veterans who need a home.
Across the street from the triplexes stands another Rouer build—one of three “tiny houses” he’s built—that sold recently for $186,000. The “tiny house” model is one of the keys to Rouer’s success. By keeping the overall square footage low, he’s able to keep material costs down. The apartments in the triplexes are only 375 square feet each, but clever design leads to room sizes that aren’t that different from larger models. The front door opens into a ten-by-twelve-foot kitchen, which leads to a bedroom of the same size. The five-by-eight bathroom looks like a comfortable guest bath you’d find in a larger home, and there's an ample walk-in closet.
The finishes are high-quality as well. Tile floors, white quartz countertops, and stainless appliances inside are matched by a smooth stucco exterior, metal roofs, and impact windows and doors.
Rouer won’t make a huge profit on the rentals, and he’s ok with that. "Our veterans dedicate and give their lives to defending our freedom,” he says. “They deserve a roof over their head when they come home.” He adds, “I’m in a unique position to do this.” As his own contractor, he can save roughly 10-20% of typical construction costs, and his career as a fire-fighter leaves him with enough spare time for construction. It also helps that his company, Rouer Construction and Development, is a family affair. His father manages the properties, and his wife, Katie Holmes, left her job as a teacher to become a realtor and help with the business.
If you want to learn more about Brandon Rouer and how he’s making our community better two or four or six people at a time, you can watch his videos on YouTube at “Rouer Builds.” You'll see a man who isn’t just generous with his time and treasure, but also with his knowledge. You can learn about roof trusses, installing windows and framing, and about mistakes he’s made and learned from, including a recent one in which the misplacement of a window by two inches cost him more than $4,000. Watch enough of his videos and you’ll also meet some enthusiastic golden retrievers and, thanks to a guest appearance from Holmes, learn how to make a tantalizing “star pizza.”
What’s next for Rouer? When the triplexes are done, he’ll pause for a moment to complete an addition to his home as he gets ready to welcome his first child. Then it will be back to work, building homes to build a better community. “I have my eye on a property where I could put twenty units,” he says, “but right now my capital is all tied up.”
Having met Rouer and seen what he has already accomplished, you can bet that the problem won’t be intractable.