It's a challenge that has confounded countless architects. Now three students in rural Alabama believe they can design a home that's truly affordable, even for those in some of America's poorest communities.

"The $20,000 House" is an ongoing project by Auburn University's Rural Studio with financial support from Regions.

Founded in 1993, the Rural Studio offers students a chance to design progressive buildings for residents of Alabama's most impoverished counties. For this project, the program's goal is simple but daunting. Design a home that could be built by a contractor for $20,000.

The most recent and promising prototype was created by Rural Studio students Obi Elechi, Charity Bulgrien and Ian Cook. Once completed, it will become the home of a Hale County, Alabama, man whose current house does not even have running water.

"There are so many people living at or below the poverty line in West Alabama, especially Hale County, that the $20,000 house offers a great opportunity for people to get out of living in substandard or worse conditions and own their own home," Bulgrien says.

Once successful, the design should revolutionize housing for some of the nation's poorest residents, especially the elderly surviving only on Social Security.

Rural Studio Director Andrew Freear has seen the dilapidated trailers that many elderly Alabamians live in. This unfortunate reality reminds Freear daily about the dramatic need to revolutionize the idea of affordable housing.

Thanks to Freear's students, those same elderly residents could one day own a home that is both a sound investment and a point of pride.