Do-it-yourself projects can be hard to complete without the right tools. But there's a solution to that problem popping up across the country: tool libraries.
"Everyone needs tools, whether it's in their own life or whether it's part of, you know, a broader kind of goal or dream that they might have for their neighborhood or community," said Darren Cotton, founder of the Buffalo Tool Library.
The library is a membership-driven nonprofit organization with memberships starting as low as $30 a year.
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Members are allowed to check out as many as five tools a week.
Buffalo is home to more than 200,000 people, and 30% live in poverty. For many, the tool library is a chance to make repairs they couldn't otherwise afford.
Tool libraries have also popped up in large metro areas, including Denver and Phoenix.
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Some charge an annual membership or fee per use. Grants also help fund many of the locations.
Cotton says many of the tools he lends out would have been dumped in a landfill. Those tools are now saving people thousands of dollars.
"The tool library is really like, you know, the coolest neighbor that you could possibly know who has almost every single tool that you could ever need," Cotton said.
