My parent always used no more than 2 people (note, people not kids) per room occupancy. 

I want to dive deep into this and apply myself to be able to be financially independent buy my family our dream house and retire my parents. 

His wish is to donate it to his Alma-mater (he just made a multi million cash donation already) but they 'do not take physical gifts'.

I lost them to things like better paying out of town jobs, moving to wifes hometown to take care of parents, jail, even opening their own business and getting massively busy. 

If not can you get money from parents, family members?  

Due to a family issue with my parents and sick sister I may want to go the route of having a duplex built rather than finding one already existing. 

I've received some incredible donations from lenders, friends, family, etc.. and am working on grants to donate materials for us to complete the job but there is a ton of paperwork and red tape!

I'm currently 18, living with my parents, doing both college and work full-time, my college is paid for by my employer.

Cool thing is though that you can get their parents to co-sign so collecting additional money to cover said damages is much easier than it is when renting to regular tenants especially if you're in the lower income arena.

If I were in your place, I would stay with my parents or a roommate where I am paying little to no rent.