A nation allows people to ‘leak’ from shelter and become homeless, very often due to circumstances beyond their control. Solutions:
- Let them sink
- ‘Bail’ them back into shelter over and over again
- Choose who will get help and who won’t — a version of “who deserves a hand up?”
- Fix the leaks
In many countries that leakage continues to grow and is reaching, or has already reached, a crisis level. Previously, almost everywhere, local and national fixes to the problem have been solution 1 or 2 listed above: ignore the problem, bail fitfully or make the problem smaller so you can claim success. The fourth alternative — to actually fix the problem — has been shunned by free enterprise (let free enterprise do it better) as unprofitable, and by governments as too expensive.
But there are signs of change, notably in the semi-permanence of tiny ‘personal shelter’ villages1, and in modular pop-up, pop-down low rise ‘transitional’ housing2.
Only a few years ago, affordablehousingaction.org was raising its eyebrows at some of the absurdities of permanent living space in crowded Hong Kong — concepts such as building livable homes in a section of a sewer pipe, for example3.
Are we now ready to move on to a recognition that living space, for those with lower incomes, essentially requires to be tiny? Does a fourth alternative — actually ‘fixing the leak’ simply require recognition that we have no meaningful plans beyond ‘transitional’ tiny houses, nor do many loom on anyone’s horizons? Transitional to what and where, exactly?
If we wish to benefit from copying Hong Kong’s infamously expensive and tiny housing, it’s useful to understand that other Chinese cities have become huge, world class economic and industrial powerhouses and are also similarly constrained by limited housing space.
Should we look to social housing developments like the one showcased below for a next step after transitional tiny housing in order to actually fix the problem with tiny permanent housing?
Read more in de zeen: MAD aims to “challenge to the status quo” with first social housing project and/or view a Youtube Video describing the project
