h a l f b a k e r y
A few slices short of a loaf.
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I have used a hammock designed for sleeping for it's purpose. This type of hammock has mosquito netting and rain fly on top.
I find it comfortable and warm. It has insulating system and packs into a small and lightweight package. In my opinion it is much better than tent as it does not need flat ground.
It
would be ideal solution for homeless people.
Just what is needed is suitable places to hang them up.
parks have trees but city councils could set up hooks and poles under bridges or homeless shelters etc.
The beauty of homeless having hammocks is that it takes only couple minutes to set them up and even less to remove and leave no traces for nights occupancy.
Hammocks would be donated to homeless by some charity organization and after sleeping on them a few nights the hammocks would become home for the homeless.
Well, It's no worse than this idea
http://www.gizmag.com/go/4455/
Not that it's better, either. [bleh, Oct 02 2007]
Free Swags
http://www.swags.org.au/
There's a verion of this baked in Australia. A "swag" is a bedding roll, for the non-Australians. [UnaBubba, Dec 26 2007]
[link]
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Problem with hammocks is that they require trees spaced close together, and most city officials don't want parks being crowded by homeless because they scare off children and detract from the park's idyllic beauty (note, that's not necessarily my personal opinion, but I have heard city officials make such remarks when discussing the problems faced by rising homeless populations). The only other place this could work would be along sidewalks strung between street signs and light poles, and that isn't going to go over well, either. (neutral) |
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Have hooks installed into walls of alleyways. Not too many in the same place to render the alley a tramp-filled coccoon nest; just the odd one or two here and there dotted about the city. (I really like this idea.[+]) |
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Tramp cocoons. I like that. What would emerge in the morning? |
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IMO, it would be wiser to spend money on better and more prevalent shelters. |
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There was a big city somewhere (I think New York or Chicago) where they thought they'd be nice to tthe homeless and put portable toilets in alleys and public places so they'd have a place to, er, deposit their waste without going on the sidewalk, but they abused the privelege and you had individuals taking over the portables and claiming squatter's rights, keeping everyone else out. |
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Claiming squatter's rights in a toilet? There's a joke in there somewhere I'm sure... |
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Naive, uncaring and unworkable on a number of levels. Perhaps we could also give those pesky homeless folks some nice garden furniture to sit round during the day. |
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You guys seem to have stereotype of homeless in mind?
Not all homeless are middle-aged alcoholics men? |
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Still even those alcoholics would be better of if they got a good nights sleep? |
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Problem with homeless using cardboard boxes for sleeping is that they are pretty worthless so get left behind.
Also the cardboard boxes offer very little insulation against cold and would be very uncomfortable. |
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Improving the sleep would improve health and then some individuals might get their life back on the rails? |
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Hammocks instead are portable and homeless would stealth camp during the night and remove their hammocks during the day. |
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//Also the cardboard boxes offer very little insulation against cold and would be very uncomfortable.// |
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This is the main problem I have with your idea. Having slept in a hammock on a cool night on several occasions, I can report that a hammock offers NO insulation against the cold. With proper sleeping bags, blankets, whatever you might get a decent system, but then we're moving from a small, inexpensive something to a big, expensive something. |
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I'd love to figure out a way to help the half dozen or so homeless people that have taken up residence in the public park across the street from me. But I really don't think that throwing camping equipment at them is the solution. |
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You could do like Houston during their bid for the Olympics, and give them all polo shirts from The Gap. |
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Insulation is not a problem as I use a hammock with 3-season insulating system. There is 2nd layer under my hammock and inbetween I use specially designed lightweight foam. Cheaper solution would be just a woollen blanket inbetween the layers.
As this insulation is under the 1st skin it is not compressed and provides warmth unlike thicker matress on a tent.
4-season insulating system for this hammock has been tested succesfully under freezing and snowy conditions in Arctic Norway! |
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I dunno. There's an awful lot of flat ground out there, relative to the number of pairs of attachment points the right distance apart and in a sheltered, private location. |
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And the "worthlessness" of cardboard boxes is the reason people don't get knifed for them |
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Don't mean to be facetious here but I'd just like to reiterate my earlier point: |
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Out of a tramp cocoon would come a bummerfly. Or a sloth. |
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You guys are boxing homeless into one category. Not all homeless are bums and alcoholics. |
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In fact I am in a conventional sense homeless as I do not live in a house with a permanent address. But on the other hand I have a mobile home which is my campervan. |
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How about sleping bags with hammock attachments? I like the idea, and I have seen homeless people use sleeping bags all the time. |
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It isn't hard to convert a sleeping bag into a hammock, and it would solve the insulation problem. Also, the bags aren't too conspicuous and don't always need special places to hang them. If there is a suitable place, the attachments are then used to turn the bag into a hammock. |
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