h a l f b a k e r yRenovating the wheel
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Anti-homeless architecture includes such things as spikes on the ground, sprinklers on pavement, and hoops on benches, all intended to keep anyone from resting there. I, for one, consider it evil for the obvious reason.
Proposed is a kind of room for the homeless. A two and a half meter long,
one meter wide room with a tiny sink and toilet and one outlet. It doesn't have to be pretty, well-insulated, or anything else, except that it can't be designed to prevent or discourage occupancy.
Proposed is a law making anti-homeless architecture illegal except where the architecture offers some reasonable density of homeless rooms. (for example one room per 15 meters of road facing storefront) The law would also render immune from litigation or prosecution the land owner, specifying that the room's resident is not a tenant of any kind and doesn't have squatter's rights, renter's rights, or the like. Harassment of the homeless by the owner can be prevented by existing laws. Collecting rent of any kind is, of course, forbidden as is telling anyone they may not live, move, or rest there.
Obviously there would be drug use, fights over territory, overcrowding, and the like but no more so than if the homeless were left out on the street without these rooms.
EDIT: So who cleans these rooms? The same people who clean cardboard boxes and under bridges. How are they secured? The same way tents are. Who brings out the dead? The same people who bring the dead out from behind dumpsters.
There will be a small, unavoidable additional maintenance cost in cleaning out and repairing abandoned or vandalized rooms but the primary objective here is to minimize the cost of providing a basic level of privacy and dignity to someone who is already homeless.
https://en.wikipedi.../wiki/Capsule_hotel
[a1, Jul 06 2022]
Bus_20stop_20capsule_20hotel
[a1, Jul 06 2022]
https://www.seattle...-homeless-in-japan/
[a1, Jul 06 2022]
[link]
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I share the sense of weary horror at anti-homeless
architecture, [Voice], although I'm not sure that this idea
would make things better. |
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Part of the problem is overcrowding, especially in certain
parts of the world, which include the South-East of England.
For practical purposes, there is no environment there
except the built environment, and the built environment is
busy trying to do other jobs besides being a sleeping place
of last resort. You can't sleep under a hedge where there
are no hedges, or where they are all some kind of bonsai
privet, or are just far too close to someone else's private
space. |
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My contribution to a solution was to emigrate. |
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I'm gonna bun anything at least trying to address the vexing
problem of homelessness. [+] |
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So you propose upcycling of current architecture to house a homeless
person, perhaps an unleased unit in a strip mall? Would certainly be nicer
to look at than the current practice of utilizing shipping containers. |
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//upcycling of current architecture to house a homeless person, perhaps an unleased unit in a strip mall?//
A strip mall typically has a lot of street-facing space so under my proposal they'll have to to better than one. About one per two shops, perhaps. A typical strip mall shop could house six in the proposed conditions. |
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One huge barrier to fixing the problem is a pervasive idea that if a person isn't doing all he can to afford at least basic housing he should be homeless; that basic dignity is something to be earned. |
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A few problems with this one. |
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Security will be an issue so locks would be needed. You'd want to make sure that these locks are on a timer because a small percentage of residents will die on any given night and their little apartment would be a tomb. |
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Who's going to clean them? The units, not the homeless, that's a separate issue. |
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//Security will be an issue so locks would be needed.//
You've misunderstood the idea. It's not to provide stable housing, it's to provide public spaces where homeless people can rest. Actual housing needs a huge amount of administration, maintenance, and other expenses.
The idea is not an attempt to solve homelessness (so perhaps the title is bad) but an attempt to alleviate the worst of the suffering it causes. People will still be homeless. They will still be living rough. There will still be most of the unpleasantness that comes with that. So who cleans these rooms? The same people who clean cardboard boxes and under bridges. How are they secured? The same way tents are. Who brings out the dead? The same people who bring the dead out from behind dumpsters.
There will be a small, unavoidable additional maintenance cost in cleaning out and repairing abandoned or vandalized rooms but the primary objective here is to minimize the cost of providing a basic level of privacy and dignity to someone who is already homeless. More permanent and humane solutions are outside the scope of this idea.
Maintenance can be minimized by building the rooms with easily replaced material (eg. a wooden box of appropriate size that can be swapped out as needed) or very sturdy material (eg. reinforced concrete) |
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Ah. I see. I'm not sure there is a cure in the short term. |
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The way I see it homeless people might make up a majority of humans in the not too distant future. Even many of those who own property outright will not be able to pay their property taxes as inflation outpaces worth, so for myself, I'm shooting for a passively powered self sustaining permaculture/village type approach, paid off and bill-free... other than taxes. |
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...if we can hold on by the skin of our teeth long enough then the collapse I see around me will render this place sovereign and the only taxes will be local and paid to me to hold all this shit together until I die. Hopefully I've found a successor by then or folks are smart enough to elect a decent one instead of this shit-show we're being subjected to. |
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People in cities are in for a rough ride. I see soup kitchen lines for miles and folks not caring what's in their bowl-of-brown as long as they eat for another day. |
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It makes me sick the things I've seen coming for decades... and all because we're the species that forgets, and so we cycle until we remember. |
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I've been homeless twice. Once because of drugs and
drinking, and the second time because I was jobless,
homeless, and waiting for the government to extend
Unemployment Benefits I was in San Fran with no car, and I
didn't know anyone. My last job had been a "live-in"
situation, and until the government got going I was without
a penny. |
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Finally, I found another live-in position, and yes, that's
when the checks restarted and I was rolling in the dough
then. Ha. |
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I'm so blessed that neither time was now. Currently, in San
Fransico, I wouldn't have had even the Shelter to go to for a
bed and a meal. I would have been on the streets. |
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Looking back it scares me. "A two and a half meter long
room," would have been a castle to me. |
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Wow Blissy, I had no idea. That sucks. |
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I'd be curious to ask your opinion of passing a law
that people
can't be moved off the street unless they've been
given an alternate place to live with adequate
food, shelter and medical care. The idea, in theory
anyway, is it
would
incentivize cities to not sweep their homeless
problem under the rug by just moving them to
another city, which is what currently happens quite
often. |
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Santa Cruz has a famous homeless problem that's
gotten at least a little better and I was asking a
resident what happened. Turns out the surrounding
cities were just sending their homeless to Santa
Cruz till Santa Cruz told them to knock it off. |
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The idea is that you can't do that. You've got
homeless, you can only move them to a safe place
to live, nowhere else. It would be a simple law but
it would profoundly change how the homeless are
dealt with. Would it help? I have absolutely no
idea. |
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Your opinion on this matters much more than
somebody who hasn't experienced homelessness so
I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts. |
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