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Hammocks for the Homeless

Better shelter than cardboard box
 
(+7, -7)
  [vote for,
against]

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.
Pellepeloton, Sep 26 2007

Well, It's no worse than this idea http://www.gizmag.com/go/4455/
Not that it's better, either. [bleh, Oct 03 2007]

Unarmed bears ... http://time.com/280...a-backyard-hammock/
Setting an example ? [8th of 7, Jun 05 2014]

Sleep vertically http://www.asc-csa....living-sleeping.asp
[normzone, Jun 06 2014]

(?) Tuppence on the rope http://www.squidoo....uppence-on-the-rope
[not_morrison_rm, Jun 08 2014]

[link]






       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.[+])   

       Tramp cocoons. I like that. What would emerge in the morning?
theleopard, Sep 26 2007
  

       IMO, it would be wiser to spend money on better and more prevalent shelters.
shapu, Sep 26 2007
  

       Claiming squatter's rights in a toilet? There's a joke in there somewhere I'm sure...
lostdog, Sep 26 2007
  

       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.
Murdoch, Sep 26 2007
  

       You guys seem to have stereotype of homeless in mind? Not all homeless are middle-aged alcoholics men?   

       Still even those alcoholics would be better of if they got a good nights sleep?   

       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.   

       Improving the sleep would improve health and then some individuals might get their life back on the rails?   

       Hammocks instead are portable and homeless would stealth camp during the night and remove their hammocks during the day.
Pellepeloton, Sep 28 2007
  

       //Also the cardboard boxes offer very little insulation against cold and would be very uncomfortable.//   

       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.   

       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.
Noexit, Sep 28 2007
  

       You could do like Houston during their bid for the Olympics, and give them all polo shirts from The Gap.   

       Friggin' Houston.
GutPunchLullabies, Sep 29 2007
  

       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!
Pellepeloton, Oct 01 2007
  

       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.   

       And the "worthlessness" of cardboard boxes is the reason people don't get knifed for them
BunsenHoneydew, Oct 03 2007
  

       Don't mean to be facetious here but I'd just like to reiterate my earlier point:   

       Tramp cocoons.   

       That is all.
theleopard, Oct 03 2007
  

       Out of a tramp cocoon would come a bummerfly. Or a sloth.
Murdoch, Oct 03 2007
  

       You guys are boxing homeless into one category. Not all homeless are bums and alcoholics.   

       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.
Pellepeloton, Dec 26 2007
  

       How about sleping bags with hammock attachments? I like the idea, and I have seen homeless people use sleeping bags all the time.   

       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.
Shadow Phoenix, Dec 26 2007
  

       Ham Hocks for the Homeless ?
popbottle, Jun 04 2014
  

       Not just homeless humans, it seems ...   

       <link>
8th of 7, Jun 05 2014
  

       The basic problem, shirley, is the habit of sleeping horizontally. This takes up far too much floorspace.   

       A more practical solution would be a sort of padded dungaree garment, with a loop attached. Then, all that is needed is a wall somewhere with lots of very strong hooks.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 05 2014
  

       That begs the question as to why graves are dug horizontally, rather than drilled vertically with an auger, giving a superior packing density.
8th of 7, Jun 05 2014
  

       Here you go, [M'lord]...(link)
normzone, Jun 06 2014
  

       //The basic problem, shirley, is the habit of sleeping horizontally. This takes up far too much floorspace.   

       Widely baked in the Victorian era workhouse, the skint go to sleep hanging over a rope, don't ask me how...see linky for song..
not_morrison_rm, Jun 08 2014
  

       The "tuppeny rope" consisted of two parallel ropes about two metres apart with strips of canvas stretched between, forming hammocks. In the morning, the tension on one windlass was slowly released, lowering one end of the hammocks to the floor and rendering them unusable for further sleep.   

       Referred to by Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers (q.v.).   

       We understand that M'lord Buchanan uses a similar system for the serfs on his estates, although on that case the addition of sharp spikes on the floor below the "hammocks" is a valuable and effective discouragement to torpor once the waking bell has been rung (typically, with the butt of the overseer's whip).
8th of 7, Jun 09 2014
  
      
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