It should be blindingly obvious that over a period of approximately forty years, homelessness has emerged as a problem that started at essentially zero and has now expanded to around .17% of the population. Now all these folks are actually on the welfare rolls at the least and do have access to cash that is potentially able to support housing.
The difficulty has been that the credit system has driven up land costs to support capitalizing interest and this process is still continuing.
Yet the instance you toss out this component, the marginal cost of housing is readily covered by the cash flow available from the welfare payout. We are talking about a sum no different from a car payment and this makes good sense.
After all imagining and mass producing a one person housing unit can not be that much different. All that leaves is the problem of placement and servicing that manufactured unit. Since such a unit is temporary, it can remain independent of the land and foundation aspect and simply be treated as a parked vehicle. Whole cellars are devoted to parking and often sublet for small change.
The easiest fix then can be mandated through local government by allowing housing unit parking spaces on the roofs of buildings. This allows for complete security and direct access to services such as plumbing and power as needed or even shared. It also places the individuals inside high density locales with best access to public services.
In this manner all homeless individuals can be immediately assigned a unit by government agencies in charge of their care. Their homelessness ends then and there even using the scant resources now available. Better yet these units also accommodate large numbers of the working poor as well by providing a proper accommodation close by their work. The immediate benefit of this is that it promotes a supportive community for those who are struggling.
Presently the working poor rely on sub standard housing often cobbled together in single family houses not properly imagined for this purpose or in properties long past the due date.
It is no trick at all to manufacture such housing units and to also build them lightly as well. Code is no longer the issue as stiff insulated walls and floors and roofs only need to handle the abuse of the inhabitant and little else. Fire and water resistance matters of course as do stove hoods. Yet we are dealing with either a single individual or a couple as well. Both can be worked around as we have done this over and over again.
Thin panels are particularly attractive as they can be stress skin using polyurethane foam to glue it all together. Too much foam is costly and has kept this out of the building trades to a large degree.
A two inch thick panel is good enough to set double paned windows and hold doors as well. If the outer layer is vertical aluminium with machined folding to stiffen we are good there. The inner panel can be OSB board over which we can glue vinyl or even veneer. That is now robust now to take nails. Thin cut stock can be used to provide spacing and some stiffening as well.
A strong cardboard paper hex frame can be used for the floor to provide stiffness as well in combination with the foam which glues it all together. The general thinness prevents an excess of internal movement and foam expansion will penetrate all the fiber..
These units can be manufactured in their millions and for a unit say 8 X 10 X 10 feet which is oversized compared to what we see presently, this represents approximately a surface area of 560 square feet or close to fifty cubic feet of material. At less than fifty pounds per cu ft, we are looking at a admittedly top weight of around 2500 pounds. This is easily halved and will be. However the unit parking space needs to handle a good ton of weight for maximum security.
Most roofs can do this readily under our codes.
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