Humanitarian

Shelter 2.0 – Shelter for the Masses?

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Robert Bridges from Shelter 2.0 contacted me after I ran the Haiti Earthquake and the Tiny House Community article last week to let me know about a shelter he and a friend Bill Young have designed.

Robert says: “It easily assembled as every part is CNC cut and there are very few different pieces. The tarp can be removed once it has been set up and then made more permanent by either sheathing with two layers of 1/4″ ply covered with a rubber membrane or some sort of metal or shingles.”

Over one million people will go to sleep this year without proper shelter, and in the wake of our country’s current economic situation and the continual growth of tent cities here in America, it is the mission of Shelter 2.0 that everyone should have the right to a roof over their head and a floor under their feet.

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Haiti Earthquake and the Tiny House Community

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*Update I think you will enjoy Ian’s input who has experienced his own disaster. Please read below first picture. Also a note from the Colorado Yurt Company.

Peter Sing of Sing Tiny House contacted me with a suggestion of getting the Tiny House Community to generate ideas and designs for housing for those who have lost their homes in the horrible earthquake in Haiti.

We should brainstorm ideas for basic emergency shelter and also more permanent shelter when Haiti starts to rebuild.

I have been trying to think of the best way to do this and think that by using the comments section of this post we can start generating ideas. If you have a design you would like to share email it to me at tinyhouseblog at gmail dot com (be sure and put the email address in the correct format) and I will then put together a post to show your potential designs. I will work on who to contact to submit our ideas too. Any suggestions are welcome. Let’s pitch together and see what we can do to help!

Below are a couple of pictures of some of the standard housing in Haiti.

I’m addressing your call for ideas to help out the Haiti Earthquake victims.  Following Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the biggest short term challenge will be getting people clean water or ways to purify water through solar or other means.  Then comes waste treatment.  Solve these problems first and you’ve got the disease factor at least limited.   Food gathering and storage naturally would follow after that.

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Homemade Homeless Shelter

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The New York Times has a video produced by Sean Patrick Farrell about a man in California who is using his ranch as a special homeless shelter and rehab center. The difficulties he has encountered and the laws he has chosen to ignore to make this work. Thanks Jeff for letting me know about this video.

Dan de Vaul has taken in dozens of homeless people by building ramshackle, illegal housing on his ranch in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Some see him as a good Samaritan, but others consider the ranch to be a dangerous eyesore. Watch the “Homemade Homeless Shelter video here.”

Photos from video by Sean Patrick Farrell

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