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Cadillac of Homeless Shelters

My name is Paul Elkins. I live in Stanwood Washington USA with my lovely wife Mary and our two dogs. In my spare time I play in my shop creating a host of toys and things that roll, mostly. They all start as and idea that gets transfered to paper. I’ve been doing this idea hatching thing since I was a kid. I recieving my first serious sketch pad on Christmas morning when I was 8 years old.
My original intent was to design and construct a simple, light weight, water tight insulated box on wheels geared for the northwest climate that an urban street person could reside in (with all the comforts of home of course) and have an area to display and sell handmade wares.

Wayno is demonstrating the proper way to push the shelter. All 225 pounds of it, empty.
Many homeless people are actually more creative than you might think, and not all want to beg or go rummage around in trash cans all day for a living. Homeless people have pride too! Also, this I think would make a better connection with the public.
So, what started as something that was suppose to be simple and cheap, well, let’s say I got a bit carried away…
What we have here is the Cadillac of homeless shelters…
Paul has developed a complete water collection system and other necessities into this homeless shelter. You can see more pictures and explanation of his design at his blog HighMileageTrikes.

The Homeless Shelter is 78" long, 36" wide and 51" tall. The sitting room is 42"wide. The wheels are 8" in diameter and lockable. The unit rides 9.5" off the ground. (Wares example)- Displayed wire sculptures from recycled wire.

Construction progress.

As you can see I'm very comfortable in this arrangement. More time and money could have been put into these cusions but they, as with most of my projects, are merely for proof of concept.

The two vents in the rear will soon have some sort of louver adjustments in case strong winds blow too cool of air in.

Originally I was just going to use the spigot on the 5 gallon container, but after some thought I installed a spigot over the sink (bread pan). This view shows all the doors open.