Shipping Container Housing: a new possibility for affordable housing?

[Wordie]

I found this article earlier today, and wanted to share it with DUers, but I wasn't quite certain where it belongs. I posted it in the Frugal Living DU Group, but I also thought it should go here, in the Poverty forum (for lack of an Affordable Housing forum), as it seems that this might be a strategy for providing housing to a greater number of people, for instance, the homeless. This idea, if taken up by affordable housing advocates, could be a winner, imho, although the article primarily discusses higher-end projects.

Living In Style In Shipping Containers
Last modified: January 26, 2006, 8:41 AM
Contributed By: Cornelia Myers

Believe it or not there is a group of architects that have developed some very stylish residences out of the humble shipping container. Not only residences, there have also been hundreds of metal shipping containers used for museums, restaurants and weekend houses. You would not even realize that these beautiful and creative structures were once hauling supplies across the country.

...Adam Kalkin has designed houses out of shipping containers before, but his last one is actually a luxury dwelling for the rich. He unveiled his creation at the Art Basel Miami Beach art show in December 2005 and the attendants were surprised to see lavish furnishings and a beautifully designed interior inside a shipping container. The project has the interesting title of "Push-Button House" because it can be loaded in the back of a truck to be moved and it opens up like a Murphy bed to expose the interior.

...Most architects have noted that the prefab shipping container habitat is ideal for setting up in emergency situations and for humanitarian needs. These very structurally sound and durable homes can be moved easily on the back of trucks and can be loaded and unloaded numerous times with no damage or need for repairs. They can be moved virtually anywhere there is a road and it is easy to hook up plumbing and electrical connections to the outside of the shipping container.

They are very dry, leak resistant and easy to care for. They can be insulated to keep out the cold and, despite being metal, are reported to be easy to cool even in hot climates. The shipping container homes are virtually fire resistant and can be easily cleaned or painted if necessary.

While a shipping container home may not have been an option you had previously considered, it might be something to ponder in the future. The sky is the limit to using your imagination in designing your very own low cost prefab home.

http://www.livearticles.org/article.php?articleID=384

Note that the article also included a bit urging readers to visit http://www.Shipping-Container-Housing.com for tips, costs, and companies. (Unfortunately, some of the link on that site are bad, but it has some good info too, so I included it.)

[pinto]

1. I saw an article on this recently, as well. Not this one. But it featured

an actual project that was mixed use - small offices (down) and studio apartments (up). Three stories, if I remember correctly, on a waterfront somewhere. Apartments had balconies. Visually blocky, of course, but not bad overall. Interesting idea.

[pinto]

2. Found this. Post I made in Environment/Energy forum. A little more info...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=38692

[Wordie]

5. Thanks for that, pinto.

There are some great links in that thread, which I plan to explore. I actually sent the following link to the mayor of my city a couple of years ago, as an idea for housing the homeless. I never heard back, though. :(

http://www.escapeartist.com/OREQ4/Nomadic_Housing2000.html
It's got some practical tips, and also has more of an economy approach, as opposed to some of the things I've seen lately.

And I just found this one, which looks amazing:
http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/
It's the Shipping-Container-Architecture Information Repository, and its got tons of links, including projects, academic, research, forums, etc., etc. It looks like an interesting site.

[Babette]

3. My mother is building a home from containers....

There's just the two of them, so they don't need a lot of space. They are using two containers side by side to make a square. They're having a great time planning and cutting back on "stuff" that won't fit into the small space. Their house is ending up almost as expensive as a traditional house because they are covering the outside to disguise the fact that it's containers and putting up drywall inside. Seems like they should have just gone with the traditional home. However, a home made made from these doesn't have to be that expensive.

[catnhatnh]

4. Ok....most shipping containers are limited to....

(I believe) 102" maximum width and 48' maximum lenth....that said you are talking almost exactly the size of an early 60's "trailer home"...if you have ever lived in one they are slightly claustrophobic (I have) and older (say 1970) mobile homes can be bought at similar prices and in the relatively deluxe 12x60 dimension....the rub of course is zoning which will not allow older mobile homes....That said it is a nice idea but the real problem is that no municipality in it's right mind wants 5-10K housing within 10 light years of their boundaries....a young fecund bitch with a studly husband might easily pop out 6-8 bundles of underclass joy that could then use up to 40k a year in educational costs...and paying taxes on a structure with a 5K valuation Methuselah wouldn't repay their investment...it ain't pretty but it is fact...

[Wordie]

6. You probably have a good point there, but...

There are some projects in which several of them are stacked to make an apartment building. I keep thinking that for affordable housing for the homeless, these might show some promise. It would take an affordable housing developer, probably, to make it fly.

And I think that they are put together, side-by-side, in some projects, so that they won't give people that claustrophobic experience (I presume that a portion of the inside walls would be cut away to form a larger room). It's an intriguing idea, at any rate.

[catnhatnh]

7. Oh no-you are absolutely right...

...they could make great housing.The problem here in New England is that zoning is extremely tight and most towns really don't want the down trodden to move in.It really is the dark side of "voting with your feet"....as long as any area truly welcomes and supports the poor,the poor will flood the area and since costs are transferred to a local level,the town WILL GO BROKE...Even Steinbeck recognized that most people didn't hate the Okies...they just didn't want a disproportionate cost...

[Wordie]

8. Oh, yeah...

I worked with the homeless at one time, so I'm well aware of that thinking. In response to plans for a homeless service center being proposed, one politician I knew just kept repeating, "If you build it, they will come..."

Of course, people never consider that the poor people who were born in their towns, but have left, also have gone somewhere and are probably being treated similarly by their new town. If all jurisdictions would provide the services that the poor need, in the long run, it would all even out anyway. And probably cost less in the long run. Now we deny basic services, in favor of waiting until problems become acute or critical and are lots harder and more expensive to deal with.

There are an awful lot of nimbys in the world, I'm afraid. Even ostensibly Christian people...

[catnhatnh]

9. The really real solution to it....

...is that both education and a basic social safety net ARE a federal responsibility fully as important as supporting a military or maintaining borders....the constitution guarantees life liberty and the pursuit of happiness...but what should be the actual meanings of those guarantees in the 21st century....
Life...food, shelter, and clothing.And I'll add Medical care...if that is not guaranteed than pursuit of happiness is negated...
Liberty...All those silly bill of rights things being violated now...and end to ridiculous "wars on Drugs" and massive incarcerations of non-violent citizens.Ending corporate "personhood"....Why is it a person can get the death penalty and a corporation can't???
The pursuit of happiness....some will choose to play like otters and others will choose to work like oxen....the profit motive should honor hard work and industriousness but not wanting to play should not mean marginalization...
Just sayin'...

[Wordie]

10. There are many homeless people who hold down a job...or two!

Many of the people that are viewed as just not working hard enough, or trying hard enough, instead are working far harder than those who level the criticisms. And I might add, that some of them are doing so despite disabilities or other hardships that go beyond just poverty alone. It seems in this country that once a persons slips below a certain threshold there's just no getting up again, no matter how hard they try.

I agree with almost all of what you've said. It's hard to understand how things have gotten like this in our country and it makes me sad to see.

[catnhatnh]

11. Though unspoken,the breaking point is education...

Any decent town can put up a health clinic and a food pantry....but a single child at 5K a year is going to cost 60k to educate...and multiply that by 3 or 4 and we're talking real money...Now an affordable housing project for ten young couples means over 2 million tax dollars spent and even if you call 100k "affordable" then 100k x 10 x12 = 12 million dollars-meaning that even if you could tax the homes at 10 percent (1,2) million you would STILL lose money (800k)...Now suggest a complex for 500 affordable units...
I live in a city in this state with both a high tax rate and reasonable real estate prices (though only relatively,due to the bubble)...We have our own high school, a hospital,several shopping malls, and an industrial base...less than 20 miles from us you can find towns with a tax rate less than 1/4 of ours that have almost nothing...they come here to shop,they come here for health care,and they come here to work,and then retreat to their "nicer" communities...their town will usually pay tuition to a larger area and bus their kids to high school.And there ain't "affordable" housing within miles...
Until education is a federal or at least minimum state requirement,affordable housing is a dream of the poor and a curse for the cities...

[OneBlueSky]

12. that this is in the "news" is troubling, to say the least . ..

while this link emphasizes "high-end" container residences, it also begins the acculturation process -- the propaganda -- to get Americans accustomed to thinking about living in shipping containers . . . that suggests to me that the powers that be are anticipating a time (and relatively soon) when this kind of housing (less the elegance) will actually be needed . . .

we all know about the housing bubble, and the widespread suspicion that it's about to end -- with significant declines in the equity value of private homes . . . could BushCo be planning a land grab similar to New Orleans on a nationwide scale? . . . except that the cause will be the inability of homeowners to pay the banks' demands for major cash payments because the equity no longer covers the mortgage (either first or second) rather than a hurricane . . .

good deal for them -- they get lots and lots of cheap houses that, by and large, haven't been wrecked . . .

while the former owners move into shipping containers -- because they can't afford the rents on their former residences . . .

[Wordie]

13. I can see why you're concerned...

but it seems to me that if Bush does have the sorts of things you mentioned in the works, then the real issue won't be the shipping containers, but the evils of the Bush administration.

I ran across articles about shipping containers as housing a couple of years ago, and really think their use for the housing of homeless people might be a good possibility, if the projects were designed well, as the higher-end examples show that they can be. So that's my perspective on them. Especially those cities that have a lot of shipping, and hence might have a lot of used containers available, might find that their use could reduce the costs of housing the homeless.

[sandnsea]

14. Used to be called railroad cars

We had a "war on poverty" so people wouldn't have to live in them anymore. They make homes out of used garage doors down in Mexico too. I'm all for getting somebody out of the cold and rain, but I gotta' say this just sounds like a gigantic leap backwards. :cry:

[Wordie]

15. Oh...I'm so sorry that the article affected you that way...

I personally am fascinated with alternative housing possibilites, and see this as a possible way to get people housed. I think the average homeless person would probably look upon this idea with some interest. The thing is, if you take a look at some of the high end projects that the links in the OP led to, some of them really are quite nice, and don't seem like something degraded or unhappy at all to me.

The high end examples use high end equipment and finishes that drive costs up substantially. If it were possible for some creative sorts to develop a low-end project that incorporated some of the same concepts, but used materials (preferably green, I would hope) that cost a lot less, then I think the idea would have a lot of merit.

Of course, land costs, permits, and utilities add a lot to the cost of any project, so I don't know how something like this would pencil out. Perhaps the savings isn't substantial enough to make a difference. It's worth exploring, though, imho.

I understand your concerns, though. Any such project would have to be handled in a sensitive way, and be really well-designed and executed, or I would have the same concerns.

[sandnsea]

16. Oh I know

Times change and we have to face reality, resources aren't unlimited. Just hoped we could do better than this by now, that's all.

[Wordie]

17. You could also consider that it has the advantage of not requiring

that we chop down more trees for lumber for stick-building, and they are extremely fire resistant as well.

[sandnsea]

18. I did

We have to deal with what we have to deal with, our current lifestyle can't go on forever. Turning containers, railroad cars, whatever, just wasn't quite what I envisioned in a reduced consumerism world.

[AngelicBit]

19. You got it wrong.

Am not really sure that is the implication at all. In fact container housing IS the affordable option, but just because it's made of shipping containers, it doesn't mean that your home should look and BE tacky. Similar information may be found here: http://www.containeralliance.com/articles/rent-shipping-containers.php ">Renting Alliance.