Shipping Container Homes Need For Emergency Housing |
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| By: Kevin Willis | ||||
Recycled metal shipping containers could plug the housing gap by providing affordable accommodation. Architects in Australia are designing the converted cargo holds as cheap apartments, which are easy to build and even easier to transport. Each container costs about $2,000 and two placed side-by-side make a decent sized apartment area. Developers predict the shipping container conversions will transform the housing market. "they can be built in one place and quickly delivered, completely wind and water-tight, ready to move in," said Jeff Wright from PCS "We are able to find large areas of land where there is a high housing need, like in rural Western Australia, and drop off an accommodation unit at an affordable price." The shipping container homes could be put up on spare land in city centers across the country. Our container homes will be located near major infrastructure and could be over railway stations or railway lines, people will be located where they need to be. The homes could meet changes in housing demand at a quicker pace than traditional development as we cannot actually meet the housing demand if we try and build houses as we have done in the past. There is a change in regards to innovation, improving the quality of people's homes and building them faster and more cheaply. Also, a radical plan to solve Queensland's flood crisis by putting shipping containers in caravan parks has infuriated social welfare organisations. PCS Australia's prominent urban planner Debra Mills said shipping containers could be located on public land or in caravan parks, providing cheaper housing for those locked out of the property market. "Not all people will agree with this proposal, but people don't seem to understand there are others who simply can't afford accommodation and we urgently need to find an alternative," Mrs Mills said. "Many social welfare groups don't seem to understand basic economics, or that if you don't have any shelter you're sleeping in the rain." The 20' shipping containers cost about $3500 but Mrs Mills said the technology to transform them into homes would need to be significantly improved for them to compete with other relocatable housing. The proposal comes less than a week after bleak warnings from the Housing Industry Association that Australia faces an undersupply of 1 million homes over the next five years. Brisbane Council of Social Service spokesman said the plan would lead to urban ghettos and entrench poverty. "There is real concern that shipping containers, even if they are well designed, would lead to a concentration of disadvantage," he said. "When most people think of the shipping containers, they think of people smuggling or asylum seekers." They also said said the proposal ignored the structural and social issues associated with declining housing affordability. PCS Shipping Containers, well advanced with plans to convert containers into homes, said a dwelling made from containers would be up to 50% cheaper than a conventional house. |
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| Article Source: http://yourfinance.co.za | ||||
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