Micro Homeless Shelter
New York City supposedly spends some Two Billion dollars per year housing some 75,000 homeless people - or around $ 25,000 per person. A food allowance of $20 / day would cost around $8,0000 per year - which leaves a balance of $18,000 - or nearly a maximum of $1,500 per month for rent. VRT believes it should be possible to provide minimal but adequate shelter for considerably less. It has devised units whose cost it projects at roughly $3,000. At a 5% interest rate this amortizes to around $250 per year on a 20 year note, or a mere $20 per month excluding utilities and administrative costs.
VRT's simple minimal 'privatized' bunk bed shelter concept gives the homeless individual a bed, closet and dressing area in the minimum possible space yet which affords full privacy. VRT has chosen SIP panels for construction for several reasons. First, CNC machines can now automate SIP panel fabrication even of very large size:
Second, by prefabricating each panel in the kit, installation on the job site becomes a very manageable matter and waste is eliminated. Third - a variation on 'platform construction' is used so that the SIP structure' s load bearing ability is not dependent on the fasteners used to connect the SIPs. And finally with SIPS, insulation is builtin - both thermal and hopefully sonic as well.
As the units are very small, precautions must be taken to ensure adequate ventilation. In the case of the smaller unit the dressing area is around 150 cubic ft, the bed area another 50, and counting the closet another 50. For a discussion on the matter see this. In an 8 hour period a person exhales 4 cubic feet of CO2. This would boost the CO2 level to 2% or around 20,000 ppm - NOT GOOD - as the article in the link puts the danger level at 10,000 ppm and death at 30,000 ppm. One solution is to equip each unit with vents - one with a blower and one passive which circulates air from the hallway. CO, CO2 sensors and Oxygen sensors such as are commonly used in commercial buildings monitor the hallway air and activate ventilators as necessary. In this way a single HVAC unit can heat and cool the hallway, its air serving as a reservoir by which to heat and cool and ventilate individual units.
In the drawings note that the buildings are laid out in a 'turbine' arrangement surrounding a garden square. Too little attention is given to siting buildings these days, to positioning them so as to create what Christopher Alexander terms 'positive space' i.e. space that is delightful and refreshing to be in. Pleasant surroundings produce a pleasant experience of life - exactly the sort of spirit which should be fostered in the individual so down on his luck as to be homeless. Having one's own private space no matter how small - and having convivial attractive garden like public spaces in which to be with others - will surely buoy the homeless individual's spirits as much as anything.
As shown each courtyard is surrounding by 8 buildings, and 4 courtyards are connected together to give a total shelter capacity of 512 in a little less than 3 acres. This computes to a population density of around 100,000 per sq mile which compares favorably with Manhattan's density of 70,000 per sq mile.
Finally, below is a Bill of Materials pricing table composed mostly of hard numbers and partly of guesstimates and allowances. By my arithmetic it should be possible to build a homeless shelter of 16 fully private units for around $ 3,000 each - $ 50,000 for the 16 unit building. Note that this is the most rudimentary of cost estimation spreadsheets which I plan to refine and improve in the future.
