Experts are now considering the option to use shipping containers as home shelters. A shipping container is built to withstand the perils of traveling at sea. Because of their sturdy design, they also make good homes, at least that is what the Bloomberg administration is planning. Authorities in New York city are now using shipping containers for its disaster housing program. If another hurricane that is similar to Sandy will threaten the city sometime in the future, residents in New York will no longer use tents or high school gymnasiums. Instead, shipping containers will be used as emergency quarters.
The city’s disaster housing program will utilize stackable shipping containers that will form into apartments, complete with the basic home amenities. Meanwhile, in U.K., particularly in Brighton and Hove, developer QED is converting shipping containers into temporary houses for homeless men and women in the area who are unfortunately facing housing crisis. Around 36 shipping containers have been transformed into self-contained studio flats, and they include bathrooms and kitchens. Andy Winter, the Chief Executive of Brighton Housing Trust, says that imaginative solutions are needed to solve the desperate housing situation in the city. “I have to admit that when it was first suggested to me that shipping containers be used for housing, I was a bit skeptical,” he adds.
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