"Alberta city considers containers for housing
GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. (CP) -- Faced with feverish population growth, a northern Alberta community is looking to old steel shipping containers to tackle its housing crunch.
The proposal is one of several ideas for low-income housing that the rapidly-growing city of Grande Prairie is pitching to the province for funding.
The use of shipping containers, more commonly found on cargo ships, as low-cost housing is not new.
One U.S.-based non-profit group, Global Peace Containers, has been converting old containers into schools, clinics, community centres and homes in developing countries since 1995.
Retired shipping containers are being used increasingly in the U.S. where they can be bought cheap and stacked like Lego."
Incredible, now housing options in Alberta are being measured against those in developing countries.
2 comments:
Good grief!
Recall how an Alberta company practically invented the idea of using cheap prefabricated cubes to house oilpatch workers and as offices for administrative types. ATCO "shacks" are now found all over the world.
I guess somebody figured that if these sort of dwellings were good enough for workers, homeless folks wouldn't mind being placed in similar structures. And if the rail containers come pre-loaded with satellite TV and internet and are close to good paying jobs, the homeless might not have a problem either. Of course workers only spend part of the year in the oilpatch. The rest of the time they travel or go home to more comfortable housing. Let's face it family - living in shacks may not be the best way to build permanent communities. To be fair, the solution could reflect the intent.
There was a bumper sticker frequently seen in Alberta a few years back. It said something like, "God please give us another boom. We promise we won't waste it.." I wonder who the "we" referred to?
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