A Floating Homeless Shelter?

by Shannon Moriarty · 2009-08-06 05:50:00 UTC
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As the need for shelter beds in many communities intensifies, local governments are getting creative about finding new places to house the homeless, thinking outside the box... way, way outside the box.

Case in point: San Diego. The city is considering using a de-commissioned warship as the first city-run homeless shelter, according to KTLA.com. Despite the good intentions of this re-use, the project is far from becoming reality:

Converting a former warship into a shelter would require Congress to change a federal law that says surplus ships can only be sold to an allied nation, used to create man-made reefs or made into museums like the U.S.S. Midway in San DIego.

While it's always good to see cities thinking outside the box to meet the needs of the community, the money needed to revamp a warship would be much better spent creating permanent, affordable housing. That said, we'll just have to wait and see if this project gets legs in the coming months.

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
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