aniceday

It came to my attention that it would be possible to house everyone who needs a home in America. All the homeless, all the low income, everyone could live in decent, crime free housing in the form of condominiums.

In the 60s, they had the same idea and built the projects. However, we could change the rules. Recreate these condos and make them modern and then give away free housing for everyone who wants it in exchange for a commitment. We would require the owner guard the condo where we live against property crime. We would require they check up on the elderly and disabled and go shopping for them. We would require they learn to fix and then fix simple plumbing and electrical problems.. We would require they do bi-annual painting of all interiors and exteriors. In exchange, all housing would be free.

We give prisoners free housing don't we?

The cost to build these condos is minimal, maybe $7,000 per unit if done en-mass. Drywall is dirt CHEAP and that is 90 percent of the material in a house or condo!!! How do I know? I am a licensed property adjuster and deal with this stuff every day.

The owner would be responsible for insurance, condo fee and local property taxes. Since the condo is worth $7,000 these fees should be minimal and could be paid for by a part time job working just a few hours a week. Those who couldn't work could pay due to disability could pay with their government subsidies. This would also pay for regular security guards (bouncers) of each condo to take care of anyone who didn't belong.


What happens if they do not abide by the rules? There would be a condo board and they would get kicked out. It would definitely be in their best interest to cooperate. We can do this.

Rataru101

Hmmm... $7K doesnt seem like a whole lot but how many low income families and homeless are there that we would need to account for? Millions... Just a small number like 10m x 7k = 70,000,000,000$. Thats alot of mula to pull out of now where with no way stated of gettign it back if the houseing is rent/morgage free. o.O rebutle?

Tumbleweed36

Give, give, give, ever hear of requiring people to work for a living and provide their own?

BTW, I have built a few houses myself and my son is a licensed contractor, do you really think one can build a decent place for $7000? Don't think so.

speedster123

i think the skin heads would volunteer.

ebackhus

I totally agree. I was raised to know the value of hard work and earning your own keep. I don't expect ANYONE to pay for my home except for me.

-=Rousseau=-

That wouldn't work, if only because many lazy people would choose the free housing and do the commitments for a while, then stop. If everyone did that, the condos would be ruined quickly.

Assuming an average size of 450 sq. ft. for the apartment/condo, and below average costs of around $65 per sq. ft. (most are between $80 and $120 per sq. ft.) it would cost $29k for an apartment. Unless you can build an apartment for $15.50 per sq. ft., that won't work. That or you'd have a 100 sq ft. apartment/closet :P That said, the costs for 10m people housed would probably be more like $300 billion.

Drywall may be dirt cheap, but labor, plumbing, electrical, appliances, lighting, carpeting, windows, etc etc adds to the cost very quickly. Then there's the land you have to build on, the costs of parking lots, maintenance (the tenants would be low skill and would not be able to do very much of the maintenance...) it adds up quickly. Perhaps in a perfect world w/ unlimited resources, this could happen, but...

What do you do if they don't live up to their commitments? Evicting a single mother with 3 kids would be hard for anyone morally and legally (you are required to give them a certain amount of time, for one). If you don't evict them, no one will take the commitments seriously (why, if they don't get evicted if they don't do them, would they fulfill their commitments?)

Mcninjaguy

You could not cheap out on the labour either. People who are paid cheaply work cheaply and cut corners. A good plumber costs around $40 - $70 an hour. That doesn't mean good plumber will be more expensive as he/she will install things to the code or beyond and maintenance will be minimal.

Plumbers and electricians cost a nice amount but if the right ones aren't hired then one year later there could be a burst in the wall from pipes not being properly secured to each other or the wall and you would then have water damage. If a cheap Electrician is hired then you could get an electrical fire from the ground, negative and positive wires not being properly installed or they just put junction boxes everywhere in the house/condo.

What about fire safety and fire barriers? These need to be accounted for and you could not use the cheapest drywall either. YOu might need to use a double layer of fire retardant drywall for the ceilings and walls. The cost just doubled then.

Can you imagine if the place caught fire and the it was built to the absolute minimum standards. The people would die and then the government and companies would face huge legal action and lose a ton of money.