Portable Homeless Shelter
....A safe home for anyone who needs it....
Loneliness, darkness and hunger are part of the daily challenges of a homeless person. The United Kingdom has faced a massive increase of 15 per cent of rough sleepers from 2017 to 2018 which is sourced from official statistics conducted by the Ministry of Housing, Community & Local Government . Many homeless charities i.e. Shelter, Crisis, Salvation Army, have vehemently argued that the official statistics are inaccurate and underestimated, as there exists a larger problem of “hidden homelessness.”
It is estimated that the real figure in London, is 13 times greater than the official statistic. We have been made more aware recently of these “hidden people” who actually have no place to call home and who are not receiving support. A report released by the London Assembly Housing Committee recently published that as many as 12,500 people sleep rough each night in London.
I struggle to understand how the United Kingdom, one of the most developed nations in the world is still grappling with problems providing social housing needs and treating people with mental health issues. Local Authorities have systematically pushed vulnerable women, men and young people to sleep rough, often in particularly dangerous conditions. The cuts to benefits, a shortage of council funding and lack of investment in affordable housing by the government have led to a massive increase in the number of homeless people across the country. The government’s current welfare reforms reinforced the failure to take care of these defenceless people . The unpalatable truth is that the welfare system has failed the people and no longer holds up those most vulnerable.
My choice to design and create this temporary home for the homeless enable me to provide a safer alternative to sleeping rough, this made me ensure that the top focus of my main objectives was cost and safety. My hope is that the shelter will be a temporary place to call home and improve the odds for those homeless to regain some chance of success in their life. I also wish this will provide a form of humanitarian assistance.
In the near future, I would like to further develop my project by improving the prototype to then hopefully integrate into society to help the homeless population.