Shell House provides cheap, radio-equipped housing for homeless

Hey, we can't all live in the pimped out mansions or nicely appointed lodges, but an NYU graduate student is making it her personal mission to do something substantial about it. The living portable project has yielded a cardboard-based Shell House contraption that requires just $35 worth of material, a bit of time, and a hearty dose of generosity. The DIY project allows interested citizens to build collapsible houses for homeless individuals, and moreover, gives them an opportunity to experience ubiquitous computing by way of an integrated radio network. Moreover, you can couple this with a homegrown solar heater, and you've got yourself a date with nature.

[Via Core77]
Read - Instructions on building a Shell House
Read - Shell House homepage

[Pedro @ May 6th 2007 8:01AM]

I would be hesitant to call this 'housing', but it is certainly shelter.
And when you have nothing, anything is better than that.

[Eva @ May 6th 2007 10:22AM]

While I think this is a noble project, the price surprises me. For $20.00 one can get a camping tent at Walmart. That would tell me it is much cheaper than even that to make a one person tent. Also, maybe we can get people who have tents they no longer need to donate them to such a wonderful endeavour.

[RandomThoughts @ May 6th 2007 10:23AM]

Ubiquitous computing? Think the homeless are walking around with laptops? I know, maybe the laptops that are being ditched by the schools can be given to the homeless.

[merderjunkie @ May 6th 2007 11:06AM]

you laugh at the idea of homeless with laptop. i saw one in tent city in st.petersburg fl with a laptop

[Wolfticket @ May 6th 2007 10:32AM]

Is it a 2 way radio so they can phone an ambulance when they are about to die of exposure because their new $35 cardboard box, someone kindly gave them, doesn't actually provide much insulation.
Maybe I'm overly cynical, but maybe trying to do something about homelessness is a better idea than giving them better designed cardboard boxes.

[jono @ May 6th 2007 10:34AM]

ermm. A tent anyone?

[jsn @ May 6th 2007 10:42AM]

sweet, lets all take the time to make and give something to people who have no interest in doing for themselves.... I'm sure it will go along way towards encouraging them to do productive with their lives....

[Chris @ May 6th 2007 3:45PM]

That's pretty judgmental and arrogant of you, jsn. I hope you wind up face down in the fiscal mud one day, and I hope you eat your words.

[Travis Pulley @ May 6th 2007 4:41PM]

For real! Children have had it good for way too long. Send them all to the factories so we, as a nation, can save on robot expenses.

Besides, who can afford to care for the homeless when we should be sacrificing every penny to the wholesale death campaigns our national leadership is propagating outside our borders.



You would be nothing without the care and generosity of those who came before you.

[ET @ May 6th 2007 11:15AM]

please add OTA HD to the tent please.

[mr friggles @ May 6th 2007 11:22AM]

What we need is a program which pairs a homeless family with each member of congress. In a year tops, the homeless problem would be solved...either with universal housing for the needy or incineration camps for the needy..

[harvard.grad @ May 6th 2007 11:24AM]

And when it rains, that cardboard gets very soggy. Wind will tear it apart.

I agree w/ the walmart tent idea. Or maybe a customized version of that.

[Richard @ May 6th 2007 1:11PM]

"Harvard Grad", eh?
I'm guessing you didn't study material science, eh?

Well, let me tell you, seeing that *I'm* a Packaging Engineer who works with this stuff on a daily basis:

Heavy duty corrugates are actually VERY resilient to the elements. Much more than you'd think.

A sturdy double wall B-flute corrugate will stand up to the average rain and wind quite well.
It certainly WON'T become a "soggy mess", as you claim.
Of course, it won't survive an extended torrential downpour, but then again, I challenge you to find me a cheap tent that will.

[alex @ May 6th 2007 11:24AM]

man.. i respect her for such great works. would definately donate if i could.

[guilt+1 @ May 6th 2007 11:32AM]

I applaud the effort to turn homeless people into a wifi network.


When I grow up I want to be a wifi node as well.

[EliasF @ May 6th 2007 12:46PM]

"change... any one got any change? ...change..."

[neale @ May 7th 2007 6:18PM]

lol

[James @ May 6th 2007 1:05PM]

I don't see the benefit of taking a free-ish cardboard box, mangling it so it folds, then mailing this huge, bulky thing across the country, when you could just send them a $20 check which they could use to get the above-mentioned Wal-Mart check.

Also, and I hate to criticize somebody with such good intentions, but the instructions for both the shelter and the radio could use some editing -- I don't think English is the author's first language. Neither seems very easy to follow, IMHO. It's a neat idea, to give the homeless a means of communication, but I think again you could get "mile range" 2-way radios at Wal-Mart for less than 20 bucks -- maybe they could be cheaply modded to all run on the same frequency somehow?

[Richard @ May 6th 2007 1:12PM]

They're not asking you to mail the cardboard housings: they're asking you to create the ZigBee modules and mail them.

The entirety of the $35 cost comes from the components of the ZigBee module.

[harvard.grad @ May 6th 2007 1:39PM]

I challenge you to leave a corrugated box outside in even drizzly weather for 7 days. It will be mush.

You've probably never gone camping either. One decent gust of wind and this cardboard pup tent will be gone.

[LandMineHare @ May 20th 2007 10:31AM]

And, I work for a major shipping corporation, and handle thousands of boxes a day. In Oregon. And it rains. A lot.

And when a cardboard box gets wet, no amount of packing tape can save it.

[josh @ May 6th 2007 1:34PM]

Assuming it is waxed or otherwise treated cardboard it should be resistant to the elements. Additionally, cardboard provides better insulation than a cheapo tent, so it is probably warmer.

[Richard @ May 6th 2007 4:06PM]

1. Show me how often it rains in NYC for 7 days straight.
2. The people that these are targeted for don't exactly "camp" out in wide-open spaces.
3. Homeless people who've been on the street for some time know of plenty of places to hang their hats (so to speak) that offer moderate shelter from the elements. This is just an addition to that.

And, my Harvard-mouthed friend: I'll take you camping *any time*.

[harvard.grad @ May 6th 2007 1:42PM]

I don't see how this is good insulation at all - the ends are open.

At least with a tent you can zip it up so the wind doesn't rip through and the rats don't gnaw on your face.

[stitifier @ May 6th 2007 2:09PM]

The problem, as I see it, with giving the homeless tents is that the majority of tents (at least the ones that I've used) require some sot of anchoring. Seeing as how the homeless usually live in more concrete-ified areas, that might present a problem.

I think this solution is innovative-- inasmuch as it offers the homeless a cheap, easy, and portable solution to shelter-- but it answers neither the practical problem of insulation in winter nor the more fundamental problems of our nation's homeless.

[Dave @ May 6th 2007 2:40PM]

Why isn't the woman in the picture smiling? If they want to sell these, they have to make me believe they'll make homeless people happy.

[nicoboss @ May 6th 2007 2:43PM]

Stupid idea: you can find igloo camping tents for cheaper than $35 - and that are more durable, water resistant and more portable than that (an association in Paris actually did give igloo tents to homeless)
It is nice to want to help homeless like what this student did. But one have to be a little realistic.

[Razor @ May 7th 2007 7:57AM]

Didn't they just have record rainfall about 2 weeks ago?

[Richard @ May 7th 2007 9:13AM]

Sure... "RECORD" means it's a once-in-a-blue-moon type occurrence (I live and work in the tri-state)... and that only lasted 3 days.

[James Laver @ May 6th 2007 8:12PM]

I feel that the radio is a bit of a waste of time to be quite honest. If we're going to have a cardboard city a la Martin Luther King, why don't we spend 50c on each 'tent' than $35? If you're that bothered about an address, why not write a unique number on the side, it seems like a much more obvious solution, because when was the last time your mailman was carrying a radio walkie talkie all-singing all-dancing homeless locator?

I'm all for helping the homeless, but i'm not for overengineering and I too have my doubts about the long term viability of cardboard. Perhaps it would be better to just send people to scout camp for a week to learn how to build bivouacs, at least that way people in the woods would have decent shelter rather than crinkled cardboard mush you have to replace every fortnight.

[fearless_fx @ May 6th 2007 8:41PM]

35 dollars seems like quite a bit for what looks like folded cardboard...

[Riverama @ May 7th 2007 12:17AM]

1- Hope is not windy
2- Hope is not raining
3- WTF??

[Eva @ May 7th 2007 5:06PM]

All the comments above are very interesting. WRT the issue of warmth, perhaps make the tent double walled (as the North American native Indian did) and then stuff the space between with almost any sort of insulating material (grasses, paper, etc etc).
I figure if they are $20 at Walmart we should be able to get the materials for a lot less. To the point of the person that suggests people also need to strive for themselves, perhaps the tents can be shipped with some assembly/finishing required etc. This is along the lines of the new solar stove concept where people in some refugee camps are making solar stoves for cooking on for themselves. The plans come from other industries to them and they make the stoves.

[Bob Rainer @ Jun 25th 2007 12:45AM]

You are to be commended for your thinking on behalf of the less fortunate, Eva. It's generous of you and you have obviously thought about making the solution workable. There might be some problems associated with your proposals, however, and I present some things for you to consider, in case I'm missing your point.

"All the comments above are very interesting. WRT the issue of warmth, perhaps make the tent double walled (as the North American native Indian did) and then stuff the space between with almost any sort of insulating material (grasses, paper, etc etc)."
-- What about when the person moves? The stuffing will probably be strewn about in untidy ways, unless homeless people adopt ways of responsibly discarding litter. The areas they might scalp for grass filling would, over time, present an erosion problem, I believe. Making the structures double-walled will effectively double their weight and price, thereby defeating their desirability. Even a form of privacy door would create an added burden when moving the structure, however small a bit of nylon or plastic sheeting might be.

I figure if they are $20 at Walmart we should be able to get the materials for a lot less.
-- The Wal-Mart price is low because they're coming from the absolutely lowest bidder in great quantity, an arrangement not easily made. Tent-making requires sewing, and that involves machinery and operators, whereas these cardboard shelters are obviously much simpler to construct. Years ago, I camped using what was called a "tube tent", essentially a cylinder of thin plastic through which a string was passed to support the upper portion and provide a sort of roof; with additional stakes and a little creativity, these worked well for a night or two, and provided a ground cloth to prevent moisture from rising from beneath into the sleeping bag. Long ones could be tied closed at the ends (pass the string through grommets, on the deluxe four star models) for winter or left open for warmer nights. There's your el cheapo tent, Eva - and practical and still disposable.
They still need to erect whatever device they are provided, after they find an acceptable location, a job in itself. This means that if an overnight location is found, to be reused it must remain relatively unaffected by use, and litter and "tent contracting" will defeat that goal. The goal is no impact on the immediate environment around the erected structure.

To the point of the person that suggests people also need to strive for themselves, perhaps the tents can be shipped with some assembly/finishing required etc.
-- Putting up a tent in high wind is tough enough for a healthy, sober person. For a drunk with long-term abuse problems and subjected to severe weather, the simpler, the better.

This is along the lines of the new solar stove concept where people in some refugee camps are making solar stoves for cooking on for themselves. The plans come from other industries to them and they make the stoves.
-- Neat idea. It has some problems (cooking at night or on overcast days or things larger than a fortune cookie) but a step in the right direction. Probably works best when used with specially packaged foods, like the MRE idea. Any problem there?

All solutions have problems for a while, and that's why god invented erasers.

[nilram @ May 7th 2007 10:43PM]

Some concerned do-gooders have taken to fixing up some grub and giving away free food in parks or unused parking lots, but communities are responding by outlawing this feeding of the homeless (Orlando, Las Vegas, Atlanta, for three), and most community parks prohibit camping. So the homeless aren't taking their 20 bucks to Walmart to get a cheap tent because they know it would just draw unwanted attention from the authorities, just like this cardboard thingy would. Sure, there are secluded spots under bridges and such where the added protection would be nice. I've seen several around my town -- the city is busy fencing them in so those nasty homeless people won't clutter them up (they so ruin the feng shui).

Sure, my town has a tent city where the homeless can go camp, and maybe yours does too. Huzzah for expando-cardboard thingies, but maybe we should also address root causes of homelessness: the underfunding and closing of mental hospitals and affordable treatment options, unaffordable health insurance (50% of bankruptcies are due to overwhelming medical bills), and long term unemployment.

[shellhouse @ May 8th 2007 1:04PM]

I used to be a person that compaint about everything and criticize averything as well. One day I just FELT I could not breathe any longer, by thinking in me all the time, while others are suffering.
Since I can't make a lot of these by myslef, is why I open source it, and try to see if it was possible to make a collaborative, real and "right here right now" contribution. This is a problem (homelessness) that can't be solved, unless the government take measures. That will never be taken, because homeless don't vote. They don't vote because they don't have a house or address. And maybe, there's a secret possibility that we can change these.
Is not depending on anyone else but us!
The more shelters outside, means WE CARE, and the problems such as weather conditions or material fatigue, can be solved by having more and more of them.
CARDBBOARD IS ON THE STREETS!
I GRABBED IT MYSELF
RADIOS ARE EASY TO BUILD
YOU'LL TAKE 5 HOURS---------
AND THEN SEE WHERE YOUR HELP IS USED.
THIS IS NOT an ABSTRACT help where you donate and don't see where did your money go.
THIS IS
REAL

[shellhouse @ May 8th 2007 1:10PM]

I used to be a person that complaint about everything and criticize averything as well.
One day I just FELT I could not breathe any longer, by thinking in me all the time, while others are suffering.
BEing homeless is not a choice.
This is a problem that can't be solved, unless the government take measures. That will never be taken, because homeless don't vote. They don't vote because they don't have a house or address. And maybe, there's a secret possibility that we can change these.
Is not depending on anyone else but us!
Since I can't make a lot of these by myslef, is why I open source it, and try to see if it was possible to make a collaborative, real and "right here right now" contribution.
The more shelters outside, means WE CARE, and the problems such as weather conditions or material fatigue, can be solved by having more and more of them.
CARDBBOARD IS ON THE STREETS!
I GRABBED IT MYSELF
RADIOS ARE EASY TO BUILD
YOU'LL TAKE 5 HOURS---------
AND THEN SEE WHERE YOUR HELP IS USED.
THIS IS NOT ABSTRACTION
THIS IS
REAL