There's also a cash flow problem for a local community that wants to pursue this option ... these homes were often designed for cheapest construction costs rather than for the cheapest upkeep, after all, and putting homeless people in the abandoned homes places another financial burden on communities that are facing declining tax bases on top of the impacts of the recession.

It occurs to me, after frequently riding by a failed medium box retailer in town, that it might well be easier to create financially affordable shelters inside a failed medium box retail building, sheltered from the elements ... indeed, if combined with community truck gardens, the front part could sell community grown fresh produce, while the back part has shelters that can be rented with part of the income from working in the community garden and other local community work.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.