emergency housing Archives

Hurricane Sandy unleashed a lot more than just wind and rain on New York City. As a result of the devastating storm, the city had thousands of displaced residents.
Big Apple officials learned a lot from the natural disaster, and one of the most important lessons is ensuring that citizens unable to return to their homes have a safe housing alternative while the city pieces itself back together.
Which is why the New York Office of Emergency Management is designing a housing prototype to hold refugees should another natural disaster strike the city. The “Urban Post Disaster Housing Prototype,” helmed by architect and Pratt Institute professor Jim Garrison, is a multi-story housing unit comprised of prefabricated modules that can be constructed in just 15 hours, according to Fast Company.

“A long time ago, we had a conversation about what it would take to house the homeless,” Garrison said. “People were coming up with all sorts of elaborate cardboard boxes. Finally, we came to our senses, in that a home for a homeless person is no different than a home for anyone else.”

The prototype includes three 480-square-foot-bedrooms assembled to form a walk-up on stilts while also providing wheelchair access. But the emergency housing project could also serve as an affordable housing model, according to Garrison, who says that the prototype could last 20 years.
In fact, part of the design includes ensuring energy efficiency through cross-ventilation and a balcony system that shades the unit from summer sunlight, which can save a resident two months a year from using an air conditioner, according to Garrison.

He’s also entertained the possibility of placing the unit on a barge anchored to the harbor, but it’s still unclear if it could weather severe storms.

For now Garrison is performing experiments on the prototype, which is perched on a hill near his firm in Brooklyn. As part of the test, The Pratt Institute and The New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering plan to invite residents to use the prototype for up to five days.

“The idea of this housing was to make it versatile enough so that you could install it in neighborhoods so that residents aren’t displaced, so they’re not sent to other neighborhoods,” Garrison said. “Your children can still go to the same schools they were part of. You can still be part of the social and economic circle of your neighborhood.”

MORE: Hurricane Katrina Inspired This Man to Revolutionize Emergency Housing

Natural disasters don’t end when storms subside or fires are extinguished. One look at the lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina — which walloped the Gulf Coast in 2005, killing 1,833 people — paints a dreary picture of how human suffering continues long after the media has turned its cameras elsewhere. More than 1 million people were displaced during Katrina. A month later, 600,000 were still without homes. This figure shocked Michael McDaniel. Ever since images of Katrina’s mass devastation shocked the country, McDaniel has been working on building a better system of emergency housing — one that’s affordable, reusable, and most importantly, quickly deliverable. His Reaction Housing System’s prototype, Exo, fits the bill, and could revolutionize disaster response.
DON’T MISS: The Inside Story of the Most Amazing Victim Relief Effort in American History
Exos are individual housing units based on the design of a Styrofoam coffee cup. Each 80-square-foot unit includes a base, which acts as the floor, an upper shell, which makes up the walls and roof, and is equipped with lights and outlets via a special connector line. The units are private, with climate-controlled sleeping quarters for up to a family of four, and easily assembled. McDaniel’s idea is to store the components in centralized warehouses across the country, which can also serve as distribution centers during and after a disaster. That way, the Exo units can be rapidly transported from these facilities to deployment sites via any means of transportation. The company estimates that housing for tens or hundreds of thousands of people could be set up using the Reaction Housing System in less than 24 hours, depending on the event’s proximity to a deployment location.
FEMA’s infamous trailers, which cost $65,000 each, are mandated for one-time use, and can only be shipped one or two at a time, due to their size. On the other hand, Exo costs only $5,000 per unit. They are reusable, easily storable and can be stacked up to 28 per truck. In other words, the Reaction Housing System is much more cost-effective and usable in the chaos that surrounds natural disasters. With order requests from the U.S., Haiti, Japan and Syria, the only thing holding the company back is production. “Once we’re in production, the world is, hopefully, our oyster,” McDaniel said.
MORE: This Brilliant 11-Year-Old Revolutionized Flood Prevention

Tag: emergency housing

If Another Disaster Strikes, New York City Has a Plan to House Displaced Residents

Hurricane Katrina Inspired This Man to Revolutionize Emergency Housing