A very ugly solution, to people without a place to live..yet it is a solution.

[Stuart G]

It would take people out of their cars, and give them a place to stay for a while. It is not pretty, yet very cheap for the city, state, and federal governments to carry out. And almost nothing needs to built, they are already built all over the country. And transformation could be somewhat quick..

A few years ago, there was surge of these store your junk places. You know what I am talking about. One dollar for the first months rental...Soon, I belive these places will be or already are going to go broke. People cannot afford to store stuff anymore.

They have walls, some heat, some air conditioning, and are already built. State and local governments will be able to pick them up
for a song, and turn them into some kind of temporary housing.
They are ugly,and this is lousey, and not much...Not pretty, not enough space..yet..
Transforming these places would
provide a lift to the construction industry, and also it could be done quicker than building anything. If these places go into bankruptcy, then it could be done.......We as a people are smart enough to do it in a fair livable way...It would take effort, but
could be done......

But it won't be done...the Republicans will stop any help to the poor..Even this ugly, temporary, awful solution will not even get consideration. That is who they are.

[piratefish08]

1. OR the millions upon millions of empty foreclosed properties.........

Occupy Foreclosed Properties

[LiberalEsto]

7. + 1000! nt

[izquierdista]

10. OR hotels.....OR motels.....OR commercial buildings...OR malls

If you town is anything like my average American town, there are lots and lots of empty buildings. Just driving around town, I can see boarded up restaurants, abandoned car dealerships, used-to-be motels, empty warehouses, a three anchor-tenant mall with movieplex, vacated grocery stores, and of course, the Borders bookstore. Oh, there's still plenty of construction too; no one wants an old building, when they can build a new one to their liking. But will they let the "used" stuff trickle down to the have-nots? Not on your life.

[midnight]

2. I know it's so unpopular to treat people like humans... but

we need to get rid of this fashionable idea that corporations are persons, and humans are disposable.... There are enough vacant houses to house all of us...

[lunatica]

3. Like the FEMA trailers once the people are there they will be forgotten

That is no solution. It's rounding people up and sticking them into some sort of coral.

Temporary would become permanent if it means actually doing something about it.

Many of the homeless won't go to shelters because they're dangerous. The same would happen in this case.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Storage facilities are place holder businesses...

The actual focus of the major storage companies is real estate holdings, the storage makes money on the land without the expense of full development for residential or commercial use, the idea is to run them until the property can be put to more lucrative use. The storage part, for the large chains, is secondary to the real estate investment part, and the real estate is seen as a very long term investment, so the bubble and crash are not really going to concern them much.
So aside from the inhumanity of the concept, the facilities you imagine vanishing are not likely to vanish until they are developed into something else in the future.

[Fumesucker]

8. What's truly inhuman is living with no shelter at all..

My own shelter is only a step or so above a storage unit and I'm thankful to have it.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Already happening

folks are holed up in them hither and yon...

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. The ones around my area aren't heated or insulated. :^( We do have empty big box stores that

are begging for conversion into housing units, though.

[Autumn]

9. The government would rather they sit empty

or be given to corporations for pennies.

[Tom Rinaldo]

11. Charlie King wrote released this song Jan. 1, 1986: "Self Storage"

He beat you to it by a country mile:

You can listen to it here: http://www.myspace.com/charliebrownesongs/music/songs/self-storage-74946188

Charlie King is an incredible folk singer for those who don't know him. His songs have been recorded and sung by other performers such as Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert, John McCutcheon, Arlo Guthrie, Peggy Seeger, Chad Mitchell and Judy Small.

[eilen]

12. In Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash

the protagonist did just that.

Also a good read where people were living in substandard self made shantytown or repurposed abandoned buildings is Cory Doctorow's "Makers"

I highly recommend both reads. Both set off the dejavu willies as they illustrate the natural benchmarks of the path we are currently on.

[Stuart G]

13. It is so sad that we are headed in that direction.

So many people who are without a decent place to live.
So many homeless, far more than in recent history, and many more will become homeless.