Liberal Amsterdam plans to create 'scum villages'

[dixiegrrrrl]

The Dutch city has a reputation for its liberal policies, but now it has announced a scheme to house antisocial tenants in converted shipping containers.
Those deemed guilty of causing "extreme havoc" will be evicted and placed in temporary homes of a "basic" nature, including converted shipping containers in industrial areas of the city. "We call it a living container," says Boer.
Housing antisocial tenants in these units, which have showers and kitchens and have been used as student accommodation, will ensure that they are not "rewarded" by being relocated to better accommodation.
It would be more accurate to call them "scum houses" than scum villages, says Boer, "because we don't want to put more than one of these families in the same area". After up to six months in these houses, scattered around the city, the tenants will be found permanent homes. The city government anticipates moving around 10 families a year into this programme, which starts in 2013.
The temporary dwellings will be heavily policed, but antisocial tenants will also have access to doctors, social workers and parole officers. "They are taken care of so the whole situation is not going to repeat at the new house they are in," says Boer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/shortcuts/2012/dec/04/liberal-amsterdam-plans-scum-villages

What could possibly go wrong???

[HereSince1628]

1. I really don't expect that to end very well.

And the entire WORLD thinks that the TEAPARTY conservatives in the US are out of control!!!!!!

[WinkyDink]

2. It's good enough for university students:

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/sustainable-earth/pictures-amsterdam-shipping-container-homes/

[frazzled]

3. Bigger pictures here

I've seen the fancy apartments that mimic shipping containers (actually been inside one, owned by a professor):



These more spartan ones are really not that bad, at least for a single student, and they are heralded as being very ecological. The idea of calling them "scum" homes is pretty offensive. How about homeless shelters?

?4

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/08/amsterdam-shipping-container-homes_n_1582216.html

[Purveyor]

9. Detroit Shipping Container Condos In Development For 2013

A local firm is proving Detroit development can get way wackier than Dan Gilbert's garish interior design scheme at the the Chase Tower. Three Squared will build a 20-unit, 26,000 square feet condo development constructed of shipping containers at Rosa Parks Boulevard and Warren Avenue.

Designed by local architect Steven Flum, the project has been in development for several years but was halted after the 2008 crash. Now, Three Squared plans to begin construction on a three-story model unit on Michigan Avenue by the end of the year to pre-sell condos, with the development itself slated to be built in spring 2013. According to the Detroit Free Press, the development will cost $3.4 million, and Multihousingnews.com notes they received a $603,000 tax credit.

The news site reports the four-story building will include 93 shipping containers and designed to be energy efficient, reducing energy costs by up to 80 percent.

Too expensive to return to their place of origin, used shipping containers pile up by the hundred thousands at ports in the U.S., and using them for homes and offices is one way to recycle them. A more common form of sustainable architecture in Europe, there are examples in America, and in fact, a boutique shipping container hotel is in the works in Detroit's Eastern Market.

MORE...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/detroit-shipping-container-condos-homes_n_2145121.html

[Cleita]

11. Well mobile homes kind of fill the need too. You just can't stack them like the containers.

My mobile is about the size of a shipping container, 35 ft long and 12 feet wide. It cost $26,000. All you need is a lot or space with hook-ups (electric, water, gas & sewer) to move in. I know mobile home parks can at times be dreary, but I have seen nice ones. My "house" is parked on the back acreage of my family's little ranch.

[Purveyor]

15. I could be totally happy living in a mobile home or a shipping container as long as it has lots of

windows and plenty of ground for my dogs and gardens.

Zoning in this POS state of Michigan and the township I live in prohibit mobile homes (only here to care for an elderly mother) but there are some very nice m-homes with acreage that were established before the zoning laws were enacted.

I know I don't need nor want this big ole barn of a house that I currently own but I'm certainly not staying in this state any longer than necessary.

Too bad though because the natural elements here are wonderful. The people and politics are NOT!

[Cleita]

4. What do they mean about anti-social tenants?

Are these unruly law breaking people, or are they just poor people who have fallen on hard times because of mental illness or other social behavior problems? At least they aren't throwing them out in the street to fend for themselves like we do.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Article defines the "anti-socials" somewhat vaguely.

NOt sure that identfiying people as a problem and moving them "elsewhere" is a trend I like.
Even good intentions can result in all sorts of unfortunate policies.

[Cleita]

7. True. In this country usually people who were too dysfunctional to live

among the rest of us at least were sent to a state hospital to be looked after and be treated for their mental or drug problems. I don't know how good a solution that was but at least they weren't living on the street preying on each other and those who had fallen on hard times. I did say used to be. All that changed when Ray Gun became Prez.

[thelordofhell]

6. Americans

[enlightenment]

13. In the UK - and much of Europe

there are laws that do govern anti-social behavior. People who harass their neighbors, or refuse to police their property, or allow their children unbridled freedom to cause mayhem in the neighborhood. Not just occasional stuff, but constant and continual poor socialization. In the UK they can be given ASBOs - Anti-Social Behaviour Orders - that range from warnings to orders to stay away from others to eviction from council housing.
(I think they are planning on changing the ASBO routine in the UK, but I may be wrong - I seem to recall reading something about it recently).

Perhaps some of these people do have mental issues, but the vast majority are simply - well - not very civilized, and when people are living cheek and jowl there has to be a certain willingness to modify your own behavior for the sake of the people around you.

[burnsei sensei]

8. In the acute housing shortage of the late 1940s & 1950s,

Americans used shipping containers and quonset huts as housing.
I wish more makeshift housing was available.

[Cleita]

10. I remember those days that but the shortage was short lived because the GI bill, FHA and other laws

spurred a building boom that made family homes widely available on the market, easy to finance and within the reach of working class families.

[aquart]

17. "Short-lived"?

My mom never passes one of those building boom houses without remembering she would have given her soul for one.

[OutNow]

12. Think about this from a European perspective

The Netherlands is not a perfect country and Amsterdam is not a perfect city, but the idea that they will provide housing to even the most antisocial people is about 10000% better than the policies in most large cities in the USA. I've spent some time in Amsterdam and Den Haag and I admire the social structure that exists in their country. Legal pot is mostly a tourist thing. There is much more to like. I find Dutch to be a very difficult language, but it's a minor problem because everyone speaks English and one or two additional languages.

OTOH, they don't really like the Belgians. LOL

[libdem4life]

14. If you've ever seen filthy homeless encampments or "temporary" housing in armories and such

or noticed the shabby accommodations of living under a bridge, these are safe and make use of a recylable, otherwise heap of junk. Add mental and physical and social health care in the mix...and the prospect of another form of housing, it's amazingly civilized.

It beats the local jail that provides for "housing" here in America.

[Cleita]

16. I agree. It does seem like a more civilized solution than

ours of just letting them live on the streets and out of dumpsters.

[FarCenter]

18. Later story

Amsterdam's 'scum villages' show the illiberal new face of northern Europe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/07/amsterdam-scum-villages-illiberal-europe

But, actually, isn't The Netherlands down deep a Calvinist society?