When garden shed size shelters are used to house the homeless, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Insulation and heat in the Winter, A/C in hot weather plus fire protection. But when you provide the homeless with shelters that only have R5 base and roof and R2 in the sidewalls and floors, it’s time to rethink if this is the right move.
With cold weather approaching, the city and its operating partner are making last-minute adjustments before opening Madison’s first homeless encampment on the Southeast Side next week, including adding insulation to the thin-walled shelters not intended for a Wisconsin winter.
From an article in the Wisconsin State Journal
Now, the city and the operators are making final preparations, including MACH OneHealth retrofitting the tiny shelters with more insulation, resolving safety and other issues with restrooms, and details like non-duplicate keys to shelters and getting a buzzer from the front gate to the office.
In just 10 weeks, the city has graded the site, assembled the 30 tiny, prefabricated, climate-controlled shelters, brought in a small building and remodeled it with an office space and six restrooms with showers and outside entrances, created an asphalt fire lane down the center of the site, erected streetlights and electrical hookups to serve the shelters, installed a 6-foot chain-link fence with vinyl privacy slats, and begun landscaping.
The insulation is below standards for Wisconsin winters and should be upgraded, Konkel said. The shelters will provide an indoor temperature about 40 degrees above the outside temperature, meaning if it’s 10 degrees outside it will feel like a still-chilly 50 degrees inside, said Tim Jones, facilities leader for MACH OneHealth.
CLICK HERE to read the entire Wisconsin State Journal article
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- Seattle Building More Garden Shed Communities
Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source. Email at [email protected]
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