Conestoga Huts

David Trammel's picture

Seems like a very innovative approach, as well as very cost effective ($2500 vs $10-20,000 for a tiny house).

Conestoga Huts for the homeless a solution for the Northwest?

Click the "View All Photos" option for some details.

Looks like they lay down two of the long concrete parking stops, or four shorter ones, then build the base platform on that. I'm guessing they then use the through holes in those blocks to anchor the base platform to the spot, and then into the ground to anchor the structure. Probably with rebar. Then the front door wall and back wall are added with it looks like 2x4 roof beams. Steel wire cattle fencing provides a structure to lay down insulating blankets and then water proof tarps as a roof. Doesn't appear to have any internal heating source but with several sleeping blankets and laying, you should be able to sleep even in below freezing temps.

Looks like they have several communal spaces/shelters as well.

Wonder if I could use such a design for my own backyard workshop/office and what hoops/permits I'd need?

mountainmoma's picture

Yurts are considered tents around here.

So, the building codes where I live say that you cannot sleep in a tent ( yes, that would apply to your childs sleepovers in the backyard, although they only enforce based on neighbor complaints, so that one hasnt happened yet)

If a yurt is a tent, then these are tents also. Now, you can have a tent in your yard you dont sleep in. Likely it would fall under the must be under 100 sq ft rule we have here.

Anyway, here we have a rule that you can have an accessory structure, a shed, if it is less than 100sqft in area and under 10ft at roof peak.

If you did not like the tarping/tent aspect of the quonset hut like structures you are talking about, then you could ferocement the outside and then paint with a standard waterproof membrane type paint that is now common. fero-cement would entail attaching a second wire layer over the livestock panels they are using and of course cement, so the cost would go up some, but it would last longer.

The ones they are making are temporary and easy to remove and reuse somewhere elese by design

Blueberry's picture

A standard cell is 8X8 or 64 square feet what a great way to get them ready for the FEMA camp!

David Trammel's picture

Not sure what you mean by that Blueberry, was it tongue in cheek or serious?

I tend to feel that any sort of scenario where the powers that be (behind the curtain) who try and send a portion of the domestic American population into re-education camps is going to have a hard time doing it. Not just because homeless people do too have guns, but that quite a few of those same homeless people, have friends and family who also have guns.

True, Chinese sending their ethnic minorities to such camps is happening and seems to be rather successful.

I tend to think what we are heading for in the immediate Future is a Universal Basic Allowance, which is quietly used to defund all other social welfare programs. True this will just increase the homeless problem collectively, but you already have the Coastal Elites looking down on the deplorable heartlands. Round up the homeless in coastal cities, send them to the interior THEN restrict travel. The Rich already don't care if the 90% just dies, they just don't want to see it, nor step over the feces and needles.

Of course that completely ignores the fact that the people funding programs to give the homeless shelter and perhaps a leg up are definitely NOT the Powers That Be, but are liberal, non-capitalistic organizations believing all people deserve equal opportunity and access. I'll start worrying when those same 1% start publicly saying they care about us and want to make our lives better at the cost of money out of their own pockets.

Anyone here going to believe that line of BS?

Though in support of the "round them all up" scenario, this so called beacon of world freedom has one of the highest rates of incarceration on the planet.

I'm too old to don camo and pick up a gun, but I've got one whole shelf with old books and manuals from my younger "survivalist" incarnation, that I'll happily hand out to the young men and women of my neighborhood if it becomes necessary someday. I'll even make bowls of stone soup and hand out bottles of home brewed beer while they read them.

mountainmoma's picture

The tent-alternative huts, what the OP is about, in the cold areas of the west coast were thought up by individuals and started with private money, not government Although some local government money (city) may do a bit, I would bet it is still being done largely by private charities.

And, the standard tent is about 6x6 ft .... and does not have the radient barrier to hold heat in.... so this is a more comfortable alternative.

I guess there is no pleasing everyone

My first thought whenever I see ANY kind of house like this (including those cute cottages on disputed islands in the Susquehanna River) is what do they do with raw sewage? People do poop you know. The article didn't indicate if they were building public bathrooms. If they're using composting toilets, then they have to be maintained for sanitary reasons.

A standard problem (always, always, always) is that you can't guarantee what people will actually do. Or if they will take care of what they are given.

The Conestoga huts are certainly nicer, drier, and roomier than pup tents.

Teresa from Hershey

ClareBroommaker's picture

This article https://www.good-sam.com/our-stories/eugene-village-donors-homeless says there are portable toilets. Trash service, too. I don't see water mentioned in the article, but in one photo there appears to be a 50 gallon blue plastic water tank. Apparently residents who can stay for up to six months make the rules for the little parking lot village.