Life in ‘The Arcade’: Affordable Housing Built Into Abandoned Shopping Mall

Abandoned Humans and Buildings, What a Combination

BY CYNTHIA GRIFFITH | MARCH 17, 2023 | AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Unaffordable living costs, no land to build on, NIMBY thinking, displaced humans and abandoned building, think outside conventional housing  boxes, solutions possible(Metatag)

Introduction

        Every city has so many abandoned buildings, factories, nursing homes, malls that are sitting and gathering dust, useless, but that could that be changed

        Affordable housing shortfall is a crisis that is growing exponentially every month with no end in sight which is causing homelessness to explode nation wide

This solution could literally by the answer to “NIMBY,” syndrome that is preventing the building of new, low income and affordable housing units across the nation (Not In My Back Yard)

Let’s look at His word as get started today

Psalm 71: 12 & 13

For He delivers the needy when he calls, the and him who has no helper, He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy

What Say You…

We have to stop the cycle of governmental enslavement to the streets as acceptable, politically okay and as backdoor profits to the very government that created the failed system

        Jobs and bootstraps alone will not end homelessness, housing and direst intervention, jobs will end the cycle then back o self-sufficiency.

Limited Resources, but Unlimited Potential

Let’s think about the United States of America, a nation of vast resources and expands, but there is 47% of this nation that cannot be built upon, it is wilds and natural resources that are to be untouched.

        Each city is contained within a given geographic territory, it can only build out as far as its limits allow, and within it can only build so much, every city will run out of building space. Even building up is limited

        The abandoned building collection of each is growing as the economy of the world shifts post pandemic and as we play patty cake with inflation and a major recession, these building are a perfect solution to major housing crisis if we can think outside the box

Tear Down or Turn Lives Around

American population is booming and in cities especially  are running out of building room. Every city has only a given amount of buildable space and the resources are limited, what a re the answers, for the low income and the homeless?

As the city transitions in its normal life cycle the need of different and varied housing units are uniquely changed, but building more housing is not the answer, it cannot catch up with the need, there will always be more low income and disadvantaged than housing available

So, you slow down, take a look around, and begin to see what maybe possible it is outside the box thinking and willingness to conceive of housing units from unconventional buildings, places that were not intended for humans but could be re-developed

Used to Build Equipment, Now Build New Lives

Dirty, dusty, run down, and even an eye sore filled with tags from people spray painting it, but what about tearing it down, or what about turning it into housing for the homeless?

NIMBY(Not In My Back Yard), really does not impact supportive housing here, it is not a true residential area, and instead of leaving this massive building, nursing home, plant, airport, detention center empty, maybe there is a new life for it

Not fit so much for families but what the seniors who are losing their housing and the aged out foster kids and the minimum wage workers who cannot afford rent, this could be a viable option

Once Where Old Folks Were Forgotten

There are nursing homes being close d down all across the nation, they were once places were the old went to be forgotten, but now they can have a new life and purpose, where people can re-start their lives, and they are nearly ready to start with little conversion work

        It is all about facing reality, the facts hurt, housing shortage is not getting better, the seniors are losing housing, minimum pay workers are losing housing, the disabled are on the streets, and the law is now weaponized against all, think out the box

Encampments, tent cities or building conversations for the needs of the growing population of the unhoused, those that cannot pay rent and expense of life anymore, America has always been a nation known for her great compassion, have we lost that reputation?

New Solutions, Unusual Solutions

“The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that for every 100 low-income renters, only 36 affordable housing units are available nationwide. In places like Nevada, where homelessness is so bad that people have resorted to moving their tent cities underground into the sewers, the affordability crisis is more precarious, with only 18 affordable housing units for every 100 low-income earning renters.”

I do not normally copy such a long passage, but we have to see that new, innovative, never tried before solutions are needed, these homeless ones are willing to live underground in a sewer system

Thinking that we have the ability to build enough and fast enough to catch up that that level of short fall is like think that you can catch a running cheetah on open, flat ground

We are in the very infancy of a national crisis and the government will hide the truth, facts and reality until the bitter end, we have to start looking for the new and unusual solutions as this article has suggested

Conclusion

>America is busting at the seams, she is about fully built out on the buildable land and there is no where to go from here and the crisis is not going away

>Population is growing by leaps and bounds, both naturally and by the illegals allowed to enter without check into this country, housing is needed and now

>The landscape is filled and dotted with all kinds of relics of the past that are standing empty and useless, or are they useless?  Can airports, malls, factories, nursing homes, theaters, find new a life as housing?

>We will never be able to build, convert, or make enough conventional housing for the current and future needs, so we have to stop and think and be willing to engage the unconventional to get the homeless, elderly and low income off the streets

CTA…..

Answer this, empty, decaying buildings, hungry and tired humans, mix the two and we can find great solutions for difficult problems…

        Answer this, do we allow the building to stand as empty tombs on a barren landscape or re-invent them as vibrant, living eco-busters of answers to homelessness and housing crisis

        Answer this, is the fight worth it, the codes, the doing, the re-building within to bring forth a new batch of apartment, units that the homeless may live with dignity again

        Homeless on the streets facing tickets, fines and hail and the citizens of the given city fussing and complaining, or take a bold step and think outside of the box? Turn unused, abandoned building into housing units for homeless and severe low income rentals         We cannot build our way out of the housing crisis because for too long we have catered to the mage house and mansion and now the tide has turned and we are in deep trouble.  It is turn to turn abandoned building into unique, one of a kind housing opportunities for the low income and homeless