Plans to convert luxury cruise liner to homeless shelter
A group of businessmen in New Zealand have floated a unique idea to deal with the nation’s growing homelessness problem by housing them on a cruise ship.
Christchurch businessman Garry House and a number of colleagues started investigating the possibility of purchasing a 400-bed cruise liner to dock in Auckland.
House told The Guardian, “Living on a cruise ship is not a long-term solution but things are so bad for so many families now it could help ease the pressure for two or three years while longer-term strategies are put into place.”
House believes he could get the ship ready from Europe to New Zealand in a month.
Homelessness is a huge problem in Auckland where property prices have increased 77.5 per cent over the past five years to make the housing market one of the most expensive in the world.
House hopes to relieve the strain, but his enthusiasm has received a mixed response.
Campbell Roberts from the Salvation Army told The Guardian, “What New Zealand needs to face up too is finding long-term, permanent solutions. A cruise ship is fine for a month but to live on it for any longer would be a strange experience for the inhabitants and it would have no sense of normality about it. I am fully supportive of a creative solution to this problem but I don’t think a cruise ship is the answer.”
But House remains unperturbed, saying, “People would not be on the ship 24/7. They’d be getting off, going to work, living normal lives. But at least, at night, they could return to a bed and not a park in the middle of winter.”
What do you make of House’s idea? Should we be considering creative solutions like this one? Or do you think people should try to be more practical?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Image credit: Shutterstock / ATGImages
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