Need housing for NO residents? Grab some Boats!!!

[Porcupine]

Ok we need portable housing for a huge number of people in a flooded area. The housing must be dry, have kitchen and bathroom facilities, sleeping areas and enable a minimal standard of living so that the residents can start working on cleanup and rebuilding.

That is a description of a Boat. Upstream of New Orleans there are hundreds of thousands of boats with kitchen, sleeping and bathroom facilities sufficient to minimally house a family of four. I say we eminent domain them and float them to the affected areas.

Some of these boats currently sell for $20k to $50K. Does anyone think they are going to build a residence for four people in a week for $20k? Not likely. Also this would be the fastest possible way of reuniting communities and families. Float them down the big muddy and raft them up folks.

Lets grab some boats. Anyone know a Congresscritter? A major insurance executive?

edit: yacht in original post changed to boat

[Richard Steele]

1. One problem with that idea:

[Zynx]

2. I shouldn't find it funny, but I do.

I hope they were all insured.

[Qibing Zero]

3. I should NOT have just laughed at that. Curse you! nt

[Porcupine]

6. Somewhere upstream or on the Texas Coast boats sit empty...

waiting for the wealthy bastard that owns them to make his monthly (if that) visit. Thousands and thousands and thousands of them. Hell, you could house 100,000 people on the boats sitting empty in San Francisco Bay easily.

Any four berth boat with a functional head and galley will do as long as it floats. It would give these people privacy and the ability to minimally function as families. It would beat the crap out of motels, tent cities and gymnasiums.

Oh, and we could probably fund the whole thing with insurance monies for flood damage and relocation costs.

[aquart]

4. A SMART rich person

Would organize a Yachts for NOLA drive.

[DELUSIONAL]

5. Some of those boats are peoples HOMES

[Porcupine]

8. Patch them and float them ASAP. Boats are tough.

Some of these could be functional as homes within a week.

[Xithras]

7. Not yachts, sailboats.

I used to own a 23 foot sailboat...big difference between one of those and a million dollar partyboat (yacht).

The biggest problem with your idea is that most sailboats aren't built for liveaboard usage. They have thin beds, flimsy doors, toilets that have to be manually dumped, no A/C or heat, and square footage like that of a prison cell (the living space in mine was 5 feet by 9 feet, and it "slept four"). They would also require the installation of an extensive electrical system to power the ones that support shore hookups, and a great deal of gasoline to run the generators on the ones that don't.

[Porcupine]

9. Beds, doors, toilets, private living space. Still good.

I know that most 23' sailboats are skinny things that would barely qualify as a bump above camping. But there are also marinas full of fat cabin cruisers. People live on 23 foot boats in San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound.

Look, these people don't all have to live in boats. They might not have to live in them for more than a year. But it could be an alternative to a forced diaspora involving split families or tent city refugee camps.

edit: spelling