Homeless Housing Solutions: Wooden Pallet Homes

I've done quite a bit of pallet construction from decks to chicken coops and out buildings. They really do come in handy and they are FREE!

As for the homeless, maybe if a few pallet communities would pop up here and there our States would be shamed into doing something about homelessness. No one should have to sleep in the streets or shelters. We should all have a roof over our heads.

I have a whole pile of pallets in my driveway. Some whiles ago there was a hub on making gardens out of pallets. I will do that with some of them. The rest my children are breaking up for firewood. (therapy, their beloved grandfather died last night)

Pallets are a great resource, I´ve been using them for years as furniture. A couple of years ago ,we made a super delux chicken house and many a festival bar has been constructed and withstood weeks of drunken assault. It´s a great idea and I love your attitude.... "Don’t tell me something can’t possibly work; give me ideas on how we can make it work."...Fair play.

Hi Bill,

Apologies for being late to respond on this serious subject and what an excellent solution you propose. I agree whole heartily that recycling pallets into dwellings would be a powerful positive towards helping the homeless. Ireland and Dublin where I have lived most of my life, are no strangers either to large numbers of homeless from every walk of life.

It is frightening and here it is a very real and rising problem. We also have huge numbers of empty houses, flats, apartments like the UK that are sitting unfinished or unused. Pallet housing is such an excellent idea every community, government agency and local council should drive forward with and make positive and real changes affecting real people. Actions speak loud but words are powerful so we ALL need to stand up and share this important message.

Thank you my friend for writing this with a very real solution.

WAW what an interesting hub the pallets seems to be a great idea i never thought of it ,the house would go up even quicker :).

Thanks for sharing

That sounds like a great idea. Thank you, you too! :)

This is so interesting! I once built an outdoor bar using wooden pallets and I'm thinking of building a table this summer. Wooden pallets are great! It's even greater if they could be used for building houses for homeless people. What an inspiring hub, Bill. :)

Ship them to Cali?

Hey billy, I was in Oakland, an industrial part I don't frequent often; there were signs on just about every corner offering to buy pallets. I wouldn't have noticed them if I hadn't read this hub last week.

DIY Wooden Pallet Homes? It's cool and I will no longer see (perhaps only few) homeless people sleeping along the pavements of commercial buildings and parks or even under the overpass or bridge here in the Philippines. I hope the scheme or program will be adopted here.

Thanks for sharing this info, Sir Bill. It helps to inspire to adopt this program here in my country.

You are very welcome! I look forward to reading more from you!

I love the idea of building simple houses from pallets! I wouldn't mind having one myself!

This is a fabulous idea if any land owner is willing to allow the home to be built on their property. Fixing the problem involves more acceptance, caring, and understanding then our society currently has. This could work if businesses or owners of public property were offered money or tax breaks to allow the houses to be placed in town. But, I love the way you think!

I agree, Bill. The cities would probably also rather see the revenue they can earn off the land rather than see it as a tax write-off and a solution to the homeless problem by donating!

Bill, this is an ingenious idea. Not only is it socially responsible, but environmentally responsible. The pallet video brought up a good point, tho: land. Where would these built? Would the land be donated?

Interesting idea. Last summer I met a farmer from here in Iowa who has been building homes in Haiti with grain bins.

A great hub Billy and will again bring hope to many I am sure as your hubs always do.

This seems to be a great idea.

I vote up,across and share all around.

Havea great day and lots of love.

Eddy.

What a great idea. We sometimes bring home wooden pallets to turn the wood into something useful. Glad to see that entire houses are being made from them. Voting this Up and Useful.

I've just read that US is full of ghost towns, any possibilities of bringing at least some of these to life again, resources, facilities etc?

Heh Billy... interesting stuff here and a novel idea. We are so wasteful here in North America when we think of the possibilities of what could be done.

Well done and very informative... love the idea.

Hugs from Canada

This is amazing! I think I might have to make a fort for my daughter with this stuff!

By the way, the video is excellent. This actually folds in nicely for my own future. I know the article is about the homeless so I won't elaborate here, but it did give me an idea.

There is a sentiment about that I happen to agree with. It is summed up in the adage, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps." I do think that adage has validity in our society. Free everything gets us nowhere. Having said that, I agree fully with your article. Many of the homeless would gladly pull themselves up by the bootstraps if they had bootstraps, or boots. This housing idea is interesting. Building codes could easily sidetrack it, but that is no reason not to pursue it. At least force those who oppose doing the right thing to blatantly outlaw such constructions. Eventually we, as a society, will wake up and demand that we take care of our own.

Great hub! This would work IF the country really cared to help the homeless, which it obviously does not. Like this hub though.

Bill, this was really creative and an excellent write. I keep thinking about homelessness and am quite aggravated that the homeless are so often perceived as "dirty little trolls". I want to ask those with the attitude how a homeless person is supposed to keep clean and tidy? There are some really bright minds living under bridges and behind dumpsters and we need to find solutions. You've certainly come up with some excellent ideas.

Wooden pallet homes don't look bad at all and still can be humane solution for homeless people.

billybuc:

Thank you.

Some more food for thought.

The fundamental difference between the rural society of yesterday and the urban society of today, is that a rural society had the means to fend for its itself. The United States was rural society, going into the Great Depression. You hunted to survive. Today that is primarily illegal, except during hunting season.

The issue about the homeless, is the need to recognize that interdependence is what must be developed for our society to be to the benefit of all.

We hear lot about a socialized society. Corporations have established well oiled and well financed control over our political process. They fail to understand that their methods are socialistic. A government of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation, is not "of the people, by the people, and for the people", but the many being dictated too by the few.

I know many homeless people in Colorado Springs. At one time I was one of them. I know what it means to be disillusioned with society.

Our so-called enlightened Major has established a law that prevents homeless people from panhandling in the downtown area. And, then a federal judge is challenging the constitutionality of the law as we speak.

It won't go into effect until there is a ruling.

Even when the unemployed are at 5% of the workforce, it's like people see that as a consequence of the free market and not the black eye it reflects of itself on our indifference as a society.

Good work.

Building a pallet house is a wonderful idea, Bill! I've heard of cob houses before, but not of pallet houses. They could be a great solution for people without a home.

Bill, I really like how you put in there to get the homeless to build their shelter. We could help, but to give them the tools to do it. Reminds me of the Old Testament laws of leaving the edges of your fields for the homeless and needy to glean from. Gleaning requires work to procure your own food. It inspires self-reliance on self and God. It also makes a person to feel good to enjoy the fruits of their labor.....self worth. Great hub and I appreciate the great ideas!

Wonderful ideas! Amazing! I agree. I especially love the cob construction. I think it's charming, like something out of a fairy tale!

Marcia Ours

I would imagine that Habitat for Humanity would be interested in repurposing pallets for housing, Bill. The mayor of St. Louis has spent resources on driving the homeless out of downtown St. Louis. He is more concerned with consumerism and tourism than broken human beings. The Rev. Larry Rice, a community activist for the homeless population, spent a few days before Thanksgiving in jail for a peaceful protest, similar to an event endeavoring to help the homeless during the extreme heat of the summer. Another state bought one-way tickets to Hawaii for the homeless. Some of their beaches are now packed with tents occupied by the poor. They were considered unsightly so they hussled them to a warmer clim, not caring whether they could afford to eat while in Hawaii and with no means to get back. Homeless dogs have a better chance of finding a forever home.

Great idea, Bill, that needs the clout, know how and experience of many to put your idea to action. Thank you for caring, my friend. Everything positive begins there.

What an interesting and useful idea for repurposing pallets. Pinning so more people can see this and possibly get ideas for their own communities.

I do not know why someone had not started doing this back when so many people lost their homes and were forced to live on the streets. I agree with Sunnie, there are many empty buildings that could be made into shelters. Great hub Bill...Thank's.

This is a brilliant thought to use discarded pallets and put them to good use housing the homeless. As you said, all of the homeless people trying to live on our streets is a cancer in our society and shameful. The video showing the building designs and what it takes to put these type of houses together is really good. I am sure that there would be many homeless people willing to build them if only given the land space and the materials and someone to guide them in the process. Hopefully more people will see this hub of yours and get the ball rolling in the right direction. Up votes and definitely sharing. Thanks!

Some good information here to share with others who keen to know about the options to build house.

Australia (Melbourne) have a unique way of disposing of the problem. If you are homeless and not an Australian citizen then they buy you an air ticket back to where you cam from. If you are a woman married to and Australian and have children born in Australia and the family is homeless then the woman AND her Australian children are sent back to where she originated from. There have been big debates on the fairness of this, some think it the best thing way while others think it is wrong especially sending the children who are citizens away.

Thank you for this. SF is still mulling over those "spaces" you may have heard about.

This is great information and as you say we have to cure the cancer instead of putting bandages over it. Thank you for sharing this information, did not know about it at all.

This is a great idea Bill, I don't know anything about your planning regulations, I am sure there would be problems and lots of red tape over here. But this idea would kill 2 birds with one stone, housing and less landfill so why not, it would be a win/win all around.

The Salvation army and volunteers are building homes her for the homeless, mostly kit sets but it is a start to getting someone back on their feet. We still have families who lost everything in the Sept 2010 earthquakes here STILL homeless.

We waste money like it is useless paper...sending aid to countries that do not need it just so they will like us, bankrolling pork barrel spending so we can find out how fast ketchup comes out of a barrel...and yet, we allow people to live in the street and I say this tongue in cheek since they are not living but existing in a hopeless void.

I have read articles about the success of pallet houses and your suggestion of using this concept to provide housing for the homeless needs to go write to the top! Pallets are thrown out every day....what a perfect solution..pure genius Bill.

Voted all the way across(except funy of course)

Right you are about gov. buildings. LOL Government is never creative. Look at the tax code.

What is wrong with using government buildings for the homeless. Most government buildings are empty except for 40 or 50 hours a week. All musing aside this is a wonderful idea. I saw a hub last year where they used pallets for a bunch of things. Absolutely love creative solutions.

The trouble is the do gooders or somebody would stop it in many cases. They would find some reason for not letting it happen.

In Australia, we are selling our land to other countries to do their own thing . Yet those same countries would never let us buy properties in their countries.

This always makes me wonder. We are not the smart country we give our money to other countries instead of helping our own needy people.

This is so awesome! My husband used to work at a bottling company that had stacks of these outback just going to waste. I can't think of better use for them. Loved the video and the people who discovered this way of recyling for the homeless. I am going to share this with our outreach center for the homeless. I think I could live in one of these -- very comfy and just right.

Hi Billy,

I read this hub yesterday and even wrote a comment but must of got side tracked as it looks like I did not follow through..hehe

This has always troubled me, why so many go without shelter when there are so many empty building across the USA. We are forever building new and bigger, leaving old buildings behind to rot. I honestly cringe when I see so much waste. I think we have to offer ideas and we should never stop putting them out there. Some may even take root. Thank you for always trying!

God bless,

Sunnie

"that kind of myopic thinking is beneath us as a civilization...." powerful words, that not enough people accept, much less believe sincerely. Oh, but it IS, in fact beneath us, if in fact we count ourselves amongst the humans who inhabit this earth.

No need for me to go near the subject of our Veterans....I promised myself, "no rants today." Perhaps tomorrow...for we really must not allow too much rest....which in turn, becomes laziness..and in turn to a lack of empathy and compassion......And the latter, Lord knows, is why we have homeless in the United States of America.

Shame, disgust and anger, literally consumes me, when I read of the billions, the thugs in power send willingly and freely to those who HATE us and wish us total destruction.................UP+++