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Modular housing to help young homeless people into independent living

  • by JW

Modular homes are similar to prefabs but benefit from cutting-edge designs and materials. They are often far cheaper to build and can be constructed in half the time. 

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Today’s Mail carries a very positive story on housing:

Now that’s boxing clever! Charity builds budget prefabs and rents them to homeless youngsters

  • Charity Centrepoint is putting up 33 prefabricated homes to rent out in Peckham
  • Project aims to provide 300 youngsters with a home in London and Manchester
  • To qualify, homeless youths need an apprenticeship or an entry-level job lined up

Now that’s boxing clever! Charity builds budget prefabs and rents them to homeless youngsters  | Daily Mail Online

The project started officially rolling a year ago:

Lugard Road – artist’s impression

Centrepoint has been given planning permission to build new ‘modular’ housing for 33 young people in Peckham. The leading homelessness charity is aiming to turn a vacant building in Lugard Road into eight flats as part of its independent living programme, which helps young homeless people into employment or apprenticeships. Modular homes are similar to prefabs but benefit from cutting-edge designs and materials. They are often far cheaper to build and can be constructed in half the time. 

Peckham modular homes for homeless young people approved by Southwark Council | Southwark News

Although the charity has been pushing the idea for some time now:

Centrepoint’s new modular homes will tackle youth homelessness and unemployment | Centrepoint

And others have been looking to this model too:

In Cambridge, an innovative approach to the problem has now been tested for the first time in England: modular homes. Modular homes are movable, mostly temporary kinds of small-scale accommodation which give each occupant their own front door.

Small-scale modular housing could provide a lifeline for people experiencing homelessness

It’s an issue in these parts too:

Homelessness in the South West – Vision Group for Sidmouth

Modular housing for homeless folk has come to Mid Devon:

High-quality zero carbon affordable homes – Vision Group for Sidmouth

And there are ideas for similar project for East Devon:

Should we build affordable housing above car parks? – Vision Group for Sidmouth

As for the ‘prefab’ house, they have developed considerably over the years:

The phrase is getting used more and more, but is a ‘modular home’ one that a house-hunter should seriously consider buying? Any mental image of prefab property of the 1940s and 1950s should be set aside when it comes to the standard of homes built off-site these days.

New homes | Modular homes | Whathouse.com

And, besides, they might point to an even bigger market beyond the homeless:

Are prefabricated houses a solution to the housing crisis? – PlanRadar

With some very clever developments in technology, as covered on these pages:

New advances in timber construction – Vision Group for Sidmouth