Sell the vatican, feed the world..

(The title is a allusion to a video by Sarah Silverman) – So, yesterday I was looking at the York Minster – which is undoubtedly a beautiful piece of work, but it did make me wonder, how many people could this building house? I mean, it’s huge – it’s a unbelievable number of square feet under roof. And then I started wondering.. if in general we converted churches to housing, would we *have* homeless people?

That’d be one to back-of-the-envelope one of these days when I’m feeling bored.

And yes, I understand there are problems with this. I used to regularly let homeless people crash in my garage, until the level of stupidity exhibited by one of them went too far. (Dude was smoking next to large cache of very flammable objects despite being asked not to). And I will admit that I worry sometimes as I consider offering housing to down-on-their-luck individuals, will they be violent towards me? Will they steal everything I own and sell it for meth? Trusting people enough to live with them is a challenge for me.

I do wonder to what extent the homelessness problem is that we all have a hard time trusting each other – thanks, Gun Nuts… (well, to be fair, knives are also a problem here, and so are fists.. perhaps if I believed I would say thanks, all-powerful-God-who-loves-or-at-least-doesn’t-stop-violence..)

2 Responses to “Sell the vatican, feed the world..”

  1. Steve Seman Says:

    I always thought that if I hit the powerball, I would build housing for homeless based on the Japanese model of micro-hotels. Cheap to build, heat and cool – cinder block construction with 8’x8′ locking rooms and shared kitchen, bath and living room on each floor. Pay $100 per month rent or give 20 hours labor per week building another micro-hotel…

  2. eaglesoars Says:

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/04/london-church-highway-house-giving-a-home-to-people-even-charities-wont-help

Leave a Reply