Everyone Deserves a Roof

I just watched a news item about EDAR - Everyone Deserves a Roof. This is a group that provides portable carts that convert into tents. They provide these temporary housing solution to the homeless in Los Angeles.

These tents might not stand up to Atlantic Canada's winters, but the program does offer some interesting thoughts for those of us who are concerned about housing here in New Brunswick.

I don't think people would suggest that the EDAR tents are an ideal or long term solution to housing problems. Still they do provide help for those in need.

Should we here be willing to set aside our desire for the "ideal" solutions and allow for temporary band-aid fixes? I am thinking of the proposed Tannery Court development in the south end of Saint John. Critics claim the small apartments for non-elderly singles without bathtubs are a poor way of dealing with the housing crisis. Also, critics don't like that Tannery Court is not a mixed-income development. Perhaps this sort of development could be our cart-tent solution. We won't stop working toward a better housing model, but for those in need, perhaps these shorter solutions are necessary.