Housing idea unveiled
The prototype looks like a rust-colored single-wide trailer with nice windows and good landscaping.
But it’s actually a 40-foot-long steel cargo container, recycled and decorated to look and feel like a small family home.
Las Vegas developer Arnold Stalk’s dream is to convert such containers, millions of which he says are lying idle in harbors around the world, into emergency housing for victims of natural disasters and the homeless.
Stalk also sees potential for the containers to increase the pool of affordable housing options.
"Several factors have led to an enormous shortage of basic housing for people," Stalk said at a Thursday unveiling of the modest model home on The Meadows School campus.
Those factors include natural disasters, substandard housing and homelessness, he said, adding that there is a big need for new, creative ways to address the shortage.
Stalk came up with the idea of recycling nearly 8 1/2-foot-tall by 8-foot-wide storage containers into homes while taking a cruise off the California coast.
He saw thousands of unused International Standard Organization modules stacked along the harbor.
"The single container is a building block which we can stack and interlock into a standardized single-family home of up to 1,500 to 2,000 square feet," he said.
Stalk joined with two Las Vegas charities, SHARE and The Friedman Family Foundation, and students from The Meadows School to complete the prototype, dubbed the Instant-Built House.
The model container was taken from a port in San Pedro, Calif.
"This container here has been all over the world in ships, on trains, on planes. It’s been everywhere," Stalk said.
The steel-framed home is easy to transport and can withstand hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, he said.
He plans to show the model to potential buyers such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other disaster relief agencies.
Used containers cost about $3,000 each, Stalk said.
Making them into homes involves installing windows, insulation, a roof-top air conditioning unit, solar voltaic cells and electric generators.
"Our vision is to mass-produce these houses and make them available to those who need emergency or transitional housing," Stalk said. "We can site these in neighborhoods … in suburbs, anywhere."
He said the units could be used to help fight homelessness.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has said he likes the idea of using the containers for transitional housing for the homeless.
But Shannon West, regional homeless services coordinator for Clark County, said the Instant-Built Houses are more appropriate for emergency, temporary housing.
"The units look totally livable, and I could see how they’d be helpful in disaster situations when there are suddenly tons of people without places to live," she said. "But here in Southern Nevada, we are working to provide permanent structures where people can live forever. We want to reintegrate (homeless) families into our communities permanently."
