Unhoused homeless people actually have a non-zero cost to the cities they’re in, whether it comes to incarceration or other costs.
Cities could convert these office spaces into homeless shelters and save money.
Cities could convert these office spaces into homeless shelters and save money.
Yes, by default commercial buildings have centralized plumbing for common facilities. That is easily remedied with a few holes added into the concrete, and new plumbing run.
Enough windows? WhatTheHuh? Commercial => Residential building conversions do often end up with some "unique" floor plans sometimes referred to as "shotgun" layouts due to their long and narrow designs. This ensures each unit has some windows (most often you can't open them as the original design didn't open). Interior spaces get converted into other common area/use spaces without window access.
Could this be a problem for fire codes? Having multiple ways out of a bedroom for example. I've been in commercial buildings that seem like total death traps in a fire. Even if you get manage to break a window you'd have little chance of surviving the jump, and any kind of ladder long enough to reach the ground would be impractical.
tl;dr It can be done. You're better off with older styles of office buildings. It's expensive so you end up with luxury apartments.
The problem is the homeless, not their unhoused/housed status. Never saw so many ambulances on a daily basis as on a hotel that was repurposed for homeless. (Owner was pretty happy having his crummy hotel filled at a $200/night rate ;) )
> Cities could convert these office spaces into homeless shelters and save money.
does not follow from this:
> Unhoused homeless people actually have a non-zero cost to the cities they’re in, whether it comes to incarceration or other costs.