Cruise ships to house homeless
THE Government has been in talks with an Auckland businessman on the possibility of housing the homeless on a cruise ship docked in the harbour.
Electrical engineer Jeremy Penrice came up with the idea of permanently housing migrant workers and those displaced by new motorways in floating communities and took the scheme to Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett.
Penrice, who works with project development agency AngloTasman, said implementation was ‘‘well down the track’’.
Senior political adviser to Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett, Belinda Milnes, confirmed Bennett had been in talks with Penrice, was interested in the idea and was ‘‘looking forward to following developments’’.
Although Penrice is not primarily interested in using cruise ship accommodation for social housing purposes, Milnes said further discussions were possible.
Anglo-Tasman had been in touch with Chinese and Korean construction agencies who wanted to house foreign workers in ships on the waterfront while they assist in building hotels and skyrises in the CBD, Penrice said.
He said a network of workers living together would create a ‘‘cohesive community’’, solve traffic issues and leave very little carbon footprint by ensuring people lived and worked in the same areas.
‘‘You could house 200-300 people on a boat that costs as much as three Auckland homes,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s this perception that housing people on former cruise ships would create slums, but that isn’t the case.’’
Penrice said cruise ships could also house families who need to move out of their state housing, such as in Northcote, Hobsonville and Tamaki where properties were being demolished.
‘‘We have a very complex housing problem in Auckland, but solving these problems are easy if you look for the solution.’’
And the answer could be as easy as ‘‘just securing a ship and then securing a place to moor it’’, Penrice said.
The idea of housing people on cruise liners is not unprecedented, with ships used to house 8000 people on the Gulf Coast during Hurricane Katrina, and ships in Sweden currently providing accommodation for Syrian refugees.
Penrice said Anglo-Tasman was looking for overseas investors to purchase or charter ships.