Housing For Displaced People - Part 1

From my previous Blog, I explored housing ideas for displaced people. I thought, how can we provide low maintenance, cost efficient housing? This led me to introduced EverBlock, a Lego-like building material. EverBlock is a fairly cost efficient source of housing. At about $7,250 per unit (8 x 21 x 8), three units can be easily shipped in a 40ft ocean container. Also, EverBlock is very low maintenance and can be reused or reform into other necessary structures.

There are currently nearly 60 million displaced people. As of a 2011 report from UNCHR, Pakistan hosts the most refugees with 1.7 million. The report does not take into account the recent events in Paris. Now many refugees are discovering it is more difficult to find safe places to live. Many politicians are proposing to prevent these refugees from entering the countries. What they need to focus on is providing sufficient housing.

Number of Displaced People

Currently the United States sets aside about $100 million for unexpected overseas refugee and migration needs. Due to the crisis in Syria, the United States announced a new budget of $419 million in new funding. That brings the United States total contribution for refugees to $4.5 billion. That may seem a lot but is far too little to provide for the displaced people. Only 35% of the requested funding for Syria are met. Not only do we need to find cost efficient housing, we need to find ways to obtain or raise money for the projects.

One option could be to create a new budget. This would require an increase in funding for refugees to $9 billion. As a result, the size of the government would have to be reduced. Many people will lose their jobs. Also, we would have to reduce funding in our military. As of 2015, the United States allocates 54% of its discretionary spending to the military. That’s nearly $600 billion, more than the next 7 countries combined. Yet, it would mean a lot of people losing their jobs.

Military Spending

Another option is to require other countries such as the United Kingdom or China to contribute more money to refugees. The United Kingdom allocates €854 million, which is 71% of its humanitarian budget in 2014. That equates to just around $1 billion, a fraction of what the United States dishes out for displaced people. China has provided just as much as the United States in foreign assistance. From 2010-2012, China has appropriated $14.41 billion dollars to foreign aid. That’s almost $5 billion a year. However only 0.4% of that was directly appointed to humanitarian aid. China should assign more money to humanitarian aid. The United Kingdom needs to raise more money as well. This would help fund for temporary housing for the refugees.

China's Foreign Spending 

Due to the lack of efficient temporary housing and funding, refugees are having a difficult time sustaining a life. They have to make do with what various underfunded organizations provide for them. With the attacks in Paris and other places, many refugees are being restricted from entering various countries. The refugees need better, safer places to live. With more funding and more efficient housing, hopefully they can go on with their lives. In my next blog I will explore other solutions for housing and increase funding.