Watch this Video of the Pods You May Be Living In After the Next Disaster

By on June 11, 2014 7:28 am in Government

NYC’s Office of Emergency Management announced its Urban Post-Disaster Housing Prototype Program yesterday in Cadman Plaza. Prototypes of pre-fab units meant to be deployed and assembled quickly after a Sandy-like event are now on display.

Gothamist: The prototype, which includes one handicap-accessible unit, is made up of three apartments: one 3-bedroom and two 1-bedrooms, ranging in size from 480-square-feet to 813-square-feet. The space—next to OEM’s offices near Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn—mea­sures approx­i­mately 40’ x 100’. Each unit comes with a small balcony, storage space, a kitchen, living space, and bathroom, on top of the bedrooms. For comparison’s sake, the microunits that were unveiled last year as part of the city’s “adAPT NYC” pilot program ranged from 250 and 370-square-feet.

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  • Daddyo

    Great. Disaster condos. After the next major coastal hurricane, gov’t will pop a bunch of pods in to temporarily replace damaged housing. Just need a large construction crew, jackhammers, new electrical/plumbing infrastructure, concrete mixer, numerous cranes and a furniture delivery (try scheduling that amid a disaster). Might be cheaper, faster and easier to order tents and supplies from Amazon…

  • Nick Minos

    Where can I get one now? I live in less than 480 sq ft of space and have no balcony.

  • DIBS

    Are these really feasible for the amount of people that might need them in the event of another Sandy??? First of all, where will they all be stored? Secondly, how long would it take to bring a meaningful number into NYC? Thirdly, where will they all be put? Are there an adequate number of cranes available to stack these all around the city?

    This may look good on paper and on a small scale but seems ridiculous for large numbers of people. $200,000 would cover 667 days of hotel rooms at $300 per day.

  • Pepper

    I feel like I’ve read this comment before…

  • Andrew Porter

    Weird how they’ve had a big press conference and are publicizing these now—they’ve been in the parking lot behind the Office of Emergency Management building for several months. Guess they were waiting for a warm day, so people wouldn’t have to stand in the slush.

  • ujh

    You’re always ready with some “smart” remark. The units were put into place in two days, but the infrastructure (connections to power, water and sewers) obviously took a lot longer. One of the units will be open to the public, possibly before the end of June.

  • Andrew Porter

    So they were “meant to be deployed and assembled quickly”, but you’re saying connections took a lot longer? Doesn’t that mean they wouldn’t in fact be ready for people flooded out by some emergency situation?