We really should have a lower limit for housing. Meaning if you're "homeless" you get given something about the size of this to live in that will at least keep you alive until you can find something else.<p>Currently we have people building "homes" literally within the suspension beams of bridges, in shop doorways, and we have hundreds of people freezing to death out of the streets yearly. When we could build a basic "home" for under $150, it seems completely avoidable.<p>I think, counter-intuitively, the biggest roadblock to doing something like that might be regulations (e.g. building codes). They define what a "home" should and shouldn't be, but ultimately set the bar very high (and we wind up with the current situation).<p>Maybe there should be a new set of regulations for "emergency accommodation." Nobody should be literally homeless in 2014 in the Western world, particularly as it would cost less than an iPhone to house them for a year (assuming only a roof and basic electric space heater, nothing else).