# Barcelona's shipping container homes as social housing fix (The Guardian, 6 September 2019)

* **Sardine tins for the poor?: Barcelona's shipping container homes**
* Published in The Guardian on 6 September 2019
* <https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/sep/06/sardine-tins-for-the-poor-barcelonas-shipping-container-homes>
* **Summary**:
* * **The Barcelona municipality has begun installing its first shipping container homes just outside of La Rambla in a bid to provide emergency housing for people who have been evicted or driven out of the neighbourhood by gentrification.** The total cost of the scheme in Barcelona is €940,000.
  * The container scheme was initially rejected by the council for fear tenants would feel stigmatised, but with over 1,000 people on the emergency housing list it was soon revived. **Barcelona has an extremely low level of public housing – 1.5% of the total stock, compared with 28% in Berlin.**
  * There has been criticism of similar schemes in the Netherlands where student residences were built within containers, but there were cold and noisy; and in Ealing, west London. The children’s commissioner for England criticised these container flats as [unsuitable and unsafe](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/23/they-just-dump-you-here-the-homeless-families-living-in-shipping-containers), and residents have said they are cramped, stiflingly hot in summer, and too cold in winter.
* **Keywords**: Spain, Barcelona, public housing, social housing, affordability, container homes, shipping container, housing conditions