The famed American architect, Cotton Moore, 81, came up with his plan after learning of the city’s plan to scrap the older models for new ones, telling The Huffington Post, “I thought it was just a terrible waste ― sending all these cars to the junkyard”.
In his plan, Moore decided he wanted to save 86 cars of the three retiring fleets, which contain hundreds of older model train cars, and turn them into 560-sqaure-foot, one bedroom apartments for the homeless.
Also in his plans for the tiny homes, which he insists won’t cost much—roughly $3,400, he intends to install a bathroom ($700) and kitchenette ($2,700) and also believes his idea will be a cheaper solution to D.C.’s homeless issue than what has previously been suggested.
Moore’s idea also seems to have good timing as the homeless population is apparently on the rise in America’s capital, with a reported 8,350 homeless people in the D.C. area last year, according to Washington’s Department of Housing and Urban Development—a statistic that has gone up by 14.4% from 2015.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority have not made any comments on the idea so far, but did say last month that they would ‘think about Moore’s idea’.
Moore also believes his idea to resolve Washington’s homeless issue and decrease the homeless population is more ‘economically feasible’ than the city’s Mayor, Muriel Bowser, who, along with the City Council and according to a report made by The New York Times in January, ‘proposed closing the city’s biggest shelter and opening smaller ones around the city’.