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Alicia Lovato
English 1010, MWF 8:00
Professor: Celestino
08/03/2016
3-D Print Homes, a Solution to End Homelessness
There has always been homeless people in America since colonial days but recently, in
the last several decades it has become a global problem. The government should help house the
homeless. The reason why is because homelessness is becoming a social issue, causing economic
problems not only in Utah but across the United States. How can we, as a community, solve this
problem? We should create an awareness to the government that homelessness is a real problem.
In the US to date, there are more than 3.5 million people who experience homelessness each
year. Thirty-five percent of the homeless population are families with children, which is the
fastest growing segment of the homeless population; 25% are U.S. military veterans, and 25%
are children under the age of 18 years. Bailey, Ellen, and Alexander Stingl (1). As a result, the
government should provide the homeless with more housing assistance than what it has available
now because the current assisting programs are not effective. Therefore, the government should
build 3-D print homes as these homes would not only be sustainable, cost effective to build but
also would enable the homeless to thrive mentally and integrate them into the community.
The cost of building 3-D print homes is much cheaper to build than the typical homes that
are being provided for the homeless to date. 3-D print homes will cost the government around
five thousand dollars from start to finish to produce. The cost to produce a 3-D print home for
the homeless people is explained. In the article from the Huff post: A Giant 3D Printer Build
Ten Houses in One Day 2014/09/2014. The original story on Arch Daily by; Rory Stott. The

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Chinese Company Win San Decoration Design Engineering was able to build a 3-D print one
story home form start to finish costs $5,000 dollars from start to finish to build. The average
home can hold four people. Each of these houses is designed to accommodate plumbing,
electrical wiring and insulation which are all added after construction.
Regarding the environmentally friendly benefits of building 3-D print homes that are
made from recycled materials: speaking of the process of 3-D printing (construction) is
explained in the article 3-D printing process using Soft Compounding Methods the author
Garg explains that the 3-D printing process using soft compounding methods is improving the
environment performance across the globe. Garg, believes that 3-D printing technology should
be increasingly adopted as a manufacturing procedure, because the technology uses the polymer
PLA (Polyactic acid) as a material, which is biodegradable, and saves fuel and reduces waste
when fabricating prototypes. Moreover, the technology can be located near to industries and
fabricates raw material, itself, resulting in reduction of transport cost and carbon emission. In
addition, one way of reducing the production and improving environmental performance is to
formulate models that can be used to operate 3-D printing technology in an efficient way. (Garg
3, 4 and 5). Furthermore, going back to the article in the Huff post: A Giant 3D Printer Build Ten
Houses In One Day 2014/09/08. Read the original story on Arch Daily by Rory Stott. The
Chinese company Win San Decoration Design Engineering has constructed 3-D printed homes
that are first printed in pre-fabricated panels which is fit together on site, they were created by
using Win Suns custom-built 3D printer, which measures 10 meters by 6.6 meters, and it took
twelve years for the company to develop this 3D printer. The homes are made from the Industrial
waste from demolished buildings. The 3-D print homes are able to recycle the construction waste

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and turn it into new building materials, which in turn has made it possible to build
environmentally friendly homes.
As a result to providing the homeless 3-D print homes, this will help them thrive
mentally, and allow them to integrate into the community. This can be explained in the article
Intervention effects of supplying homeless individuals with permanent housing: a 3-year
prospective study. Fichter and Quadflieg, talk about the intervention effects of supplying
homeless individuals with permanent housing. The study took a group of 109 males and 20
females these participants were assessed at a baseline 1-3 year-follow-up concerning mental
illness (SCID-1), psychopathology, and global assessment of functioning, emotional liability and
alcohol consumption. The result of this study showed a substantial (86%) were able to maintain
on improving the stability of housing. There was only minor changes observed concerning
mental illness and global functioning (Fitcher and Quadflieg 1, 2, 3, and 4).To continue, in the
article Where do people go when they first become homeless? A survey of the homeless adults
in the USA, OToole talks about the longer a person is homeless, the more likely he or she is to
experience poor health and be placed at a high risk for premature death (OToole 1). This means
that the majority of homeless sought assistance for concerns directly associated with the
immediate needs of being homeless, as opposed to seeking care for mental illness that was
actually a causing factor in their actual homelessness.
Therefore, based on my research I came to the conclusion that the government should utilize 3D
print technology to build homes because the materials used are inexpensive to obtain. So it will
cost the government less money to build. In addition, 3-D print homes are made from recycled
construction waste that will be used in constructing these sustainable, environmentally friendly
homes for the homeless. This is important because, it will help the homeless to thrive mentally,

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and also allow them to be integrated into the community. This will better utilize the taxpayers
money, and also create a safer community.

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Works Cited
Bailey, Ellen, and Alexander Stingl. "Homelessness: An Overview."Points Of View:
Homelessness (2016): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 23 July 2016.
Fichter, M. M., and N. Quadflieg. "Intervention Effects Of Supplying Homeless Individuals
With Permanent Housing: A 3-Year Prospective Study." Acta Psychiatrica
Scandinavica113. (2006): 36-40. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web.
22 July 2016.
Garg, Jasmine Siu Lee Lam, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang
Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore Received 21
February 2015 Revised 7 April 2015 Accepted 20 April 2015, Available online 27 April
2015. Measurement of Environmental Aspect of 3-D printing process using Soft
Compounding Methods
The Huff Post: A Giant 3D Printer Build Ten Houses In One Day September 08 2014
On Arch Daily by Rory Stott
O'Toole, Thomas P., et al. "Where Do People Go When They First Become Homeless? A Survey
Of Homeless Adults In The USA." Health & Social Care In The Community 15.5
(2007): 446-453. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 July 2016.