As the high end of the financial industry has been under fire for the past few weeks, two articles published this past week cover the other end of the spectrum of the current economic crisis. The articles, titled Tarp Nation in the High County News and Tent Cities: An American Tradition in The Huffington Post, cover the increase of makeshift shelter communities on the edge of many American cities. While the latter in particular states that these communities have been around even during non-recession periods, the current state – and boom – is the result of increasing housing costs. One of the many materials used to construct these makeshift shelters has been tarps, as well as other materials to create structure and shelter – old office cubicle walls being one material for structure mentioned early in the High County News article.
As this is a tarps blog, this news item – and two similar tarps articles in the same week, no less – is worth mentioning. Although this blog doesn’t condone using a tarp for a permanent shelter, tarps themselves have long been temporary shelter, as seen in camping and roof repair instances. To recap, a tarp, be it a poly tarp or a blue medium duty tarp, often makes excellent temporary shelter by being waterproof and allowing for air circulation at the same time. At the same time, many heavy and medium duty tarps are treated to be rot and UV resistant. On a camp site, a large size tarp can become a tent if prepared correctly and it can be a shelter in case of rain. For the latter, the tarp is tied to two to four trees over the camp site and another is placed under the bottom of the tent to protect the tent base from becoming soaked with water. In the aftermath of a hurricane, a blue tarp is often recommended as a temporary roofing solution for the same reasons mentioned above and, until a contractor can assess the roof damage, a tarp protects the inside of a house from further damage.
While the living situation and life experiences of everyone in a tent city can vary with each person, creating an effective shelter to staying out of the elements is one key to survival. A medium duty or heavy duty tarp can be an effective roofing material to keep out water and sunlight and, when combined with other structural materials, can become a protective shelter for a temporary period of time.
