When the Millenium Dome was being constructed, rising up on the banks of the Thames like a giant pimple, both press and public hounded it with predictions of complete financial and political failure. It didn’t take market geniuses such as Galvan research and trading to see what would happen next.
Despite the warnings signs long before any construction vehicles turned up, the Government pig-headedly went ahead anyway. Needless to say, their breathtakingly-naive optimism proved to be unfounded, and everyone else was proven right - the Millenium Dome project was an astounding failure on most counts.
All except one, that is. After the abysmal museum (or whatever it was supposed to be, like the rest of the country we weren’t enticed enough to find out) shut up shop, there was a period when the Dome was a force for altruistic good.
For a little while, it was used as a free shelter for the homeless of London. And what a spectacular shelter it was - while it was not amazingly well publicised, the large space adequately provided temporary respite for many especially during the brutally harsh weather of the time. If any good came out of that incarnation of the site, it happened then.
Local councils should follow the lead here. I can name two large buildings just in my own town which are completely unused and could serve as temporary shelter (a theatre and a cinema, both of which have been superseded by bigger versions of themselves).
Of course, they aren’t likely to do this as health and safety rules supreme, and heaven forbid those stinky homeless folk should damage the resale value of such property. In the mean time however, we can do more than hope - if you feel this kind of project would work in your area, don’t hesitate to write to the powers that be.

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