One of five candidates vying for Saskatoon mayor’s office believes he has found a way to target the city’s homelessness crisis, as well as reduce the amount of plastic in its landfill.

Former mayor Don Atchison says if elected, he will partner with a Saskatoon-based 3D printing company that utilizes mixed plastic waste to create their projects.

For $15,000 a piece, Regen Replica Systems would print battery- or solar-powered, small, temporary homes, complete with appliances and washrooms.

“These would be for families with children, single parents with children, our armed service veterans, and others with mental illness, drug addictions, brain injuries; all of them would be assessed to determine what would be an appropriate place for them.”

They would be made partially out of Saskatoon’s plastic waste, preventing it from having to be transported to other provinces to be processed.

“Right now, we have thousands of garbage cans that are sitting idle in the landfill, and those can all be turned into these marvelous, temporary homes, and create about 50 units.”

Atchison says the homes will be places in undeveloped areas.

“People today get quite distraught over having a homeless shelter dropped in on them, regardless of if it’s a residential, business, or manufacturing area of our community. They’ve paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, and believe that they’ve purchased something that’s going to be there, not have something dropped in on them without any consultations, or minimal consultations,” he explains. “It would be very similar to the psych centre on Central Avenue that was built first, and then homes were built around it.”

He suggests the operational side could be handled by either the provincial government or faith-based groups.

Atchison assures that the units can withstand temperatures of up to minus 50 degrees, and would provide a clean, warm place for the homeless to go, however they are only a temporary solution to a significant problem.

If elected, he also commits to building an additional 10,000 homes over the next ten years.