Disaster. Relief. Housing.

The words fairly echo with dismal images of people forced to live in squalor, desperation and sorrow -- crowds packed into stadiums, improvised shantytowns, rows of identical trailers, school cafeterias turned into shelters. Yet these words also evokes a different picture -- where shelter fulfills its highest, most utopian function. Where a simple structure can provide comfort and warmth and dignity when all else has failed. Where housing literally offers relief from disaster.