Given that Britain, like the United States, is beset by an affordable housing shortage, this headline in the Financial Times is an attention-grabber: “UK to build 9 prisons and sell outdated ones for housing.”

Actually, this is not a new idea. The U.K. apparently already has some experience in converting old prisons to hotels and student housing. So does Germany. Here’s what became of a “correctional facility” in Berlin: Apartment house.

And in North America, former prisons or jails have been transformed into all manner of things options: homeless shelters, office/retail complexes. Here’s an example of conversion to affordable housing in Vancouver…

Lower-income people are not necessarily the likely suspects for occupying these developments. In Massachusetts, somehow, luxury apartments found their way into the old Salem Jail, seen here in its former state:

Repurposing prison property isn’t going to solve the affordable housing problem, obviously, but maybe it’s worth thinking about this in another way: Democrats and Republicans, both, are talking about substantially reducing the nation’s inflated prison population, particularly by free inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes. One might expect that would lead to a substantial reduction in corrections budgets, which could in turn free up public money for other purposes … such as affordable housing.

Consider Vermont, where the annual corrections budget of around $140 million vastly exceeds the amounts allotted two of the state’s major affordable housing stewards, the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (around $15 million) and the Department of Housing and Community Development ($10 million).

What might those numbers look like if the state readjusted its priorities and stepped up its commitment to affordable housing? Including, of course, affordable housing for former inmates.