A nickel mining company that's building a refinery in Long Harbour is floating an unconventional solution to the severe housing shortage in the area.

A giant cruise ship from Greece has been lined up for use as a floating hotel for the company's workers.

The El Veniselos was once the largest passenger vessel in the Mediterranean. Now, nickel giant Vale has been granted approval to bring the ship to the area and use it to house their employees.

"The workers themselves have rented, taken up one way or another, all the available domestic housing that was available for rent," said Joe Bennett, executive director of the Long Harbour Development Corporation, a non-profit group that promotes economic growth on behalf of the town.

Hundreds of construction workers are living at a temporary camp because they can't find housing. (CBC)

Hundreds more are living on the refinery site in a temporary work camp.

Even local hotels and B&Bs are filled with workers from Vale.

With the company about to hit peak construction on its nickel processing plant, hundreds of new employees are on their way to Long Harbour, and Vale has nowhere to put them.

Bennett believes bringing in the El Veniselos is more practical than building temporary housing on land.

"You’ve got to identify a piece of land," said Bennett. "There's heavy civil work required, water and sewer required, but you only need that for a year. So that's a huge amount of cost to accommodate for a short period of time."

The cruise ship is just one proposal Vale is considering.

The company is also looking at building modular units, like the ones in the work camp, and floating them on a barge.