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Plans are underway to start building in 2022 a pocket park where people experiencing homelessness will not only be welcome but will also be asked to design and build aspects of the space. It’s the only project of its kind in Philadelphia, say design professionals involved in the project. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Supported by a grant from the William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia's largest homeless shelter, the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, aims to plan and build the small pocket park near its facility on North Pearl Street. View full entry
The City of Toronto is asking a court to order a local man to stop building small wooden shelters for the homeless.
The city filed an injunction application on Feb. 12 against Khaleel Seivwright, a carpenter who has been building small structures for those living outside.
The city wants an order that permanently stops Seivwright from placing or relocating structures on city-owned land.
— CBC
According to CBC, Seivwright's shelters are in numerous parks across the city. The carpenter has been building the tiny structures since last fall and has raised over $200,000 on GoFundMe for materials. In a February 11th post on his GoFundMe page, Seivwright wrote: "I'm makin this post to... View full entry
The Chandler Boulevard Bridge Home Village, designed by Lehrer Architects and the Bureau of Engineering (Engineering) for the City of Los Angeles, has recently opened to its first residents in North Hollywood. Working in collaboration with various city agencies, Lehrer Architects converted an... View full entry
Award-winning architect and designer, Suman Sorg, FAIA, founder of Sorg Architects, has formed the non-profit design firm, A Complete Unknown, in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to promote social justice, peace, and unity through architecture and design. "At this stage in my career, I have... View full entry
When the last touches of landscaping are done next month, the 232-bed Vignes Street development will have shattered the axiom that homeless housing takes years to build and is exorbitantly expensive. From start to finish in under five months and at a cost of about $200,000 per bed, it has shaved years and hundreds of thousands of dollars off a traditional homeless housing project. — Los Angeles Times
The project, delivered in collaboration with Bernards, a design and construction firm; VESTA Modular, a national modular construction company; and NAC Architecture, is a mix of both permanent and temporary structures and will be used for housing and shelter. According to the Los Angeles... View full entry
At the city’s first tiny home village, scheduled to open in January, each of the 39 closet-sized homes is costing $130,000, about 10 times what some other cities are spending. Five more villages are planned to open later. — Los Angeles Times
LA Times Senior Writer Doug Smith reports on the progress, and higher-than-usual costs, of erecting tiny home villages in a City of Los Angeles effort to take on its ballooning homelessness crisis. "Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the program in March," writes Smith, "signaling that the concept of... View full entry
Developed by British architect and former Archinect school blogger Chris Hildrey, ProxyAddress recently announced the start of its pilot in the London borough of Lewisham today. The service uses the duplicated address details of existing homes to provide those facing homelessness with a... View full entry
Lehrer Architects' latest project, the Aetna Bridge Home was opened this week by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as part of the city's A Bridge Home initiative. The design team converted an under-utilized quarter-acre parking lot into a vibrant 70+ bed facility for homeless Angelenos. With a... View full entry
The Berkeley City Council has voted to create a new city-run homeless encampment to help provide a safe and clean place for some of the city's unhoused residents to live temporarily. According to a report from Curbed, the measure was supported by a majority of the City Councilmembers and... View full entry
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson told Mayor Eric Garcetti in a letter last Thursday that Trump officials are prepared to offer Los Angeles an array of resources, including emergency healthcare services and federal land.
However, Carson also suggested in his letter that the government expects changes from L.A. in how it manages homelessness...he wrote, “the city and county of Los Angeles must partner with our efforts and make necessary policy changes.”
— Los Angeles Times
The offer follows recent talks between senior Trump administration officials, Mayor Garcetti and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, reports the Los Angeles Times. It includes potential provision of emergency healthcare services, supplemental emergency shelters and transitional... View full entry
In Finland, the number of homeless people has decreased significantly. The reason: The country applies the "Housing First" concept. Those affected receive - without prerequisite - a small apartment and advice. 4 out of 5 affected people create the path to a stable life. And: It is cheaper for the state than homelessness. — kontrast.at
While local and federal governing bodies across the country have tried to implement plans to "end homelessness" with little in terms of success, something seems to be working in Finland. According to a report by Kathrin Glöse of Kontrast, "in 2008 the Finnish government adopted a new policy... View full entry
A new lawsuit aims to halt the construction of a homeless shelter in Griffith Park, arguing that Los Angeles officials skirted city and state rules when they approved the project on a Riverside Drive parking lot...
In the lawsuit, the group [Friends of Waverly Inc.] asserts that Los Angeles officials abused their discretion when they granted the planned shelter an emergency exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act.
— Los Angeles Times
According to the Los Angeles Times the lawsuit "argues that the city skipped necessary hearings for the project, flouting the city charter and ignoring the rights of nearby property owners." The $6.6-million project is due to include a 10,800-square-foot building with around... View full entry
Citing the need to act quickly to get homeless Californians off the streets, Gov. Gavin Newsom will ask lawmakers this week to allocate more than $1.4 billion to a variety of local and state-run efforts, with much of the money earmarked as subsidies for immediate housing and community healthcare services. — Los Angeles Times
The $1.4 billion will be used to pay for monthly rents, construct shelters, and provide treatment to those in need. “Homelessness is a national crisis, one that’s spreading across the West Coast and cities across the country,” Newsom said in a statement, according to the Los Angeles... View full entry
At the direction of Mayor Jenny Durkan, the city’s Human Services Department is studying the possibility of mandatory biometric screening of homeless shelter and service clients, using fingerprints or other biometric markers to track the city’s homeless population as they move through the homelessness system. — C is for Crank
Independent journalist Erica Barnett reports on an ongoing study being undertaken by municipal officials in Seattle, where efforts to resolve the city's ongoing homelessness crisis could include using biometric tracking systems to log how individuals make use of public services. View full entry
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an initiative Tuesday that promised to “end long-term street homelessness as we know it” by bringing thousands of people off of the streets and into permanent or transitional housing within five years. [...]
The city plans to spend an estimated $120 million next year on the plan, which will create 1,000 new permanent apartments.
— The Wall Street Journal
The mayor's office has outlined de Blasio's latest plan to house the estimated 3,600 homeless people currently living on New York City streets — a fraction of the city's total homeless population of 80,000 — in the action plan The Journey Home. We’re announcing a plan to END... View full entry
