Last week, the city of Phoenix made a startling announcement. The Arizona capital had previously identified 222 chronically homeless veterans living in the city, more than half of them veterans of the Vietnam War. [...]

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said last week that every last one of them now had a roof overhead. The city has effectively ended chronic veteran homelessness, according to the mayor [...].

Phoenix did this – prioritizing housing first, then wrapping other services around it. — theatlanticcities.com

"It looks like a prison to be honest with you," said Lynda Johnson, an assistant professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology and editor and founder of KidStyleSource.com who has owned a townhouse on St. Nicholas Place for 20 years and is a member of the Hamilton Heights Homeowners Association.

Some feel the design does not fit into the context of the nearby Hamilton Heights-Sugar Hill Historic District, which is filled with Beaux Arts and Queen Anne-style 19th-century row houses. — dnainfo.com

Shivihah Smith’s East Baltimore neighborhood, where he lives with his mother and grandmother, is disappearing. The block one over is gone. A dozen rowhouses on an adjacent block were removed one afternoon last year. [...]

For the Smiths, the bulldozing of city blocks is a source of anguish. But for Baltimore, as for a number of American cities in the Northeast and Midwest that have lost big chunks of their population, it is increasingly regarded as a path to salvation. — nytimes.com

A year after gathering ideas on how a eurozone country could leave the single-currency bloc, the organisers of the 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize are plunging into Britain’s highly politicised housing debate and challenging people to design a garden city.

Offering £250,000 in prize money, entrants are required to answer: “How would you deliver a new garden city which is visionary, economically viable and popular?” — FT.com

The winners of the 2013 World Habitat Awards were officially announced by the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) on Oct. 7 during World Habitat Day in Medellín, Colombia. Out of 200 entries from around the world, the winning projects were selected based on which ones presented the most innovative and sustainable housing solutions to support economic and community restoration and provide for homeless individuals. — bustler.net

The Buffalo Planning Board will be reviewing plans to construct 48 apartments in eight new buildings next week. The complex at 270 Niagara Street sits in the shadow of City Hall. It currently contains 472 units on 9.5 acres and was completed in 1972. — Buffalo Rising

The Holloway Team was selected as the winners of New Zealand's international "Breathe - The New Urban Village Project" design competition. The team is led by Holloway Builders from Christchurch, NZ in partnership with architecture firm Anselmi Attiani Associated Architects and Cresco engineers, both from Italy. Building and Construction Minister, Hon. Maurice Williamson made the official announcement on Oct. 22 at an event in the transitional Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch. — bustler.net

A question I have heard a lot lately is “why can’t developers build housing for the people who need it most instead of for the rich.” Let’s look at what a typical multi-family development project in a reasonably central part of San Francisco would cost to build (in a very simplified way). I’m assuming an 800 square foot apartment in a five story 100 unit wood-framed building over a concrete first story (very common in San Francisco)... — markasaurus.com

In 2009, a pair of academics, Kim Steele and Sherry Ahrentzen, collaborated on “Advancing Full Spectrum Housing,” a comprehensive design guideline for housing adults with autism. (An expanded book on the topic is scheduled to come out next year.)

Perhaps the first development to closely follow their template is Sweetwater Spectrum, a residence for 16 adults whose abilities and disabilities span the full range of autism. — nytimes.com

Converting old train stations into living spaces is all the rage in Germany. They're charming and, often, affordable -- but making these buildings livable can be more difficult than people anticipate. — spiegel.de

The $120 million, 630,000-square-foot complex, called Anton Menlo, is a partnership between Facebook and Northern California residential real estate developer St. Anton Partners. Details of the financial arrangement, including Facebook's investment, were not disclosed.

Designed by Southern California KTGY Group, it will have a mix of studios and one, two and three-bedroom apartments. As part of Facebook's agreement with the city, 15 below-market-rate units are set aside for low-income tenants. — sfgate.com

While tiny housing of this kind has existed in Hong Kong for many years, it has expanded as soaring property prices have pushed more and more low-income earners out of the market for regular housing in recent years. Rent on these spaces has risen nearly 20 percent in the last four years, and now gobbles up about a third of the residents’ incomes. — New York Times

”Recently we have witnessed the mounting of very large development projects in European and American cities. There is a striking physical similarity among the schemes and also a convergence embodied in private-sector involvement and market orientation.” — Failed Architecture

The Royal Institute of British Architects has revealed its shortlist for the 2013 RIBA Manser Medal - Best New Home -- the UK's most distinguished private home design award. [...] Locally presented and judged, the RIBA Awards are specifically for structures in the UK by RIBA Chartered Architects and RIBA International Fellows. Winners are also considered for the RIBA Stirling Prize. — bustler.net