I love buildings that have been designed intentionally to serve multiple purposes in the community. A good example is a "new family homeless shelter" in Washington D.C. that is described in the article in the url below and was named after "Aya" ("a benevolent soul in Turkish mythology"):
"The facility, … completed in 2021, aims to live up to its name. The Aya is part of a citywide effort spearheaded by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2016 to create a series of neighborhood homeless shelters, one in each of the city's eight wards. Tasked with designing a 50-unit facility for Ward 6, [the architects] enlisted local residents for their input. The firm's design reflects their priorities …. Neighbors wanted a building that looked hopeful, not bleak."
Moreover, the local community asked that the building should not have a discernable front or a back:
"That means that on top of incorporating the special needs of a shelter for families experiencing homelessness, the designers made sure that the Aya has no face — or rather, four different faces. Each side of the building expresses a different function for the families staying at the shelter. … 'Each façade of the building is telling its own story.'"
There are a number of other features that reinforce the idea that this building is part of the solution for those who live in it, rather than exacerbating the problem, which is a big part of modern-day urban life in the U.S.:
"Families that stay at the shelter are quite young: The average age for children there is 3. So the city required it to offer safe spaces for play. [The architects] designed a series of outdoor-style indoor play rooms on the building's east side, rooms that climb in a stair-wise pattern up the building. Brick brise-soleil screens along these rooms offer a playful mirror of the architectural textures found in mid-century apartment buildings in the neighborhood."
One of the challenges of being a European living in the U.S. (after several years living in Japan) is coming to terms with the level of homelessness that is a very present part of the society in which I live. In short, homelessness is generally not a problem that you see in Europe, or other developed countries like Japan or South Korea. That means there are solutions that work in those countries that are not being applied here in the U.S., for whatever (likely ideological) reason. On that, the article in the second url below presents a fascinating re-framing of the problem, arguing that homelessness is purely a function of the amount of affordable housing in a society. The article also makes clear that homelessness is most definitely not caused by "drug abuse and mental illness," or even climate. Such ailments might be characteristics of homelessness, but not the main cause. This is clear when you realize that homelessness is not experienced equally across the country, but collects in very specific places where housing costs are high, which is most often in areas that are growing in popularity. So much so that, homelessness is really only a problem in those cities that everyone wants to move to:
"Why is this so? Because these 'superstar cities,' as economists call them, draw an abundance of knowledge workers. These highly paid workers require various services, which in turn create demand for an array of additional workers, including taxi drivers, lawyers and paralegals, doctors and nurses, and day-care staffers. These workers fuel an economic-growth machine—and they all need homes to live in. In a well-functioning market, rising demand for something just means that suppliers will make more of it. But housing markets have been broken by a policy agenda that seeks to reap the gains of a thriving regional economy while failing to build the infrastructure—housing—necessary to support the people who make that economy go. The results of these policies are rising housing prices and rents, and skyrocketing homelessness."
More specifically, because these supercities in the US are largely Democratic, the article argues it is the liberal policies advocated in these areas that are fueling the homeless crisis:
"Liberals have stated preferences that housing should be affordable, particularly for marginalized groups that have historically been shunted to the peripheries of the housing market. But local politicians seeking to protect the interests of incumbent homeowners spawned a web of regulations, laws, and norms that has made blocking the development of new housing pitifully simple. This contradiction drives the ever more visible crisis."
It naturally follows that the solution is to build more housing – more affordable housing in those cities to which people want to move means less homelessness:
"Houston's success in combatting homelessness—down 62 percent since 2011—suggests that a focus on moving people into permanent supportive housing provides a road map to success. (Houston is less encumbered by the sorts of regulations that make building housing so difficult elsewhere)."
Although, initially, more housing will stem the price increases of those (loyal voters) who already own their own home; ultimately, it should make these cities even more livable (and desirable) because there should be less incidents of homelessness.
Take care
David
David Chandler
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A DC Homeless Shelter with Many Faces
By Kriston Capps
December 10, 2022
Bloomberg
The Obvious Answer to Homelessness: And why everyone's ignoring it
By Jerusalem Demsas
December 12, 2022
The Atlantic
