Architecture for Humanity - SF
Sunday, February 15, 2004
HOMELESSNESS / AFFORDABILITY NEWS
'Real Housing, Real Care’ is Supervisor Daly’s compromise re-draft of ‘Care not Cash’, and is moving forward this April with more supportive housing stock in exchange for welfare cash reductions. Daly wants a guarantee of more than just a shelter-shuffle, Newsom approves, but some still warn that for San Francisco it is really a social experiment at this stage and must be continually monitored for its effectiveness.
“It appears that the Bush Administration’s policy on affordable housing is to make the affordability crisis worse for those who can afford housing the least,” NLIHC President Sheila Crowley said after reviewing the budget released today. “The President has taken the country into an ever deepening deficit with reckless tax cuts, and now he wants to start digging his way out by making life harder for those who have the least. Outrage is the only rational response.”
The Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty, a project of the Weingart Center, is a non-profit, non-partisan, research and policy organization serving the research and networking needs of academics, government, community based direct service agencies, policy-advocacy organizations, the media, philanthropic organizations, policymakers and other members of the community involved with the issues of homelessness and poverty.
Marcia has pointed out this street publication to help emply homeless people, The Big Issue, which is one of many in this International Network of Street Papers (INSP) , which unites street papers sold by homeless people from all over the world. INSP is an umbrella organization, which provides a consultancy service for its partner papers and advises on the setting up of new street papers and support initiatives for marginalized people.
This Gov Report / Homelessness in San Francisco, released May 2002, provides essential background material for public education.
Keep checking this site, Interagency Council on Homelessness (periodically under construction -) is the source for municipal collaborative findings, research regarding other state 10-year plans which have been successful, and critical advocacy/policy discussion bringing a lot of different groups to the table.
* Some more reference sites: Spare Some Change (Great Homeless Search Engine) / KnowledgePlex® offers best practices, discussions, research and more for professionals working on affordable housing and community development.
URBAN ACTION / DESIGN / COMPETITION
Oregon finally OK’s Granny Flats, and hopefully SF is soon to follow. Read about Supervisor Peskin’s Secondary Unit Legislation Proposal .
I haven’t heard any update recently from these guys, but Public Architecture is developing an ADU prototype, along with some other socially provocative projects merging design and activism, check them out.
Architect Greg Cowan writes an interesting paper on the historic symbolism of “tent architecture”, NOMADIC RESISTANCE: TENT EMBASSIES AND COLLAPSIBLE ARCHITECTURE - Illegal architecture and protest
Here is an interesting thread on Design Solutions for the Homeless.
This article in the Chron talks about an eccentric cafe project and community approach on 'how to make a street corner come alive'.
These grad students have started an Urban Bamboo Farm in the city to help de-contaminate industrial lots while producing strong sustainable building materials at the same time.
Two Competitions worth looking at recently, Pittsburgh Land Use Competition which examines creative developments for parking lots, and the New Housing New York Competition just announced their winners which aimed to provoke innovative designs for different affordable housing projects needs.
