Architecture for Humanity - SF
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
LOCAL News:
S.F. city attorneys still fighting for Care Not Cash: Appeal asks state court to toss supervisors' alternative plan. And the negotiations at City Hall continue with a battered Prop J lurking on the horizon. Newsom has disbanded the Mayor’s Office on Homelessness to Free $400,000 for Direct Funding of Services, which is better than pinching the poor directly. Now we watch the developers sweeten The Tenant Buy Out offer at Trinity Plaza, Dufty is predictably swayed in reverse of his previous vote and now against Dal'y anti-demolition ordinance. Newsom, no comment yet, could veto legislation. Even though, “Representatives of the city attorney's office at the supervisors' meeting questioned whether that offer was legal under state law and said that, regardless, Sangiacomo's promise would not be enforceable by the city.”
While this Church Bus Provides Shelter the homeless in Contra Costa County are kept Under the Radar . So Oakland becomes the first city in Northern California to adopt a law allowing the city to force private landlords to evict tenants arrested for drugs, weapons or other crimes. Some obviously fear people will be targeted, innocent displaced, and homelessness to increase.
More Attacks on Potential Wal-Martization of the Bay Area. Rep. George Miller "released a 22-page report by the Democratic staff of his House committee detailing how nonunionized Wal-Mart, the largest employer in both the United States and Mexico, allegedly imposes financial burdens on local governments. A certain percentage of its workers must turn to subsidized medical care, free school lunches, housing subsidies and other taxpayer- supported welfare services, Miller said. "
This article on Rincon Hill, ArchNewsNow talks about the 'Vancouver' in the project, or the lack of it.
And here's a link to SF GOV’s ‘Better Neighborhoods’ Program
“The Planning Department is taking a fresh approach to neighborhood planning.established in 2002, The program is two-tiered. Citywide, it aims to encourage housing where it makes sense and to strengthen neighborhoods. Locally, the program uses intensive community-based planning to refine citywide goals to the needs of the neighborhood. Above all, the program builds on the positive aspects of San Francisco's quality as an urban place.”
NATIONAL HOMELESS:
New York City launches a City Wide Homeless Count with thousands of volunteers fan the streets over night. When on the other coast Worthless Housing Vouchers are issued to poor In LA. Under watch, and seemingly with compassion, Key West plans careful eviction of homeless camps .
DESIGN FOR THE DISPOSESSED / RESOURCES:
Louisa Stark, executive director of the Community Housing Partnership, a non-profit organization that provides housing for the poor and disabled, is the 2004 recipient of the Joan and David Lincoln Award for Public Virtue.
Shigeru Ban, winner of previous AFH Competition, takes Paris Like a Rock Star.
Helmut Jahn Designs Homeless Shelter in Chicago
"In the last decade, the Near North Side neighborhood around Clybourn Avenue and Division Street has become a laboratory for rebuilding urban landscapes by putting the rich and poor side by side. Now, pending financing and final city approval, a new element will be thrown into the experiment with Jahn's housing project, a sleek five-story, rectangular structure that is a far cry from the dilapidated SROs and shelters where the homeless usually find a roof.
'I think this is a very spirited time,' Jahn said. 'They're trying to push the edge and they're trying to go as far as you can go with very few means. I actually like the challenge of being kind of forced to do something of equal quality--not the same quality--a different quality with those means and of a high standard.' "
While AFH is doing all it can to help those leftover from the refuge of Bam, the UN admits it Cannot Cope With Rise in Homeless Due to Israeli Demolitions. And for those now in Morocco, ‘Many survivors were heading into another blustery night in makeshift tents fashioned from plastic sheeting. Military officers, helped by local residents, put up hundreds of tents in and around Al Hoceima. The interior minister said that 1,300 tents had been distributed and two camps for survivors were in place and three more were being set up.“
