Posted on 11/04/2015 4:49:45 AM PST by Drango
Ending homelessness isn't just about finding a home. Sometimes, it's about finding a nice home — a place that's bright, modern and healthy to live in. That's the idea fueling the development of a number of buildings around the country, as communities try to move chronically homeless people off the streets.
In downtown Washington, D.C., one of those buildings is currently going up right beside NPR's headquarters. Still under construction, the structure looks a little like four huge blocks, stacked atop each other and slightly askew. At 14 stories high, it will have a striking view of the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument when it's finished.
"It's going to be definitively an inspiring place for the folks that are in it and for this neighborhood as well," says Nadine Maleh, executive director of the Institute for Public Architecture. Until recently, she was the director of inspiring places at the nonprofit Community Solutions, one of the groups behind the project.
"The front of the building will be predominately glass," Maleh adds, explaining that it's designed to let in as much natural light as possible.
The building will provide permanent housing for 60 homeless veterans and 64 other low-income adults, beginning early next year. Each resident will pay about a third of their income on rent for an efficiency apartment. The building will also have a big, open lobby with a concierge desk, much like many of the other new apartment buildings in the area.
"And then we have a lot of really wonderful building amenities which serve to promote community within the building. So there's a computer room. There's a gym," Maleh says.
Out back there will be a patio, and inside, a room for residents to keep their bikes. Social services, like job counseling and health care referrals, will be offered through an office in-house. There are also plans to build a restaurant or cafe on the ground floor, to help attract others in the community who might be wary about having such a facility in the neighborhood.
Maleh says that's the whole idea behind this place: that people who have the kinds of mental health and other issues that made them homeless in the first place will do better — even thrive — when they live somewhere they feel calm, comfortable and part of a community.
A 'Sanctuary' In The City Of Angels
For a good example of what this kind of affordable housing can do, just talk to Emily Martiniuk in northern Los Angeles.
Martiniuk, 63, lives in the Palo Verde Apartments, a bright, stylish facility with a lot of the same amenities that will be offered at the D.C. building: community rooms, a computer lab, patios and a beautiful tree-lined courtyard. She lives in one of the facility's 60 units, on the second floor.
"This is the dream apartment," she says. "I don't call it my room. Other people call it their room. This is my apartment."
She's lived in the building for three years, decorating and redecorating the space with posters, plants and little trinkets.
"It's hunt and pick, because I am low-income," she says with a laugh.
For most of her life, Martiniuk eked out a living driving buses, working as a telemarketer and even owning a small notary business. Then things started to slide: One of her adult sons died, then the economy crumpled — and with it, her business.
"It was like a slow divorce," she says.
Without work, she was no longer able to make ends meet, eventually ending up in a homeless shelter. Her mental health deteriorated, and she was institutionalized for six weeks.
Then, she got the opportunity to move to the Palo Verde Apartments — which is when everything changed, she says.
"I have a mental health issue. The condition of my home is the condition of my mind."
That's why it's so important for her mental health and well-being to have this neat apartment for a "sanctuary," as she calls it.
Obstacles On A Long Journey
There are questions about the cost of these projects, though. The Palo Verde Apartments cost about $16 million, says Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president and CEO of LA Family Housing, the nonprofit that owns and operates the facility. And she's quick to add that the $16 million price tag is more expensive than the typical permanent supportive housing facility — but that's intentional.
"Another developer most likely would have built this [facility] with much higher density," Klasky-Gamer says. "But we elected to have this kind of courtyard. We elected to have little patios and little convening spaces."
The city of Hollywood, Fla., bought the Homeless Voice shelter from its owner, a longtime advocate for the homeless who agreed to stay away from the city for the next 30 years.
The same idea drives the Washington, D.C. project, which will cost about $33 million to develop. But Klasky-Gamer, Maleh and others insist that it's cheaper to build facilities such as these than it is to deal with the many problems people have living on the street, like repeatedly going to the emergency room. And that's why cities and nonprofits have been putting up similar buildings in places such as New York, New Orleans and San Diego.
Still, such facilities are addressing only a fraction of the problem. On any given night, there are about 600,000 homeless people living in the U.S. About 44,000 of them live in LA County alone.
It looks like the left has decided to replicate Cabrini Green again. The result will be the same.
C.W.
Fountainhead.
Any bets on how long it will take before every other window in the building is broken, the elevators no longer function and there is feces in the hallways and stairwells?
A third of their income on rent? Doesn’t seem like much of a deal.
Why spend the money for premium real estate just to “nake a point” and poke a stick in peoples’ eye?
There goes the neighborhood.
why does Fountainhead come to mind???
ya beat me
Why work when you can live in a nicer home by not working?
Yep, that'll work. Reward laziness and irresponsibility with nice housing at the expense of the rest of us. That will really give people and incentive to work and get ahead.
Homelessness (i.e. being a bum) is a lifestyle CHOICE, usually just another poor decision in a lifetime of making many poor decisions, not some random bolt out of the blue that takes people by surprise. People who make poor life choices should not be rewarded at the expense of the rest of us.
Here's a solution to the "affordable housing crisis" for the bums homeless
You will never hear about it when it happens.
Unless they run the place like a prison, then they will have to kick out most of the people for vandalism, drug use, and other crimes. It will then costs thousands to repair the damage, not to mention their insurance premiums will be astronomical.
And on top of that most of them will not be paying rent of any kind to cover any costs!
The one saving grace...it is right next to NPRs headquarters. Cant wait to see the libs reaction to a lib ideas results.
Easier and safer for the drug dealers to find their clients all in one place
Too bad NPR isn’t broadcasting from the lobby
Exactly. People who are homeless due to mental illness, substance abuse, etc., will not be able to maintain a decent place. Pick up after themselves? Cook and clean? These are everyday functions which are a part of normal daily living, and it is unlikely that any of the residents will be up to the task.
Unless they are very selective in who they allow to move in. If it’s a referral system, they will get the most likely to survive.
You forgot to mention the costs of defending themselves against lawsuits for rules requiring civilized behavior by branding them racists or discriminatory against low income people . . .
“Why spend the money for premium real estate just to “nake a point†and poke a stick in peoples’ eye?”
I assume that this is some sort of Section 8 venture, where the state subsidizes the rest of the rent.
A lot of developers are having a hard time getting projects approved, because of the cry ‘but we already have all these empty buildings’, along with the usual NIMBY stuff.
But, if you cloak your project as support for homeless veterans, the approval process goes much smoother.
IOW, probably the only way this building would get approved would be as a social service project.
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