Portland is facing one of the largest homeless populations in the country. As of last year, we had 4,177 homeless people living in our city. That is up 10% since the last poll in 2016. This is something that we need to bring people together in order to effect change. There is a solution to this problem and there is a lot that we can do as common bystanders. I have had the privilege of working with Portland State's Architecture Department to work on a couple of temporary housing projects in the Portland Area. These villages use sustainable and recycled materials to create homes for people. The land used by the villages in given a temporary permit to use lots that have been purchased by the city or are unusable for zoning reasons. This given an opportunity to house people in all walks of life for a moment in time. The photo above is of the Kenton's Women's Village. It is a community of women who live within the pods shown above. We found that some of the most at risk homeless populations was women so they set out to design a space for only them. There are opportunity for sustainable hobbies like gardening and career development services at these villages.
For more information, consult the website of the Center for Public Interest Design. It is an organization based in Portland State's Architecture Department.
http://www.centerforpublicinterestdesign.org/
-Trenton Lundsten
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