How Lehrer Architects Are Dealing with Homelessness in Los Angeles
How Lehrer Architects Are Dealing with Homelessness in Los Angeles
The issue of homelessness is one that has continually been rampant, growing by nearly 17% countrywide year by year. With Los Angeles’ latest homeless count reaching a total of more than 60,000 with nearly 14,000 of these individuals occupying the streets and living in Downton Los Angeles, a call for action was necessary. Lehrer Architects, together with the Bureau of Engineering for the City of Los Angeles, developed an innovative community project by transforming an infill lot into tiny homes for the unhoused Angelenos using prefabricated ‘pallet shelters’.
Tiny homes are an innovative, affordable, and scalable solution to this humanitarian crisis, taking a short time to build and assemble in comparison to a traditional shelter or affordable housing projects, at just a fraction of the cost. This project is one of the centerpieces of the city’s emergency response to getting people into safe and healthy ‘bridge’ shelters on their way to permanent housing. Through these interim housing solutions, an ever-increasing number of homeless individuals have found safety and security on their journey to exiting homelessness, without the need to occupy the streets.
“The streets shouldn’t be the waiting room for permanent housing.” — Ken Craft, Founder & CEO of Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission
Located opposite North Hollywood Park, the Chandler Boulevard Bridge Home Village is an incredible community where individuals help each other, uplift one another, and share one thing in common: the desire to exit homelessness and overcome the obstacles keeping them unhoused within the city. Lehrer Architects intentionally designed a plan of spatial character, colorful details, and logistical efficiency to create a model community space that emitted a level of design sensibility and beauty not often seen in the likes of these projects.
Following the completion of Chandler Boulevard Bridge Home Village, a second deployment of the city’s emergency response, Alexandria Park Tiny Village Home, could house up to more than twice the amount of its former development. Alvarado Tiny Homes Village is one of the smaller housing developments, taking on the challenge to fit all of the units and amenities on the existing parking lot, whilst also developing and creating a central communal open space.
Employing a bright and playful composition amongst all the projects, the use of vibrant colors brings life and energy to each respective site, enhancing the individuality of the trailers whilst simultaneously creating a sense of community that is visually stimulating to the residents occupying the space. Lehrer Architects believe that creating a home for someone is all about providing the means of human dignity, safety, love, and respect, with this series of homeless housing projects acting as a model of how to enhance a community by caring for its most vulnerable residents with dignity through design.
Lehrer Architects have provided many a solution to the Los Angeles homelessness crisis, and these projects are no exception to that. Each of these interim housing solutions continues to represent a lighting-quick, highly collaborative, inventive, efficient, and beautiful solution to combatting the issue of homelessness that remains rife within the city, but with the continued joint efforts across these collaborations, there is a welcoming room for growth and expansion to change the face of homelessness throughout the Greater Los Angeles Area.
