DOMUS NO.1093
Michael Maltzan Our work on homelessness is centered in and around Los Angeles, the most dramatic focal point of homelessness in the US in the last decade. The growth in homelessness has generated an existential crisis: its ramifications run across practical and philosophical issues that question the city’s identity and image. There are pressing practical concerns, like building enough new housing equitably and helping people get off the street, but the crisis calls into question how Los Angeles going forward can run and sustain itself. This complex challenge is compounded by the reality that people fall into homelessness for many reasons – physical disabilities, drug addictions, mental fragilities and economic conditions – so the solutions must follow these many causes.
Cristian Vivas In Barcelona, we have a homeless population of 5,000. Women represent around 10 per cent, but they come from a more violent experience than men. The city has a programme for social housing, accommodation for people at risk of social exclusion (such as victims of domestic violence) and temporary housing, the category that includes our residential centre for homeless women (2024). These centres were conceived as emergency structures to contain many people. Today, a new perspective on care seeks a more personalised approach, allowing individuals to develop an autonomous life in society. We felt we needed to define intermediate human-scale spaces to be appropriated by residents. These galleries, loggias and semi- public living rooms weren’t a request from the city as a client, but they allow women to socialise. We conceived the building like a home, so our main concerns were spatiality, materiality and furniture.
MM Most of our clients are private non- profits: funds for construction are provided by the private sector, while public funding supports the individuals. We first got involved in the mid-2000s with the Skid Row Housing Trust. Until then, most structures were forms of transitional housing: individuals could live there for a couple of weeks or months at most. It soon became clear that they inevitably ended up back on the streets, and with little support. The trust wanted to change the model to “permanent supportive housing”, meaning individuals could reside there permanently, potentially for the rest of their lives. This stability gave residents the possibility of a supportive network: the typology transformed radically to accommodate supportive services, all of which helped to foster community within the buildings. These buildings are no longer stand-alone institutions; they are organic to the city. Transparency on the ground level makes the community visually present in the neighbourhood, which also addresses the need for a more secure environment around the apartments. With time and through healing of psychological stresses and wounds, residents can start to feel part of the city again. Another important aspect is that we’re increasingly looking at programmes that serve the residents and the broader area. In our Star Apartments, the LA County Department of Health opened a public walk-in clinic. It might sound like a small thing, but it’s a radical bridge, as this service brings different communities closer together.
CV Our centre provides shelter for 100 women and serves as a day centre where non-residents can find services. In Barcelona, the paradigm of care for homeless people has shifted rapidly in recent years. At first, the stay in our centre had to last three months, but some residents have now been there for nine. A building’s context is also important. A similar structure was being built in a periphery close to the port, while ours was replacing an older structure in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, a quite expensive residential district with private schools. The centre has two mediators that take care of the relationship with neighbours, as coexistence can generate tensions, even though the previous structure had the same function. Their focus is now to open a playground serving the area. The design does a lot, but the staff’s hard work is essential for successful community management.
MM That’s a central point: we have to be realistic about how much architecture can transform a social challenge. At the same time, the location of these structures is fundamental. For a long time, in LA, these facilities were all in Skid Row, right next to downtown. The concentration isolated the homeless population, making them invisible and allowing people to pretend the problem didn’t exist. Then this phenomenon exploded reaching around 75,000 individuals, and homelessness became visible all over the city. The Housing Trust realised that concentrating their projects in Skid Row exacerbated the issues, so one of the goals became looking for sites in residential neighbourhoods outside of Skid Row, to serve the homeless living there, but also to say emphatically that these individuals are part of society, in all parts of the city. We should mix a variety of housing – from market rate to affordable housing, even though neighbourhoods might fight back. It’s important to start these conversations, even if they create friction. It’s a way to make homelessness part of a larger civic and social conversation. That’s important for the specific issues of homelessness, but also for the city as a whole.
