Sheltered City: A Prevention For Homelessness Through Sheltered Designs

“Nothing but stable housing fundamentally differentiates those who experience homelessness and those who don’t, and all people deserve the human right to housing (pg. 1),” quoted by the National Health Care of the Homeless Council, can serve as a driving influence in developing solutions to address homelessness. The poignant experience that homeless people shared and described serve as an inspiration to better these individuals’ lives. As a substitute, approaching homelessness in a political or financial position, this thesis is to provide solutions to shelters architecturally. Delving into precedents, each are separated into four categories such as singular, community, group, and reutilize that assists in generating this thesis proposal. Taking a moment to examine shelters architecturally will make a vast change in city development. Most homeless shelters are overcrowded and neglected. These precedents offer innovative ways to improve shelters today by studying their best and worst attributes. Exploring diverse environments and dense homeless populations, this led to picking two sites, Atlanta, Georgia and New York City, New York. Studying each site vertically and horizontally varying on location and building form aids in creating new building concepts. To summarize, this thesis proposes a solution to provide modular pods that are positioned around these cities to reduce homelessness. Researching elements of different city types of housing and several already existing shelters prompted the creation of the modular pods as the best solution. The different types of pods introduce an incentive that individuals can work towards and eventually get integrated back into society. The modular pods intend to provide temporary housing for individuals such as veterans, people with disabilities and low-income families. Furthering the project will – depending on the city include adding shelters, revitalizing entire neighborhoods, empty spaces and abandoned buildings. Individuals building their own singular pods will gain personal growth and feeling of ownership, while the communities are encouraged to build their pods together for a chance of community growth