Study for a shelter courtyard,
Design Resources for Homelessness
Design Resources for Homelessness is a knowledge platform that shares information about applied research and best practices in designing facilities for persons experiencing homelessness. It addresses emergency, transitional housing, permanent supportive and housing first projects, and day centers, including clinics and service outreach facilities.
This curated collection includes best practice case studies, reports on the needs of persons in crisis, and extensive bibliographies of evidence-based, practical information for use in architectural programming and organization requests for donor funding. It fills the need to connect the relevant practical research findings to constructed environments. The result can be enhanced recovery for persons afflicted with the trauma of homelessness.
Design Resources for Homelessness provides information to diverse groups:
-
Shelter- or supportive housing-sponsoring non-profit organizations
-
Policy-making bodies
-
Building professionals—architects, interior designers, construction engineers, and contractors—engaged in the design and construction of facilities for unhoused persons
-
Design researchers, educators, and students interested in public service design, including the design of facilities that serve unhoused people.
Kearney Emergency Services Center, Tallahassee, Florida
CRA Architects
Homelessness poses a significant threat to productivity, self-esteem, child wellness, and
the human spirit. More than 650,000 Americans are experiencing homelessness (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2023), and the number is far greater worldwide. Built facilities where people who have experienced homelessness live and heal play an important and far-reaching role in recovery from this crisis.
While research-based information exists that can guide interior design and architectural decision-making for facilities that help unhoused persons, it is scattered and difficult to find. Design Resources for Homelessness gathers and curates this information and makes it available in an easily accessible place.
This knowledge supports the thoughtful planning of multiple facility types, including emergency and transitional shelters, permanent supportive housing, housing first facilities, and day centers.
The information comes from different fields, such as environmental psychology, neuroscience, sociology, social sciences, interior design, and architecture. This multidisciplinary approach better informs stakeholders, designers, and sponsoring organizations about designing buildings more effectively so that people feel safe, less crowded, and better about themselves—without necessarily increasing construction costs.
It is time to gather forces and bring perspectives together that may benefit the future of persons in crisis and, by extension, our society.
3rd Avenue Apartments, New York
James McCullar Architecture
Our Mission
An important part of healing from the crisis of homelessness can be realized through the thoughtful physical design of built facilities that assist these persons.
The mission of Design Resources for Homelessness is to positively affect the design of facilities that assist persons who are homeless or formerly homeless. We do so by connecting design practitioners, scholars, advocacy organizations, stakeholders, policymakers, teachers, and students to research and practical knowledge that informs design decisions to enhance the potential for exiting and recovery from homelessness.
We believe
-
All persons deserve to be sheltered in humane and supportive physical environments so that they can recover from trauma and resume their lives as full members of the community.
-
Dignity, empowerment, safety, function, and economic efficiency can be supported by physical architecture.
-
The free exchange and sharing of knowledge advances societal progress.
-
Generating new knowledge can move design innovation forward to the benefit of all.
Design Resources for Homelessness is a non-profit initiative funded by donations and grants.
All information is provided without charge.
Design Resources for Homelessness
designforhomelessness@gmail.com
designresourcesforhomelessness.org
​
Design Resources for Homelessness is a project of United Charitable, a registered 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 20-4286082. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
All funds raised by Design Resources for Homelessness are received by United Charitable and become the sole property of United Charitable which, for internal operating purposes, allocates the funds to the Project. The Program Manager or Donor-Advisor makes recommendations for disbursements which are reviewed by United Charitable for approval.