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Australia has it right. They are using high end designer housing to convince homeless people that housing is the answer. (Check out this article from Sydney.)
I’ve been told over and over again, that there are people on the streets that are “service resistant.” In other words, people who don’t want to enter homeless services because the rules are just too strict. No drinking. No drugs. Strict curfew. Way too many rules, for an independent adult.
But if you give them a designer apartment, they can’t say no. Of course. Who would turn down an apartment designed by some architect with a world class education? Open up Dwell Magazine, and pick out your décor.
I wish it was so easy. I wish world class architects would donate their design talent to create housing that is so enticing that people on the streets would flock to their apartments.
Wait. I think it is happening already. Talented architects, educated from Yale, Berkeley, UCLA, SciArch are starting to catch on to the fact that their skills could actually create a better society. A homeless-less society. If only they would forgo their architectural commission.
I wonder if that French celebrity architect Philippe Starck, who designs homes, restaurants, furniture and kitchenware, might be enticed to design housing for the homeless? For free. I’m sure he makes enough Dollars or Euros on his amazing buildings and products to keep him comfortable for the rest of his life.
Attention, American Institute of Architects. We need your design help. For free.