
A person experiencing homelessness lacks shelter in its most basic form, but solving homelessness takes much more than buildings, and our contemporary moment reveals few problems that design, on its own, can resolve. According to the 2018 State of Homelessness in America report by the US Council of Economic Advisers, over half a million people in the US are homeless, with that number steadily increasing over the past three years—people living every day without this most basic form of protection that we as designers of our built environments provide.(1) In our own city of Austin, Texas, a 2021 report by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) found that there are 3,160 Austinites experiencing homelessness, with more than 2,200 living without any shelter. (2)
Many factors contribute to homelessness and solutions to increase availability and long-term, sustained access to shelter and housing will need to integrate health-, disability-, and employment services. The 2021 Summit to Address Unsheltered Homelessness aimed to develop an implementation strategy to effectively and significantly reduce unsheltered homelessness in Austin. Community partners, including the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, The Downtown Austin Alliance, ECHO, along with other partners and participants, developed a robust homelessness rehousing system vision and a housing plan to reach equilibrium in the next three years. The $300 million plan calls for the unlocking of more than 3,000 homes over the next few years through the creation of permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing opportunities.
