Courtesy of 2015 AIA Housing Awards

• Project replaces crime-ridden site with a bright new building consisting of safe and stable homes
• Dedicated to formerly homeless families in its neighborhood (has the second highest homelessness rate in the City)
  • The opening of the project moved many families off waiting lists for overtaxed shelters
  • Reduced pressure on emergency services
• New, secured building brings 73 homes, positive energy, and “eyes on the street” to the neighborhood
• Formerly homeless families and transition-aged youth provided stable new homes with “welcome kits” of furnishings and supplies
• A comprehensive range of support services (child-specific programs and more) are offered in the building’s convenient on-site offices
• 115 kids living in the building receive healthy snacks, homework help, after-school care and chaperoned field trips
• In the central courtyard, 8,500-square-foot urban garden with fruit trees, vines and planting beds allow residents to grow their own food and get their hands dirty
• There are varied-height planters to accommodate people’s different relationships to the gardening beds (adults, teens, children, those with mobility differences)
  • Also provides places to rest or socialize in the garden court
  • A local gardening non-profit oversees this “edible landscape”, with residents providing the daily garden caret