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Showing posts from February 24, 2015

Unique Low Impact Treehouse

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By Christine Walsh on Feb. 20, 2015 | Topics:  Modern architecture |  Comments (0) The so-called Dom’Up is an innovative treehouse, which is easy to install, and has virtually no impact on the trees used to support it. It was created by Holland-based arborculturist Bruno de Grunne and architect Nicolas d’Ursel from the organization Trees and People. The treehouse can be used as an alternative to the classic treehouse, for glamping, or even as a treetop office, resort or even a cool restaurant. The Dom’Up is a lightweight, UV-resistant canvas tent shelter that stretches over a 172 square foot (16 sq m) octagonal platform. The treehouse is suspended using Trees and People’s No Trace arboreal fixing system, which was designed with the idea of utilizing space between trees, rather than a single tree, since the former offers more space. Using more that one tree to support the structure also means the weight can be distributed more equally and therefore having very little ne

Not A Group House, Not A Commune: Europe Experiments With Co-Housing

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Alfafar, a suburb of Valencia, Spain, is suffering from a poor economy and high unemployment. A quarter of homes are abandoned. Here, a cafe is still open on the ground floor of an abandoned municipal building in Alfafar's Orba neighborhood, but upper floors used to house shops. A pair of Spanish architects hopes to revitalize the high-density housing in this working-class area. Lauren Frayer/NPR This is the latest story from the  NPR Cities Project . In an abandoned building near Spain's Mediterranean coast, someone softly strums a guitar. Chord progressions echo through empty halls. It's an impromptu music lesson, offered among unemployed neighbors in  Alfafar , a suburb south of Valencia. The town was built in the 1960s for timber factory workers. It's high-density housing: tidy, identical two- and three-bedroom apartments, in huge blocks — some 7,000 housing units in total. But the local timber industry has since collapsed. More than 40 percent of l

Ignored or Destroyed by Most, Tent Cities Get More Permanent

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Seattle is one of only a handful of places that formally recognizes and regulates homeless encampments. BY  CHRIS KARDISH   |  FEBRUARY 2015 A homeless encampment in Seattle, photographed in 2012.  AP Like many other metro areas in the mid-2000s, Seattle’s King County set out to end homelessness within 10 years. Far less common, though, was a policy enacted in Seattle to permit homeless encampments, also known as tent cities, to deal with limited shelter capacity. After a decade, homelessness hasn’t gone away completely, and neither have the tent cities. If anything, they’re becoming more permanent. Homeless encampments in the U.S. are at least as old as the Great Depression, when Seattle and other American cities saw the rise of so-called “Hoovervilles.” Encampments again started sprouting up in King County in the 1990s, but officials worked to convince camp organizers to shut them down in exchange for shelter elsewhere. But when King County was planning its blueprint t

Thank you for Making the 2015 Family and Youth Conference a Success

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February 24, ISSUES   |   POLICY   |   SOLUTIONS   |   NEWS & EVENTS Forward Editor: Emanuel Cavallaro Spotlight On... Thank you for Making the 2015 Family and Youth Conference a Success The Alliance staff would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the attendees, speakers, and volunteers who helped make the 2015 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness in San Diego a success. We are honored that the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Julián Castro, and Speaker of the California State Assembly Toni G. Atkins addressed our conference, and we are grateful to all the experts from across the country who contributed to the event by sharing their knowledge on ending homelessness. We truly could not have done it without you. Read the conference recap on the USICH blog HUD Releases Guidance on Placement of Tran

Final Reminder: Webinar on Strategies to Increase Health Insurance Enrollment for People Who Are Homeless - February 24, 2015 2 PM EST

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Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser . Final Reminder: Webinar on Strategies to Increase Health Insurance Enrollment for People Who Are Homeless - February 24, 2015 2 PM EST Don’t miss your opportunity to listen live to this important webinar featuring national leaders who will provide firsthand information on how to increase enrollment in Medicaid and other health insurance options. This webinar will present a range of opportunities and strategies designed to support organizations serving homeless populations in their efforts to enroll clients in available health insurance, including Medicaid. T

Don't Call Them Homeless Veterans! | Sharing Economy and Equity + Posts by Sarah Treuhaft, Amy Clark, Korrin L. Bishop, Pete Walker, Maria Foscarinis, Elisha Harig-Blaine, Catherine Seif, Brenton Huston, Jay Krammes, Melanie Lewis Dickerson, Heather Powers, Daleena Scott, Melanie Zamora, and more!

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Having trouble viewing this email? Click here Tuesday February 24, 2015 Shelterforce in print One year for $18 Subscribe Now! Share  Shelterforce Weekly  with your colleagues... Industry News Brandee McHale appointed president of the Citi Foundation and director of corporate citizenship for Citi Ms. McHale first joined Citi in 1991, serving for more than two decades in a variety of business management and philanthropy-related leadership roles, including Chief Operating Officer of the Citi Foundation Learn more about Brandee  here   Events Reduce Your Organization's Monthly Loan Payments Webinar Presented by Capital Impact Partners March 3  11:00 a.m. PST More People & Places  2015 Community Conference