How do we create Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) for the homeless quickly and inexpensively?

We developed a plan to design, develop, and oversee a pre-fabricated, modular approach to house Los Angeles’ homeless population. Our team met and discussed our ideas with stakeholders including permanent supportive housing (PSH) developers, the city, the county, for-profit developers, real estate brokers, PSH operators, non-profit groups focused on homelessness, other architects, and pre-fabrication manufacturers.

We started by focusing on four sites in Lincoln Heights that the City identified for PSH. Our design solution involved pre-fabricated modular units to make the construction of the four buildings faster and more cost effective. The idea of pre-fab construction for multi-family housing was not new, but it catalyzed our thinking for how to house Los Angeles’ 10,000 chronically homeless people.

We knew a one-project-at-a-time approach was inadequate, so we looked to the retail industry for inspiration: in retail architecture no retailer ever wants just one store, they want hundreds. To solve homelessness, we need hundreds of PSH projects. So we conceptualized a PSH approach that would resemble a retail roll-out. Essentially, our system procures all materials in high volumes to realize the cost benefits of economies of scale.