Architecture that is hostile to the homeless

Chad Loder is founder and CEO of Habitu8, a company that creates videos of security awareness. In a Twitter thread he documents architecture that is hostile to the homeless. This includes:

* Benches with “armrests” in the middle of the seat to so homeless people can’t sleep on them, benches that are not flat, and where the seat can get folded up and locked at night. The most annoying are benches with intermediate arms that are painted with pride colors or such benches with advertising signs that say, “Homelessness kills” – such cognitive dissonance.

* Areas under bridges with lots of spikes or unnecessary bike racks.

* A place in Paris that installed several vertical metal poles. A homeless person threw a board and mattress on top of them.

A commenter added what looks like a slogan from British Conservatives: “We plan to cut all homeless people in half by 2025.” Umm…

Another commenter shows a bench from RainCity Housing. Part of the back of the bench folds up as a roof.

Sabra Boyd commented about the Seattle sculpture of “Homeless Jesus” appearing to sleep on a bench – which prevents a real homeless person from sleeping there.

Fionna O’Leary linked to her thread about how Helsinki handles homelessness – they’re put into city owned housing. The city has 60,000 social housing units. It also runs its own construction company. Each district of the city must have a strict mix of social and private housing to limit social segregation. It also insists on no visible external differences between public and private housing.

That linked to an article by John Henley in The Guardian about what Helsinki did. The city leaders realized that shelters and short-term hostels were not getting people out of homelessness.

As in many countries, homelessness in Finland had long been tackled using a staircase model: you were supposed to move through different stages of temporary accommodation as you got your life back on track, with an apartment as the ultimate reward.

“We decided to make the housing unconditional,” says [program leader Juha] Kaakinen. “To say, look, you don’t need to solve your problems before you get a home. Instead, a home should be the secure foundation that makes it easier to solve your problems.”

Sleeping on the street is now rare. But just giving people a home doesn’t work. Most need a large number of services for addictions, mental health issues, and medical conditions. Some need to relearn basic life skills.

Finland spent 250 million euros creating these new homes and hiring 300 more support workers. But savings in emergency healthcare, social services, and the justice system saves 15,000 euros for each person now in properly supported housing. However, this means the city actually must have the housing.

There is also the preventive side. There are teams to help tenants from being evicted and becoming homeless.