Last week, North Hollywood opened the doors to Chandler Boulevard Bridge Home Village, a debut housing project for more than a quarter of their population, who lack shelter.
The village, designed by Lehrer Architects and the Bureau of Engineering, is made up of 40 colourful prefabricated homes, with a total of 75 beds.
Last year, in wake of a 25% increase in homelessness and a more devastating and isolating time than ever, The City of Los Angeles developed and funded the village project as part of its emergency response.
Located across the street from North Hollywood Park, the tiny home village is the first of its kind in L.A. and has already reached full capacity since it’s opening last week.
For efficiency, affordability and time sensitivity, the city relied on prefabrication. Prefabrication is when a home is constructed off-site and installed onsite. They usually only take around 12-16 weeks to get built! They’re also more sustainable that non-prefab structures, as they consume less energy and water, producing fewer emissions.
For this particular project, the prefabs were constructed by Pallet Shelter, shipped as individual panels and were each put together in under an hour. The cost of each unit was $7,500 including labour and materials.
With Australia’s homelessness situation sharply on the decline as COVID-19 measures such as income protection and eviction moratoria phase out, we should be looking ahead. This project in L.A. is an example of a sustainable and affordable solution.
In Australia, we have the luxury of space. There are plenty of places a small village could slot into our landscape, potentially housing 75 people who are sleeping rough. That would be an incredible development for our community.
If they can find space in L.A. then we can find space here. Come on, ScoMo.