Civic Architecture, Design for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness + the Homekey Project
Sparano + Mooney Architecture is committed to improving the communities in which we live and work. As civic architects and housing architects who collaborate with municipalities across Southern California, we believe wholeheartedly that excellent design can not only bolster a cityscape, but profoundly affect residents’ lives. With this influence in mind, we are honored to have the opportunity to provide homeless architectural solutions for project Homekey in partnership with the County of Los Angeles.
CIVIC ARCHITECTURE PROVIDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Homekey is an innovative enterprise between the County of Los Angeles and the State of California to “purchase and rehabilitate hotels and motels, and convert them into permanent, long-term housing for people experiencing homelessness.” Homekey builds upon Project Roomkey, an initiative among the County, State and Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to secure motel and hotel rooms for seniors and medically-vulnerable citizens experiencing homelessness, to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. With more than 161,000 people in the State and 66,000 people in the County experiencing homelessness, and especially during a global pandemic, the supply of well-designed affordable housing is more prescient than ever.
Evolving from a measure to curb the pandemic to an attempt at curbing the homelessness crisis, Homekey makes available nearly 630 new rooms for permanent housing units, and will provide essential services and stability for our most vulnerable neighbors. In early 2021, the sites began operating as interim lodging. While this solution certainly eased some of the hardship, the need for long-term housing was still urgent, which is why Homekey is such an essential and socially-valuable investment for these communities. As Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the Center for Vulnerable Populations at the University of California, San Francisco, has noted, Homekey has spearheaded the key factor to helping solve homelessness – providing permanent, supportive housing, and not temporary shelter. “Some people need services that go along with that housing, and some people don’t. But the really essential thing is that without the housing, the services don’t work,” Kushel has said.
During the onset and height of the pandemic, officials recognized the abundance of unused commercial properties such as motels and hotels, and the County decided to use funds from local, state and federal sources to acquire these premises and make improvements to the architecture. Conversion of existing buildings saves a great deal of time and cost compared to constructing new facilities from the ground-up – crucial savings during public health emergencies. Congress recently approved $5 billion to turn hotels across the country into housing, and the State of California committed nearly $3 billion to expanding Homekey over the next two years. With this funding in place, and through innovative homeless architectural solutions, Sparano + Mooney Architecture is in the process of converting former Motel 6 and Holiday Inn sites in Long Beach and Harbor City into permanent housing and support facilities for the Homekey project.
CONVERTING HOTELS INTO PERMANENT HOUSING
With this civic architecture project in the County of Los Angeles, the goal is to retain existing design layouts, while updating the properties and providing ADA-compliant housing options at each site for the County’s most vulnerable residents. Each unit will supply a kitchenette, with a refrigerator, microwave, hand-sink and cabinetry, and comfortable living quarters with private bathrooms, new furniture and storage closets. Additional amenities will include ADA-complaint offices, laundry conveniences, and public-restrooms. Upgrades to telecommunications infrastructure and security parameters are also integral to the refurbishment. Residents will have access to communal outdoor areas such as gardens, pet relief and play areas, bike storage and shaded tenant recreation spaces. Each location will have 24-hour security and will offer meals. On-site services may comprise counselling, addiction treatment and recovery, mental health support, and job placement services.
These measures will create dignified, safe and habitable living conditions in the architecture, and will allow residents to be independent as much as possible. As Michele Griffin Young, an elderly homeless citizen caring for her severely diabetic son John, has noted, access to this form of housing has been lifesaving. When Young and John lived in a car, keeping his insulin cold was difficult and precarious. Through the County’s initiatives, Young and John were able to secure accommodation at a converted Travelodge. “We had a refrigerator to keep the insulin in. And we had a microwave…[T]here was food every morning and food every night and our own showers and bathrooms. And everything was just fantastic.”
The Homekey project is so much more than a nuts-and-bolts refurbishment. To SMA, this focus on civic architecture is a chance to take action and help address a public health crisis in the State of California and County of Los Angeles. It is an occasion to give back to the communities that have provided our team members life-changing experiences of our own. It is an opportunity to use housing architecture to advocate for social welfare and justice. We are proud to be civic architects in Los Angeles, and to be working on profound projects like Homekey to address the challenges of our time though our work in architecture.
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