Design to tackle homelessness
Words by Kay Hill
The figures on homelessness are stark. According to UK government statistics, 4,677 people were sleeping rough on a single night last year, while the BBC estimates that the total number experiencing the indignity of rough sleeping over a year comes to nearer 28,000. It isn’t a problem unique to the UK: there are more than half a million rough sleepers in the US – 60,000 in Los Angeles alone – not to mention millions of refugees and victims of natural disasters around the world. The traditional response, whether it’s on the streets of Detroit or the refugee camps of Darfur, is to resort to tents, but many in the design world believe there are better solutions.