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Great work this week Las Vegas, I really enjoyed reading these posts and the interesting research that you have done. Nice and integrated, and great visuals too.  Well done. 

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Great work this week Las Vegas, I really enjoyed reading these posts and the interesting research that you have done. Nice and integrated, and great visuals too.  Well done. 

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Parasitic pods attached to buildings could house New York's homeless population

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5813 people reported being homeless in Brisbane in 2016 (Brisbane City Council, 2018). With this rate on the rise, the Brisbane City Council has implemented a number of services and projects to address homelessness in the city (Brisbane City Council, 2018). This includes organisations such as Homelessness Connect, Public Space Liaison Officers, Essential Contacts Guide, Red Cross Night Café, Community Housing Partnership Project, and Brisbane Housing Company (Brisbane City Council, 2018).

While these organisations are successful in helping homeless people in the Brisbane city, most of the organisations only offer short-term solutions, for example crisis accommodation, haircuts, food, toiletries, and clothing (Brisbane City Council, 2018). Although, not every single homeless person in the Brisbane City has access to these services (Brisbane City Council, 2018). For example, only a few people are provided with temporary accommodation off the street. This is a problem that the Council must immediately address as no one should be sleeping rough (Brisbane City Council, 2018). A solution for this may be creating more temporary accommodation in the city. This could be like the video attached where it shows a design of how New York could house its homeless population in the city (Dezeen, 2018). However, while it is known that more accommodation is need for homeless people in Brisbane this cannot be a long-term solution (Brisbane City Council, 2018). As by building more and more accommodation for homeless people is not practical and economical (The Australian Independent Media Network, 2018). Instead, a strategy that provides a long-term solution must be implemented in the Brisbane city.

A long-term solution the Council should consider is offering the homeless people in temporary accommodation free education and work experience that leads to full-time employment (The Australian Independent Media Network, 2018). By the homeless people staying temporarily in accommodation while they are working they will be able to save up their income for permanent and stable accommodation. As homeless people leave the accommodation as they have a stable income and home, other homeless people can receive the same services. Hence, the Brisbane City Council should consider this strategy as it is a long-term solution and may reduce the rate of homelessness in Brisbane.

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This video outlines different types of defensive architecture and explains the intentional design of each one.

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Why cities are full of uncomfortable benches

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This series of three images are a comical response/pushback to the implementation of defensive architecture, emphasizing the extremes that would need to be taken in order to accommodate such designs as comfortable and user-friendly

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This video demonstrates citizens challenging the usage of defensive architecture by transforming a hostile area into a welcoming and comfortable space. Also, note the background song “Won’t you be my neighbour” by Mr. Rogers... it adds a satirical touch!

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'Space not Spikes' at London's  Curtain Road #helpthehomeless

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Amongst the various types of marginalized populations that exist, homeless people are a specific cohort that are found in most cities around the world. With a reported figure of over five thousand homeless people in Brisbane which is a statistic that is only set to rise, the concept of defensive architecture becomes especially prevalent as its existence effects the everyday routines (and sleeps) of homeless people. Therefore, when analyzing the role that city planners and designers have in creating a more generous space for the homeless, it is critical to study not only how defensive architecture affects the lives of the homeless, but also the repercussions that follow when the homeless are restricted to less ‘livable’ and more hostile spaces.

Defensive architecture is the design of public city architecture which primarily focuses to “actively exclude particular categories of person” – which in most cases, target and affect homeless people (Smith & Walters, 2018, p. 2983-4). Examples of defensive architecture are metal spikes under bridges or on large smooth surfaces to eradicate habitable spaces, as well as the implementation of arm rails on city benches and chairs, discouraging the convenience and comfort of sprawling oneself out to sleep (de Fine Licht, 2017).. With the goal of limiting the ways an object can be misused, these deliberate changes in planning inevitably foster a hostile and cold feel to not just the homeless, but also to the dynamic of the city altogether (Vox, 2017).

In the video “Why cities are full of uncomfortable benches” by Vox, a few advantages of these defensive designs are the possibilities to deter crime, prevent the destruction of public property, and decrease loitering (Vox, 2017). However, the implementation of defensive designs cannot guarantee the decline of deviant behaviour in all cities, however, it does successfully promise hostility toward the homeless (as well as to the disabled who cannot sit on leaning benches, and animals, who cannot nest atop of awnings, for example). Therefore, the existence of defensive city designs begs us to ask the question of if these designs truly eradicate homelessness, or if they simply ‘hide’ the publicity of homeless people? How do these designs help the homeless?

Therefore, in exploring and acknowledging the negative effects of defensive architecture, a possible means to better address city homelessness would be to provide greater access to homeless shelters. Considering the large population of homeless people in Brisbane, a free walk-in shelter that provides a warm shower and/or a bed to sleep in (Even if it’s only for one night!) could potentially provide them with the energy and rest that they need to continue to live and find work. In addition, to aid shelter funding/staff, the homeless could “pay” to stay more nights by taking on responsibilities (such as cleaning the cafeteria, doing laundry, doing the dishes), which could provide them with a sense of autonomy as well as the opportunity to socially and cognitively develop. In sum, defensive architecture are hostile blockages that do not provide viable solutions in eliminating homelessness (de Fine Licht, 2017). City planners and designers can and should instead pursue other avenues which provide the marginalized with tangible solutions and opportunities to grow.

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Introduction: The Missing Element of Private Space

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Introduction: The Missing Element of Private Space

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One of the major issues the homeless face is a lack of private space to call their own. Private space is of vital importance, and it's lack has considerable negative social outcomes for the individual.

The homeless must salvage a private realm wherever they can, whenever they can, however elements like exclusionary policing, defensive/hostile architecture, and sanitisation of space are considerable barriers to their right to the city. They simply have no place to be

This week Las Vegas will expand upon this problem and offer a potential solution to this lack of access to private space that is neither burying the problem, or a 'bandaid' solution.

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News report about a Texas chef who feeds the homeless every tuesday night. She was given a loophole fine for "transporting food without a permit."

When she questioned whether the fine she was being given was necessary, the police involved informed her that they "had orders."

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Texas chef fined $2K for feeding the homeless

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This LA musician creates private spaces for the homeless, empowering them.

He has had his attempts to help the homeless community intercepted by the city council - as it "interferes with their plan to help the homeless," by corralling them into shelters which have yet to be built.

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This LA Musician Built $1,200 Tiny Houses for the Homeless. Then the City Seized Them.

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Those who take matters into their own hands in order to help the homeless find themselves under attack by the state for their good deeds. These Samaritans' efforts do not make the homeless problem go away - instead they make the problem more visible. The actions of the government to harass these people does appear to betray a political agenda where the government would prefer the homeless to be swept under the rug rather than drawn out, fed, and housed by public interests.

Convoluted political agendas prevent people from helping others, yet provide few solutions of their own.

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The homeless lack access to private space and the private realm. The private realm represents intimacy, familiarity and comfort, and is invested with considerable security and meanings for an individual (Cheshire & Walters, 2018). Like other spatially marginalised groups, the homeless must appropriate and temporarily occupy space, repurposing it for their own uses. Usually these areas such as parks, streets, alleys, overpasses, etc., are appropriated from the public realm (Shearer & Walters, 2014; Roy, 2018). Unlike the true private realm, these liminal spaces are under constant threat of invasion and regulation, and this ruptures the boundaries of these realms (Cheshire & Walters, 2018).

In the city, space is regulated through a number of means. Some, such as defensive/hostile architecture, is relatively obvious (Petty, 2016), however others are more subversive. Increasingly, space in the city is being ‘recolonised’ and repurposed. Areas the homeless are likely to congregate are the targets of enthusiastic urban renewal and privatisation schemes (Roy, 2016). To most citizens these acts are seen as a municipal good, however the result is that space becomes less welcoming to all city-dwellers (Smith & Walters, 2018).

These processes recreate spaces, transforming them into areas with set purposes to be utilised by set people, sanitising and managing the space against alternative uses and users. Through design and implementation, unsanctioned and undesired uses are defended against. These strategies render the intentions power has towards a space quite visible, people have an implicit understanding of whether they are the intended users of a space, or whether they are undesirable (Pomeroy, 2011; Smith & Walters, 2018). The homeless are made to feel uncomfortable and unwelcome within an area, their exclusion is written into the architecture of the new place design (Roy, 2018).

After a space is sanitised, groups such as the homeless become more visible and socially recategorized as non-conforming and dangerous. This increases the already powerful exclusion which they already face. Space sanitation strengthens certain social norms of an area, stating who belongs and who does not. Users of an area gradually change to those desired by place designers; and the homeless vacate. This reinforces stereotypes and prejudices against the homeless (Sibley, 1998).

Of course, leaving derelict areas undeveloped in the city as some sort of ‘token gesture’ to the homeless population is not a solution. Measures need to be taken that assess and solve the root cause of the need for the homeless to appropriate public space: the lack of means to reliably access safe and affordable private spaces.

References
Cheshire, L. Walters, P. & Have, C. (2018). ‘Strangers in my home’: Disaster and the durability of the private realm. The Sociological Review, 1-16. Doi: 10.1177/0038026118754781

Petty J (2016). The London spikes controversy: Homelessness, urban securitisation and the

question of ‘hostile architecture’. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social

Democracy 5(1): 67‐81. DOI: 10.5204/ijcjsd.v5i1.286.

Pomeroy, J. (2011). Defining Singapore public space: From sanitization to corporatization. Journal of Urban Design, 16(3), 381-396. doi: 10.1080/13574809.2011.571164

Roy, P. (2018). “Welcome in my backyard” …but on my terms: making sense of homeless exclusion from renewed urban spaces in Copenhagen. GeoJournal 83, 289-304. doi: 10.1007/s10708-017-9769-8

Sibley, D. (1998). The problematic nature of exclusion. Geoforum, 29(2), 119-121.

Smith, N. & Walters, P. (2018). Desire lines and defensive architecture in modern urban environments. Urban Studies 55(13), 2980-2995. doi: 10.1177/0042098017732690

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This year three and half million people will be homeless, and this has remained constant for some time now (Vice 2015). However since the rise in homelessness due to the economy, there has been little to no grace given to those in this situation. Police and government reinforcement are seeing this as a crime, and illegal action. Many are receiving tickets for camping outside, or even just being outside. Coordinator Lisa Veaudry for Corpus Christi shelter makes a valid point on the means of officials handing out tickets for being homeless, “You don’t stop being homeless just because you are ticketed and moving out of the ally” (Vice 2015). Sometimes they have no option than to break the law and set up camp because they have no other place to go.

Communities have created a stigma towards homeless people, but aren’t willing to do anything to help. Instead they file complaints, harass them, give out fines, and treat them as outcasts; Even though they are still considered as part of the community. A majority of public places are now even adding structures to benches, corners, platforms, or walls to make it so no one can camp out there for the night. If cities and officials are against the homeless finding shelter within public areas, then where are they to go? They have no other choice than to hide themselves from society, “We are creating a world in which a whole class of people simply cannot be, entirely because they have no place to be” (Mitchell 1997).

vicenews. What Happens When Cities Make Homelessness a Crime: Hiding The Homeless. YouTube, 23 Nov. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYFeY2pS0ks.