One of the best ideas for solarpunk co-housing I’ve seen is Bluelightning42’s post about re-purposing malls on Tumblr. While there has been the mixed use redevelopment of the Arcade in …
I think we need to take it one step further and have these dying malls turned into affordable housing for homeless people.
While you don’t want to start a slum, or shuffle homeless people to be ‘less visible’ you could have these malls have services to support them. For instance, addictions counseling.
Something as simple as a safe place to sleep, and access to regular food and water can really help people get back on their feet.
These malls are often hard to reach by anything other than a car, thus if you don’t have a thriving community within its not going to be very attractive even for homeless people that usually still try to find jobs or otherwise partake in social life.
I could imagine old malls being used as elderly care homes though.
While I read the text in the link that mentions the access issue, I don’t agree. My city is notoriously inaccessible to anything but cars, but this doesn’t stop homeless from congregating wherever is suitable to them (often green spaces). I think a ‘if you build it they will come’ approach would probably work.
This is a cool idea.
I think we need to take it one step further and have these dying malls turned into affordable housing for homeless people.
While you don’t want to start a slum, or shuffle homeless people to be ‘less visible’ you could have these malls have services to support them. For instance, addictions counseling.
Something as simple as a safe place to sleep, and access to regular food and water can really help people get back on their feet.
These malls are often hard to reach by anything other than a car, thus if you don’t have a thriving community within its not going to be very attractive even for homeless people that usually still try to find jobs or otherwise partake in social life.
I could imagine old malls being used as elderly care homes though.
I think if you convert the parking lot into farmers markets and gardens and parks, and swap meets, they people might not need to leave much.
That’s another good use.
While I read the text in the link that mentions the access issue, I don’t agree. My city is notoriously inaccessible to anything but cars, but this doesn’t stop homeless from congregating wherever is suitable to them (often green spaces). I think a ‘if you build it they will come’ approach would probably work.