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Housing - US

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This working group is focused on discussions about housing.

The mission of this working group is to focus on discussions about housing.

Members

Kathy Gilbeaux mdmcdonald

Email address for group

housing-us@m.resiliencesystem.org

America's Homeless: The Rise of Tent City, USA

      

Homeless encampments known as "tent cities" are popping up across the country.

money.cnn.com - by Blake Ellis - May 16, 2014

Formed as an alternative to shelters and street-living, these makeshift communities are often set up off of highways, under bridges and in the woods. Some have "mayors" who determine the rules of the camp and who can and can't join, others are a free-for-all. Some are overflowing with trash, old food, human waste and drug paraphernalia, others are relatively clean and drug-free.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Reaction Housing - Exo

submitted by Deirdre Darragh

         

http://www.reactionhousing.com/#inthemedia

The Exo Housing Unit

The Exos are base housing units that make up the foundation of the Reaction housing system. They provide private living and sleeping quarters for a family of four within a climate-controlled environment. An Exo is durable enough to be stored on a long-term basis and stacks for efficient storage and transportation. Electrical power is delivered via a connector line that powers each unit's lighting and four wall outlets. The Exo's design allows for numerous configurations to meet any need or deployment condition.

Setting Up the Exo

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NOMAD Micro Homes

      

nomadmicrohomes.com

NOMAD’s living room, kitchen, bathroom, stair, bedroom, and storage are all seamlessly integrated: a stair doubles as a kitchen, a window adds light to one area and a higher ceiling to another, a bathroom doubles as a shower, storage that can be used as seating, and so on. These features are not obvious at first glance, but each one is essential to NOMAD's livability.

NOMAD "Live" becomes NOMAD "Zero" when the following pre-engineered sustainable features are added: 
Solar Power
Composting Toilet
Rainwater Collection
Grey Water Treatment

They also offer upgrades . . .
Increased Wall and Roof Insulation
High Wind Loading
Triple Glazing

http://www.nomadmicrohomes.com/models.html

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Cities Mobilize to Help Those Threatened by Gentrification

      

Jacy Webster applied for a cap on his property taxes after the value of his home in Philadelphia quintupled amid a flurry of new construction. Credit Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Timothy Williams - March 3, 2014

PHILADELPHIA — Cities that have worked for years to attract young professionals who might have once moved to the suburbs are now experimenting with ways to protect a group long deemed expendable — working- and lower-middle class homeowners threatened by gentrification.

The initiatives, planned or underway in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh and other cities, are centered on reducing or freezing property taxes for such homeowners in an effort to promote neighborhood stability, preserve character and provide a dividend of sorts to those who have stayed through years of high crime, population loss and declining property values, officials say.

Newcomers, whose vitality is critical to cities, are hardly being turned away.

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Rooftop Farm in New York City Grows 50,000 Pounds of Organic Produce Per Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTC_X1gblRE

watch the full video here:http://permaculturenews.org/2014/01/0...

By Ecofilms

“That view behind me is not a painted backdrop!” said Geoff Lawton to the camera. But the view looked great from where I was standing. Brooklyn Grange is a rooftop farm with a magnificent view looking over the Manhattan skyline.

Sitting on a concrete roof, totaling 2.5 acres and producing more than 50,000 pounds of organically-grown vegetables each year, you need to walk its length to appreciate how vast this rooftop garden truly is in scale.

We had been given one hour to film this place. The sun was setting. We were in the “magic hour” to film and needed to hurry. There was a lot to do.

Geoff walked down the narrow lanes of planted vegetables. Four to six inches of dirt was all the plants were allowed to grow in—very well drained dirt that resembled sharp river sand. It didn’t look like a normal loamy soil to my untrained eye.

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Philly’s New Land Bank: Will It Give Blighted Communities a Boost?

            

Philadelphia is famous for its many murals that capture the city's history and spirit, like this one by artist Carl Willis Humphrey honoring W.E.B. Du Bois. The image is painted on the wall of a historical African-American firehouse. Du Bois was a founder of the NAACP and was commissioned in 1896 to survey African-Americans living in the city's Seventh Ward as part of a study on race, The Philadelphia Negro. He is depicted with a census in hand. Photo by Shrub75/Flickr

The city is home to more than 40,000 vacant properties. Now neighborhoods are hoping a new public entity can help them bounce back from the post-industrial blues.

yesmagazine.org - by Jake Blumgart - December 27, 2013

Blighted properties drain public coffers, contribute nothing to the tax base, and serve as havens for crime and trash. After years of work . . . activists hope that a bill passed this December will finally provide Philadelphians with a tool to confront this colossal problem: a land bank.

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