STREETS TEAM
SOS! Richmond (Safe Organized Spaces) and TentMakers, a community housing development corporation, have received a grant from Richmond's ECIA funds to pilot a homeless Streets Team. The Streets Team is a 6-month “Work-First” pilot to test a low-cost public works intervention that employs 3 homeless individuals in a work experience program to improve safety, cleanliness, fire fuel reduction/weeding, and park user relations along the public spaces of the Richmond Greenway and 9 adjacent neighborhoods. Participants will earn $15/hour for 12 hours/week. Four additional homeless individuals will be stipended as "local guardians" to tend specific locations.
Efforts will deepen an existing collaboration, Friends of the Richmond Greenway (FORG), to improve perceptions of public parks as safespaces, help to support homeless populations that converge on the Greenway, and increase cooperation among city agencies, neighborhood councils, community members, and businesses. A service provider will case manage participants and ensure that supportive services are leveraged to improve health and wellbeing, sustain their transitional employment, improve pre-employment readiness, and help them to secure permanent employment. The pilot will build partnerships with housed neighbors, inform perceptions about homelessness in neighborhoods, and increase community acceptance for emergency shelter responses.
EMERGENCY SLEEPING CABIN CONSTRUCTION PILOT
The Emergency Sleeping Cabin Construction Pilot will enroll 3 homeless individuals at RichmondBUILD, a 12-week construction trade training academy, where trainees will construct state-compliant “Emergency Sleeping Cabins”. Cabins built will be used in a pilot project that will lead to the development of a Transitional Village to provide a cost-efficient, code-compliant, community-integrated, participatory, and scalable emergency shelter response.
Participants will be selected by local social service providers who provide case management and supportive services to ensure resident success in the village, with the goals of personal stability and job readiness. The sleeping units will initially provide for interim sheltering in a community setting where the 3 Streets Team participants and 3 RichmondBUILD enrollees can live while they secure stable incomes and housing.
A city ordinance will be drafted to allow for sleeping cabins to be sited in Richmond. Private funds are committed to purchase materials for the first 3 cabins. Community volunteers, led by employed RichmondBUILD graduates, will build these 3 cabins and the remaining 12 cabins to comprise a small Transitional Village.
TINY HOUSE ON WHEELS DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
The Tiny House on Wheels Demonstration Project will develop a transitional village consisting of 6 tiny houses on wheels that comply with Richmond’s recently adopted Ordinance No. 07-19 N. S., which amends Chapter 9.40.015 of the Richmond Municipal Code. These dwelling units, with kitchens and bathrooms, will be designed and built under the direction of TentMakers. The village will be safe and visually attractive, will provide an environment that supports resident stability and sense of personal agency, and will positively impact the surrounding neighborhood.
The first residents to occupy the homes will be the 3 Streets Team members and 3 additional homeless people who will receive training from RichmondBUILD. The units will be sited on private or public land for 3 years, and will host an on-site operational structure and supports that align with best practices that have been successfully implemented in cities across the country. This temporary project will evolve into the construction of permanent tiny homes for extremely low-income dwellers as homeownership, utilizing the Community Land Trust model.
UNSHELTERED RICHMOND
Unsheltered Richmond is a public media project that magnifies the voices and experiences of unhoused people who live without shelter in Richmond neighborhoods. Videos and podcasts will be crafted by unhoused contributors, with support from volunteer reporters, filmmakers and editors. A series of 12 stories by 12 homeless residents will encourage all of Richmond to meet their unsheltered neighbors on a human scale and invite productive dialogue. Participants will receive the basic equipment and training needed to document their lives as they interview peers to illustrate their shared lived experiences. Participants will be paid for the contributions they create. Once submitted to the audio-visual social media team, the stories will be collected, edited and showcased on a website and other public forums.
EFFECTIVE COORDINATION OF HOMELESS SERVICES IN RICHMOND
To advance these and other emergency shelter responses to homelessness, we respectfully suggest that a City Manager staff person be assigned to act as a liaison for improved coordination among city agencies, county services, and community-based efforts.
SOS! Richmond (Safe Organized Spaces) and TentMakers, a community housing development corporation, have received a grant from Richmond's ECIA funds to pilot a homeless Streets Team. The Streets Team is a 6-month “Work-First” pilot to test a low-cost public works intervention that employs 3 homeless individuals in a work experience program to improve safety, cleanliness, fire fuel reduction/weeding, and park user relations along the public spaces of the Richmond Greenway and 9 adjacent neighborhoods. Participants will earn $15/hour for 12 hours/week. Four additional homeless individuals will be stipended as "local guardians" to tend specific locations.
Efforts will deepen an existing collaboration, Friends of the Richmond Greenway (FORG), to improve perceptions of public parks as safespaces, help to support homeless populations that converge on the Greenway, and increase cooperation among city agencies, neighborhood councils, community members, and businesses. A service provider will case manage participants and ensure that supportive services are leveraged to improve health and wellbeing, sustain their transitional employment, improve pre-employment readiness, and help them to secure permanent employment. The pilot will build partnerships with housed neighbors, inform perceptions about homelessness in neighborhoods, and increase community acceptance for emergency shelter responses.
EMERGENCY SLEEPING CABIN CONSTRUCTION PILOT
The Emergency Sleeping Cabin Construction Pilot will enroll 3 homeless individuals at RichmondBUILD, a 12-week construction trade training academy, where trainees will construct state-compliant “Emergency Sleeping Cabins”. Cabins built will be used in a pilot project that will lead to the development of a Transitional Village to provide a cost-efficient, code-compliant, community-integrated, participatory, and scalable emergency shelter response.
Participants will be selected by local social service providers who provide case management and supportive services to ensure resident success in the village, with the goals of personal stability and job readiness. The sleeping units will initially provide for interim sheltering in a community setting where the 3 Streets Team participants and 3 RichmondBUILD enrollees can live while they secure stable incomes and housing.
A city ordinance will be drafted to allow for sleeping cabins to be sited in Richmond. Private funds are committed to purchase materials for the first 3 cabins. Community volunteers, led by employed RichmondBUILD graduates, will build these 3 cabins and the remaining 12 cabins to comprise a small Transitional Village.
TINY HOUSE ON WHEELS DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
The Tiny House on Wheels Demonstration Project will develop a transitional village consisting of 6 tiny houses on wheels that comply with Richmond’s recently adopted Ordinance No. 07-19 N. S., which amends Chapter 9.40.015 of the Richmond Municipal Code. These dwelling units, with kitchens and bathrooms, will be designed and built under the direction of TentMakers. The village will be safe and visually attractive, will provide an environment that supports resident stability and sense of personal agency, and will positively impact the surrounding neighborhood.
The first residents to occupy the homes will be the 3 Streets Team members and 3 additional homeless people who will receive training from RichmondBUILD. The units will be sited on private or public land for 3 years, and will host an on-site operational structure and supports that align with best practices that have been successfully implemented in cities across the country. This temporary project will evolve into the construction of permanent tiny homes for extremely low-income dwellers as homeownership, utilizing the Community Land Trust model.
UNSHELTERED RICHMOND
Unsheltered Richmond is a public media project that magnifies the voices and experiences of unhoused people who live without shelter in Richmond neighborhoods. Videos and podcasts will be crafted by unhoused contributors, with support from volunteer reporters, filmmakers and editors. A series of 12 stories by 12 homeless residents will encourage all of Richmond to meet their unsheltered neighbors on a human scale and invite productive dialogue. Participants will receive the basic equipment and training needed to document their lives as they interview peers to illustrate their shared lived experiences. Participants will be paid for the contributions they create. Once submitted to the audio-visual social media team, the stories will be collected, edited and showcased on a website and other public forums.
EFFECTIVE COORDINATION OF HOMELESS SERVICES IN RICHMOND
To advance these and other emergency shelter responses to homelessness, we respectfully suggest that a City Manager staff person be assigned to act as a liaison for improved coordination among city agencies, county services, and community-based efforts.
