Transitional and Permanent Supportive Housing

Abstract

Transitional and permanent supportive housing offer secure settings in which subsidized rent-paying residents enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as other community members while gaining access to the social support services and mental health care they may need. There are two main approaches to permanent supportive housing: scattered-site housing, in which residents live in various locations throughout the community in housing that may be privately owned or government owned; and single-site housing, in which residents receiving support services live together in a single building or complex of buildings. This chapter details the operational and design characteristics of four case-study permanent supportive housing complexes. Programmatic descriptions, architectural descriptions, and spatial analyses of Eva’s Phoenix (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), The Six (Los Angeles, California), MLK1101 (Los Angeles, California), and Brisbane Common Ground (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) illustrate the variety of design solutions utilized in contemporary permanent supportive housing. Each is examined through the perspective of trauma-informed design for the extent to which specific architectural features and amenities may be conducive or detrimental to client well-being.