Welcome to the Shelter Workgroup.
This workgroup’s objective is to draw upon the knowledge and expertise of the many individuals and organizations around the world who are most knowledgeable regarding this planet’s housing situation to make a plausible estimate of what would be required to meet the one-time goal of making safe and adequate housing universally available, and what would be needed thereafter to maintain its availability at that level.
The first step, therefore, is to identify those expert individuals and organization. Below is the list as it has been developed thus far. If you happen upon additional information sources that you believe will assist in this effort, please let us know by way of the CONTACT form. Or, if you would like to engage in your own line of research, let us know the results. And finally, if you feel the concept of the Whole Earth Design Project is something that you may wish to become involved in, let’s get acquainted.
The situation now:
“The world is experiencing a global housing crisis:
“About 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing and 100 million are homeless.
“Each week, more than 1 million people are born in, or move to, cities in the developing world.
“One billion people (32 percent of the global urban population) live in urban slums.
“If no serious action were taken, the number of slum dwellers worldwide would increase over the next 30 years to nearly 2 billion.
“In the United States alone, 95 million people have housing problems, including payments too large a percentage of their income, overcrowding, poor quality shelter and homelessness.”
Source: Habitat for Humanity
To let us know what you have to say about this subject, go to the discussion page where The Subject is SHELTER.
Here are some of the experts:
US Government Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (http://www.hud.gov/)
Habitat for Humanity (http://www.habitat.org/)
Shelter for Life, Intl. (http://www.shelter.org/)
The $300 House: Empowering the Poor (https://hbr.org/2011/06/when-the-new-york-times)
National Association of Home Builders (http://www.nahb.org/)
Blu Homes (http://www.bluhomes.com/)
Build Change (http://www.buildchange.org/)
CityHome (http://cp.media.mit.edu/research/67-citihome/)
Shelter Afrique (http://www.shelterafrique.org/)
Gale International is a real estate development and investment firm with deep experience creating sustainable, city-scale and mixed-use developments across the globe. (http://www.galeintl.com/)
Minnesota GreenStep Cities (http://greenstep.pca.state.mn.us/)
Richard Harris, expert in housing and suburban development (https://www.science.mcmaster.ca/ees/component/comprofiler/userprofile/harrisr.html?Itemid=351)
Tony Nelessen, Professor Emeritus at Rutgers (https://bloustein.rutgers.edu/nelessen/)
David Turcotte is Research Professor and Director of the Institute for Housing Sustainability (https://www.uml.edu/fahss/economics/faculty/turcotte-david.aspx)
Jino Distasio of the University of Winnipeg (https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/geography/faculty/jino-distasio.html)