According to the LAHSA or the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, 66,436 people are homeless in the county alone, according to a survey they did in 2019.

Indeed, it has been a long-standing issue, not just in LA but also in our whole country. That’s why it’s admirable to see different groups that aim to help solve this problem.

NAC Architecture, in partnership with Bernards, had built The Hilda L Solis Care First Village.

The village was built to provide shelter for the homeless people in LA. It was formerly known as the Vignes Street Interim Housing Project. It was renamed after LA’s County Board of Supervisors chair, Hilda L. Solis. The 4.2-acre site for the Hilda L Solis Care First Village is located in Downtown Los Angeles.

At first glance, you won’t even notice that the housing structure was actually made of refurbished shipping containers. It can also accommodate 232 homeless people.

The site used to be a parking lot and was planned to be the new location for the new Men’s Central Jail. However, in 2019, some officials thought it was better to use the site to build housing for homeless people.

In 2020, when the pandemic started, the county finally decided they will go ahead and push through with the housing project instead.

“With the unhoused population growing and increasingly at risk during Covid-19, the need was immediate. Schedule became a critical driver,” said one of the team.

They knew the urgency of the situation. With the lockdown and other health protocols, everyone should have the chance to have a home where they can feel safe and secured.

The team had to work as soon as possible. With the Covid-19 threat, the team had to be careful and fast because time was of the essence. They started to come up with several trailers. Then each trailer was divided into five units to be designated for interim housing.

Then, there were also two multilevel main buildings from refurbished shipping containers that had 132 units of housing each. It was a big project, and everyone was making sure that they were creating quality housing for the people that need it.

According to the team, they decided to go with three different modular components. They went for mobile units, repurposed shipping containers, and wood-framed prefabricated units.

“The shipping containers are stacked, fixed in place, and use an attached structure of open corridors and stairs to facilitate access to each unit,” one of the NAC Architecture said.

With careful planning and execution, the village was completed in just six months!

The Hilda L Solis Care First Village also has a common building with laundry facilities, parking spots, a commercial kitchen, a dining area, parking spots, and even a fun dog park.

“Design, permitting, and construction of the project was aggressively accelerated to meet the heightened need for people living on Los Angeles’ streets in the midst of a pandemic,” NAC Architecture explained.

They formed two living units for each shipping container that measures 12.5 square meters. They also made sure that the containers felt like a real home by cutting large windows in them. It is also fully insulated and looks really comfortable.

Each cute apartment already has a bed, a small fridge, a flat-screen TV, private bathroom.

Anyone who is given a chance to live here would appreciate the love and effort that the team put into making sure that the project was completed. The Hilda L Solis Care First Village finally opened last April 2021 and had already reached full capacity last May. The vibrant yellow-orange paint adds to the positivity of the whole village.

It was a new start for all the homeless people who were chosen. In this village, they can live comfortably and safely.

There are still so many homeless people out there, and we’re hoping that more and more people would get inspired to help.

Learn more about the Hilda L Solis Care First Village in the video below.

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Source: Hilda Solis, Invisible People, Bernards, NAC, LAHSA