New Updates on The Edge

Message from PD&R Leadership:
Learning from Efforts to Address Youth and Family Homelessness
In the leadership message, director of PD&R's Policy Development Division Marge F. Martin discusses the 2018 National Conference on Ending Youth and Family Homelessness, held this March in Los Angeles. Martin describes the primary themes she observed throughout the conference: the divergence of families from the homelessness system through prevention and the use of navigation centers to connect families in need with appropriate housing opportunities.

In Practice:
Secure, Supportive Housing for Survivors of Domestic Violence in Wichita, Kansas
Opened in September 2016, the $5 million Bluffview Place apartment development provides 28 units of transitional supportive housing for survivors of domestic violence and their children in Wichita, Kansas. The secure campus includes three residential buildings, community spaces for service delivery and social events, and a playground. Bluffview Place is the first centralized development of domestic violence services nonprofit StepStone, Inc. It is managed and co-owned by developer Mennonite Housing.

Trending:
Factory Construction in Homebuilding
While most single-family houses in the United States are constructed on site, the home-building industry has recently devoted more attention to factory-constructed housing like modular housing and panelized homes. Factory construction leads to more efficient, consistent building practices by reducing material handling, accommodating tools and processes difficult to deploy at a home site, and providing more consistent, clean, and safe working conditions. Although factory construction in the housing market still faces challenges, the methodology holds great potential.

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