The human displacement crisis in the U.S. has never been more severe. Heading into 2025, the Pallet team is more driven than ever to create positive, lasting change.
As we plan for the year ahead, the Pallet team is motivated to continue our mission to provide shelter for displaced populations. And with recent data showing escalating numbers of people impacted by this crisis, we’re aware that the need for safe, stable spaces is more critical now than ever.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 2024 Point-in-Time Count reported that 770,000 people across the U.S. experienced homelessness on a single night in January. Not only does this represent a troubling 18% rise in homelessness from the previous year’s statistics, but we know that the difficulties associated with collecting this data means this number is likely much higher in reality.
In addition to the historic numbers of people experiencing domestic homelessness, a swath of devastating climate-related events also contributed to an immense rise of people displaced by natural disasters across the country. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, from 1980 up to 2024, the average number of disasters per year causing $1 billion of damage or more was nine; 27 such events occurred last year. Hurricane Helene, which struck Florida’s Big Bend region back in September, caused $79.6 billion in damage and 219 recorded deaths alone.
Until every person has a place to call home, we will continue our fight in addressing the human displacement crisis. This scope of work is broad, but there are several specific strategies Pallet is implementing in 2025 on federal, state, and local levels.
Shifts in the Federal Administration
As President Trump takes office for a second term, changes in leadership and priorities for the country follow closely behind. Newly appointed officials and leaders will affect national strategies to address homelessness as well as disaster preparedness and response.
This means the Pallet Government Affairs team will be visiting DC in the next several weeks to meet with elected officials and their staff, ready to share Pallet’s vision, product offerings, and plans to effectively integrate our model into federal strategies.
We are looking forward to the official confirmations of the new heads of HUD and FEMA, which will allow us to align Pallet with the new direction of these crucial departments at the core of our work. Collaborating with these policymakers is key in establishing an environment that fosters positive change in people’s lives rather than implementing punitive, inequitable measures that do nothing but exacerbate this crisis.
Addressing Displacement in States and Counties
While the new federal administration will be influential in creating national policies, each U.S. state faces its unique challenges in providing appropriate shelter and housing for their displaced residents.
In our experience creating shelter sites across the country, we have learned that solving these issues requires tailored strategies that not only include shelter provision but also supportive services and many other considerations that meet the specific needs of impacted populations.
We utilized this expertise and insight to create a Five-Year Strategic Plan to End Homelessness for Savannah and Chatham County Interagency Council on Homelessness. The plan, formulated through meetings with key stakeholders and collecting relevant data, includes a comprehensive strategy to reach functional zero homelessness for the broader Savannah community. We will use this approach as a framework for designing effective, actionable, and thorough solutions to state and countywide displacement going forward.
On the front of climate-related events, this year we are placing a focus on demonstrating how non-congregate emergency shelter can play a pivotal role in strengthening resilience for disaster-prone states. We have already proven Pallet’s efficacy in responding to emergencies after building a shelter site for Floridians impacted by Hurricane Helene just days after the storm had passed. In the coming year, we are eager to expand this capacity for communities at risk of experiencing events like hurricanes, fires, and flooding—and increase access to rapidly deployable shelter when they need it most.
Making an Impact in Our Community
Pallet would be nothing without our people. Everything starts at our HQ in Washington State: before we can help displaced populations across the country, we are committed to providing stability and growth opportunities for our team members.
We created our Purpose-Led Workforce Model to advance this mission. A pivotal part of this model is Pallet’s Career Launch PAD (Program for Apprenticeship Development), which entails working on the manufacturing floor at HQ while participating in a paid pre-apprenticeship program focused on developing critical skills needed for a career in the trades.
We are looking forward to celebrating the graduation of our Career Launch PAD’s first cohort in 2025. After our team members complete the program, they will have the chance to pursue a rewarding career in the trades and become the skilled workforce of the future, creating more available space at Pallet for our next class in the process.
The displacement crisis in the U.S. has never been more dire. Through targeted efforts to address it on federal, state, and local levels, Pallet is driven to be part of the solution. Together, we have the chance to create lasting change in the coming year and ensure no one goes unsheltered.
From launching a new product to expanding our footprint and creating our new workforce model, it was an eventful year at Pallet. Read on for our top stories of 2024.
As we look back on 2024, we are both proud of our advancements in providing safe, secure spaces for unsheltered populations and motivated to keep pushing forward. Even as we passed 5,000 shelters built in North America, expanded our reach into Canada, and released a new innovative product line to offer faster deployment and comfort for residents, the human displacement crisis persists—encouraging the Pallet team to continue working tirelessly until everyone has a stable place to call home.
Here's a round-up of our top stories from this year.
1. Pallet Hits the Road in California
Kicking off the year, the Pallet team embarked on a roadshow through California to showcase our new S2 product line and meet people working on the ground in their communities to solve their local displacement crises. We stopped in 11 different cities from Sacramento all the way to Los Angeles, displaying our S2 units and demonstrating the positive impact Pallet has made for unhoused communities across North America. [Keep Reading]
2. Launching Our S2 Shelter Line
Featuring an innovative panel connection system enabling even faster deployment, improved safety features, and increased comfort for residents, our S2 line is the next evolution of our in-house engineered and manufactured shelter products. Every decision we made in developing these new products was informed by input from residents living in Pallet shelters across the country and our own lived experience workforce. [Keep Reading]
3. Pallet's First Canadian Site Opens in Kelowna
Offering 60 individual shelter units for people experiencing homelessness in Kelowna, BC, STEP Place is Pallet’s first community installed in Canada. The City of Kelowna partnered with the Province of British Columbia and BC Housing to provide safe, secure spaces for people to stabilize and access onsite services provided by John Howard Society of Okanagan and Kootenay.
“We recognize the immediate need to bring unhoused people in Kelowna indoors and provide them the care they need,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing. “Through this housing, people experiencing homelessness can be supported as they stabilize and move forward with their lives.” [Keep Reading]
4. Denver Opens First Village of S2 Shelters
Just in time for the New Year and part of Mayor Johnston’s plan to house 1,000 unhoused Denver residents by 2025, the opening of the city’s first micro-community also marked the first site comprising Pallet’s S2 Sleeper shelters.
“This is such a symbol of what we wanted to create,” said Cole Chandler, the mayor’s homeless czar. “It wasn't just about getting people indoors, but it's about bringing people back to life and helping people thrive. And you see that in this space.” [Keep Reading]
5. Introducing Our Purpose-Led Workforce Model
From the very beginning of Pallet, we have placed our team members at the core of our mission to give people a fair chance at employment. The majority of our staff have lived experience of homelessness, incarceration, recovery from substance use disorder, or involvement in the criminal legal system. With our Purpose-Led Workforce Model, we are taking the next step in helping our team grow and advance their careers. [Keep Reading]
6. Public-Private Collaboration in Santa Fe
Working together, the City of Santa Fe and Christ Lutheran Church opened the state’s first micro-community of its kind to provide shelter and supportive services for unhoused New Mexicans.
“It takes a community working together to really solve the challenge of homelessness, and that is our aim: to have zero homelessness in Santa Fe,” said Mayor Alan Webber. “We will keep working to make sure the people who are homeless in Santa Fe are housed, safe, secure, with respect, dignity, and with services.” [Keep Reading]
7. Tonya: "I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile"
Tonya knows Everett like the back of her hand. She spent most of her childhood on the north side of town but has lived in various neighborhoods throughout her life. So it seems fitting that now, after a decade of living on the streets of her hometown, she’s found a new path at Pallet and already moved into a place of her own mere steps away from HQ.
As one of the first participants in Pallet’s Career Launch PAD (Program for Apprenticeship Development), Tonya and her classmates are starting on the path to building independence and a brighter future for themselves. [Keep Reading]
8. Pallet Provides Shelter in Response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton
In rapid response to the disasters sustained in Florida following two major hurricanes, the Pallet deployment team jumped into action to build 50 shelters to help people get displaced by Helene and Milton get inside to safety.
By working closely with Pasco County administrators, county commissioners, facilities departments, and Catholic Charities, we were able to deploy and assemble the shelters mere days after the storms passed. [Keep Reading]
9. Connecting Pallet Team Members with Housing
At Pallet, our people are our purpose. Giving people a fair chance at stable employment and creating a supportive environment that fosters wellness and growth for all our team members is a crucial part of our mission.
A key part of this is ensuring that everyone on our team has all the tools and resources they need to succeed. In our work building shelter communities for displaced populations across North America, we know firsthand how having a safe, stable place to live is not only a basic human right—it is also the foundation for maintaining health, helping those with substance use disorder on their recovery journeys, and healing trauma.
That’s why we are proud to have become a Community Partner with Housing Connector, an organization that helps find housing for marginalized individuals and families. In our first year of the partnership, Housing Connector has been instrumental in finding housing for 4 Pallet team members by removing barriers and locating available properties. [Keep Reading]
By partnering with Housing Connector, we are helping our team members establish stability and independence.
At Pallet, our people are our purpose. Giving people a fair chance at stable employment and creating a supportive environment that fosters wellness and growth for all our team members is a crucial part of our mission.
A key part of this is ensuring that everyone on our team has all the tools and resources they need to succeed. In our work building shelter communities for displaced populations across North America, we know firsthand how having a safe, stable place to live is not only a basic human right—it is also the foundation for maintaining health, helping those with substance use disorder on their recovery journeys, and healing trauma.
That’s why we are proud to have become a Community Partner with Housing Connector, an organization that helps find housing for marginalized individuals and families. In our first year of the partnership, Housing Connector has been instrumental in finding housing for 4 Pallet team members by removing barriers and locating available properties.
Increasing Housing Attainability
Beyond the fact that there is an extreme shortage of affordable housing units nationwide, the scarce remaining options are often unattainable for applicants that have histories of incarceration, substance use, or bad credit. These widespread discriminatory practices can prevent vulnerable people from finding permanent housing, even if the applicant has proven progress in employment stability and/or sobriety.
Through their Zillow-powered platform, Housing Connector displays a list of eligible units in the area available through their Property Partners. From there, applicants are provided a letter of support that can be submitted to the property manager. Once approved, residents have access to an ecosystem of support including legal resources, conflict resolution, financial assistance, and two years of personal case management to establish housing stability.
Pallet Peer Support
As we hire new members onto our team to build their futures, we conduct screenings to assess our employees’ satisfaction with their housing status among various other wellness evaluations. This process helped establish our partnership with Housing Connector.
Sarah, our Customer Service Lead, serves as an essential onsite consultant for Pallet team members who want to access supportive services. When she moved into her current apartment, she personally used Housing Connector for an added layer of financial security and peace of mind.
This positive experience motivated her to pursue Housing Connector as a Pallet resource that employees could access if they were struggling to secure or maintain housing. She says this support can be crucial for people who are struggling to get approved for traditional housing based on their background or experience.
“Typically they vouch for our people, meaning those people who have criminal backgrounds, bad credit, evictions, debt, and who normally can't get approved,” she says. “Without that letter of support, most of them probably wouldn’t even be able to get into an apartment. It’s like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket.”
She also says the benefits that come with signing up for Housing Connector are advantageous for vulnerable people who aren’t used to living on their own and are taking on a new, unfamiliar responsibility.
“[Housing Connector] offers mediation services between you and the landlord, or if you're getting treated unfairly, they can reach out on your behalf,” she says. “If you're struggling to pay your rent, you can have them help you to reach out and communicate. And then after you're there for three months, say there's an emergency and your car breaks down and you have to spend all your money on that—they offer up to three months of emergency rental funds to help you, because the goal is to stablish some stability.”
We are proud of our team members who have accessed the services provided by Housing Connector, and couldn’t be happier to see them get their own set of keys and build a stable future for themselves.
In her short time at Pallet, Tonya has embarked on her recovery journey, found housing after experiencing homelessness, and set her sights on a skilled future career.
Tonya knows Everett like the back of her hand. She spent most of her childhood on the north side of town but has lived in various neighborhoods throughout her life. So it seems fitting that now, after a decade of living on the streets of her hometown, she’s found a new path at Pallet and already moved into a place of her own mere steps away from HQ.
Although she was born the middle child of five siblings, Tonya grew up as the eldest in the house, as her two older sisters lived elsewhere with other relatives. She was a natural athlete, playing basketball, volleyball, and running track for her high school teams.
Her stepdad was not only a solid supporter of Tonya and her siblings, but also played the role of coach in her athletic training. But even with bright prospects to play on a college level, Tonya felt as though something fundamental was missing due to her unconventional family dynamic.
“In high school I had a lot of scholarships to play different sports for different colleges, but my family was really broken, and I was looking to fill some kind of void,” she explains.
Tonya had her first son at age 15, which contributed to the loss of all her scholarships. Despite this massive shift in planning her future alongside the new responsibilities of becoming a mother, she worked tirelessly to graduate high school on time.
This feeling of accomplishment was short-lived. Out of school, Tonya got a full-time serving job out of necessity, which allowed her to secure her own apartment. Then she began using substances.
Life quickly began to spiral: she lost her job and was evicted after taking out short-term loans and falling behind on payments. Feeling lost and insecure about her ability to care for her child in such a tumultuous state, Tonya called her oldest sister, who promptly came to pick up her son and raise him in eastern Washington.
The lack of structure and trauma of living unsheltered caused Tonya to enter survival mode. She lived day-to-day, often couch hopping to friends’ houses or scraping together enough money for a motel room for the night.
“I was just really trying to figure out how, and where, I was going to sleep,” she says. “It was really hard being a young female, homeless out on the streets.”
In the final several years of being unhoused, Tonya lived with her boyfriend in a tent. She says they often wouldn’t be able to get into nightly shelters due to a lack of beds, and they weren’t interested in being separated.
During this time, they routinely talked about their hopes of getting clean. One day, he returned from the library to announce he’d arranged appointments to apply for a recovery program. From then on, they fully committed to sobriety and moved into separate sober living houses. Tonya immediately knew she made the right decision upon moving in.
“Oh my gosh, it saved my life,” she beams. “The structure has been great for my first year of sobriety. I really have been able to actually work on my consistency with my kids, with showing up for myself. I have so much support at that house. It’s been great, I love it.”
It was there that Sarah, her house manager, told Tonya about Pallet.
“She was telling me about this opportunity for people like us, who have a record, who don't have a lot of job experience, who have been homeless,” she recalls. “And I just thought it was a great opportunity to broaden my horizons when it comes to working and figuring my life out. So I suited up, I showed up, I tried it out, and now here I am.”
Tonya says she finds fulfillment working on the production floor and joining the deployment team to assemble shelters at new Pallet village sites.
“I feel accomplished,” she explains. “I feel like I'm actually doing something worthwhile, like I’m actually doing something good and not just wasting space. I've always felt like I've just been wasting space for a long time.”
In the short time participating in Pallet’s Career Launch PAD, Tonya has accomplished tremendous growth and plans to use her new skills to pursue a career as an HVAC technician. She says she’s not only enjoyed the hands-on lab sessions in the pre-apprenticeship program, but also taken a liking to the applied mathematics required for this skilled trade.
Outside of work, Tonya’s also made great strides with her family. She has moved into her own apartment with her boyfriend along with her two youngest kids. She’s close with her mom, who is now six years clean. Her own recovery is strong.
Given the progress she’s already made, we’re eager to see what great things await Tonya with her next steps.
Tonya's Progress Update: January 2025
Sometimes progress is small steps, other times it’s great strides.
Since starting Pallet’s Career Launch PAD four months ago, it’s decidedly been the latter for Tonya.
“I moved into my apartment and I’ll have a year clean next month, and I got my oldest son back in my life,” she says. “I got a gym membership—I vowed to never touch the basketball again when I started using drugs, but now that I’m clean I’m getting back into it. I’m gonna go get my license next week. Everything seems like it’s going smooth.”
Starting out, Tonya had her reservations about starting the program and getting back into a classroom setting. But once she gained some momentum, her concerns faded away.
“I was nervous in the beginning because it's been a long time since I've had to do any kind of schoolwork and be consistent with anything in my life,” she reflects. “So I was definitely nervous, but as I got the hang of it, it's definitely gotten me excited and it’s been smooth sailing since then. So I'm not even nervous about it anymore.”
One thing that surprised Tonya was how much she enjoyed the math components in the CITC program. She never thought she liked the subject in high school, but that changed when it was applied in the context of knowledge she would need in her future HVAC career.
“Back in school, I told myself: ‘I’m not good at it, I hate it, I can’t do this,’” she explains. “I’m coming into it this time as an adult with experience. In the beginning I was surprised that once they touched base on the course work, I felt like, ‘Oh yeah, I kind of like this.’ And then I got the hang of it.”
After getting her first grades in the mail and completing certifications in safety, CPR, and tool operation like the forklift and jackhammer, Tonya’s confidence his risen and showed her how capable she is.
“We got our first grades in the mail, and when I saw how good I was doing, I was like, ‘Wow,’” she says. “Like, ‘Wow, I’m really doing this.’ And it’s a really good feeling of accomplishment that you’re actually doing stuff for yourself. That made it feel real.”
Week to week, the schedule of attending classes at CITC and working at Pallet the rest of the week is working well for Tonya by setting up structure and expectations for herself.
“It helped me with routine and discipline,” she says. “I know what I need to do, I know how to prepare for the week: for school, for work. It’s a good transition, a different way to live. This time last year, I had no kind of schedule. Nothing. So it’s very refreshing.”
Adjusting to this new way of life didn’t come without some challenges. Tonya says it’s been difficult keeping up with certain financial obligations, but she’s not giving up.
“In the beginning it was child support and then I got past it, and now I'm back in the same spot again,” she explains. “But it's just a matter of putting some work in to figure it out. So I'll get through it again. This is the kind of stuff that makes people want to quit their jobs to start selling drugs again: ‘I can't get ahead.’ But I've been working too hard. I have too much support. Why go backwards? There's always a way to get through it, you know?”
Having clear goals set for her future and seeing the progress she’s already made is what keeps Tonya going. She says showing up for herself and making good decisions for her kids is one of the best feelings she could have.
“I'm proud of suiting up and showing up,” she says. “I'm proud of myself for continuing to do something with myself on a consistent level. I like the fact that I’m setting an example for my kids—it feels good that people actually look up to me and come to me for advice or trust me with certain responsibilities and know that I’m actually going to be there. It’s a really good feeling.”
Meet the other three featured participants in Pallet’s Career Launch PAD and read their stories.
The combination of fair chance hiring and sponsorship in a pre-apprenticeship training program equips our team members to grow, advance their careers, and become the skilled workforce of the future.
From the very beginning of Pallet, we have placed our team members at the core of our mission to give people a fair chance at employment. We strongly believe that people are defined by their potential, not their past.
The majority of our staff have lived experience of homelessness, incarceration, recovery from substance use disorder, or involvement in the criminal legal system. Their insight is crucial in continually refining our products to best meet the needs of communities who have experienced the trauma of displacement in times of crisis.
With our Purpose-Led Workforce Model, we are taking the next step in helping our team grow and advance their careers.
What is Pallet’s Purpose-Led Workforce Model?
Our model is built on two major pillars: fair chance hiring and Pallet’s Career Launch PAD (Program for Apprenticeship Development).
While some organizations are classified as second chance employers, we define our hiring practices as fair chance—as many people aren’t given a first chance to begin with. We offer the opportunity for people to work and grow at Pallet HQ as manufacturing specialists, regardless of criminal record, incarceration, or former job experience. This part of our model is crucial: even though it’s been confirmed that the vast majority of formerly incarcerated people want to work, roughly 60% of those released from prison remain unemployed, struggling to find workplaces that ensure job security and upward mobility.
The second key piece of our model is Pallet’s Career Launch PAD. This program entails enrollment in an offsite 9-month pre-apprenticeship training course focusing on developing essential skills needed for a career in the trades, while simultaneously building on-the-job experience manufacturing shelters in our production facility. This structure means employees are guaranteed full-time pay for attending classes one day per week and working in Pallet’s production facility the other four. Upon graduating from the program, our team will be equipped to pursue apprenticeships in a variety of skilled trades disciplines.
Pallet’s Career Launch PAD would not be possible without our collaboration with the Construction Industry Training Council of Washington (CITC) and grants provided by Workforce Snohomish. We are proud and grateful to work alongside these organizations who are equally invested in creating the next wave of skilled trades workers.
Why is This So Important?
By creating this program with growth in mind, we are offering a completely unique opportunity for our staff: steady, fair compensation alongside tactical educational courses that will guide their future. Upon graduation from the pre-apprenticeship program, our team members will move beyond Pallet to build their careers, making space for a new incoming class to participate.
In many ways, our Purpose-Led Workforce Model mirrors our mission to provide emergency shelter for those who have experienced the trauma of displacement. Similar to how our shelters provide Pallet village residents the time and space needed to transition to permanent housing, this program offers our employees stability and a supportive environment so they can start their career journey.
“Over the past few years, we have worked hard to develop programs and create support tailored to the unique needs of our employees,” says Tracy Matthews, Pallet’s VP of Human Resources. “This new model builds upon the old one by continuing to stabilize and support our team members with lived experience, while adding the educational component of Pallet’s Career Launch PAD. This program offers a pathway to other opportunities, enabling us to launch 25+ people per year into apprenticeship programs and extend employment opportunities to more impacted and marginalized individuals.”
To get a more in-depth look at Pallet’s Career Launch PAD, follow the progress of four of the program’s participants: Gregory, Christa, Jeff, and Tonya.
You can learn about each team member’s background, experience, and how they will use their training to launch their careers and build a brighter future.
Make your voice heard: by voting in the election, especially on the state and local levels, we can help create communities where everyone has a place to call home.
As the November 2024 Election takes center stage, national discussions on presidential candidates and their policy platforms often overshadow other topics. However, for issues like housing and homelessness, decisions made in local elections can have a more immediate and profound impact. While federal policies set broad parameters and designate funding streams, local and state governments are often where real change can happen—especially regarding housing development, zoning, and homeless services.
During this 2024 election cycle, it’s critical to understand how different levels of government function and influence housing and homelessness policy—and why your vote all the way down the ballot counts.
How Local, State, and Federal Governments Shape Housing and Homelessness
Housing and homelessness are complex issues, influenced by a web of policies set at the federal, state, and local levels. While each level of government plays a distinct role, their collaboration is essential to creating sustainable solutions.
Federal Role
At the federal level, laws and programs provide the financial backbone for many housing and homelessness initiatives. Agencies like the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocate billions annually for affordable housing, shelters, and assistance programs. Other key players, such as SAMHSA and the VA, provide mental health, substance use support, and housing services for veterans. These agencies work with local governments and nonprofits to prevent and reduce homelessness nationwide.
Medicaid, managed federally and at the state level, also supports services like behavioral health care for those experiencing homelessness. Federal policies often set the stage, but the implementation of programs like housing vouchers, grants for affordable housing projects, and homelessness outreach often depends on local administration.
State Role
State governments act as a crucial intermediary and often set their own standards for addressing housing and homelessness as well. States determine how federal funds are distributed to cities and counties and may set additional housing policies tailored to their specific needs. For example, state governments may pass legislation that incentivizes the development of affordable housing by offering tax credits or grants to developers. They may also establish tenant protections, housing bonds, or rent control measures, which vary according to the political climate of each state.
Local Role
For those passionate about housing and homelessness, voting in local elections is one of the most powerful actions you can take. City councils, county boards, and mayors make key decisions on zoning laws, land use, public health and safety, and the allocation of local budgets for shelters and supportive services. For instance, zoning laws dictate where emergency shelters and affordable housing can be constructed, and can either exacerbate housing shortages, or encourage development for homes or mixed-use spaces.
Local governments can also create strategic plans to create more housing or end homelessness, and they are uniquely positioned to pass ordinances around public camping or shelter availability – which directly impacts those experiencing homelessness.
This interplay between federal, state, and local policies creates a patchwork of regulations and funding streams that can be difficult to navigate. Outcomes often depend on local officials’ ability to effectively manage across these systems, and therefore, these leaders play a vital role in how well your community addresses housing and homelessness.
Why This Election Cycle is So Important
This election cycle presents a crucial opportunity to combat the escalating housing crisis and growth of homelessness. Nationally, many are struggling with skyrocketing rents and a lack of affordable housing that is driving homelessness. The COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and economic uncertainty have exacerbated these issues further, leaving more people vulnerable to housing insecurity. As a result, the leaders we elect in November will inherit the responsibility of navigating these challenges.
It's not just the high-profile races that matter—down-ballot races, like those for city councils and county commissioners, directly affect communities in a multitude of ways, shaping policies that affect renters, homeowners and those experiencing homelessness.
How To Get Involved
Since “down-ballot” races often receive less media attention, fewer people may be informed about local candidates and their platforms. This makes it even more critical to research local candidates and understand their positions on the issues.
There are many ways to learn about local candidates, such as attending town halls, visiting their campaign websites, or reviewing their voting records. There are also many ways to get involved beyond voting, such as volunteering for candidates, ballot measures, or with local advocacy groups.
Whether you are voting early, by mail, or on election day Tuesday, November 5th, remember that every vote counts—especially for local races where margins can be slim.
While national elections may shape the headlines, local politics shape communities. By making a plan to vote with housing and homelessness in mind, we can help create thriving communities where everyone has a place to call home.
By broadening housing and supportive service models that meet the needs of those fleeing domestic violence, we can prevent impacted families from experiencing homelessness.
Research conducted over the past two decades has produced staggering and concerning statistics that illustrate the link between domestic violence and homelessness. Nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the U.S., equating to 10 million victims per year. 38% of all domestic violence victims experience homelessness at some point in their lives. And in a survey conducted on one day in 2016, out of 11,991 unfulfilled requests from adults and children fleeing domestic violence, 66% of those requests were for safe housing and shelter.
There are many factors that contribute to this connection. To make meaningful change in ending this epidemic, it is key to understand the systemic inequity creating barriers for individuals and families escaping domestic violence—and ultimately remove those barriers by providing compassionate, comprehensive support via shelter, housing, and services.
Why is Escaping Domestic Violence So Difficult?
Before this question can be answered, it’s important to note that this framing is, in itself, problematic and perpetuates a culture of victim blaming. It’s a more appropriate question to ask, “Why do abusers hurt their partners, and how do they prevent them from leaving the relationship?”
There are several immediate reasons why domestic violence survivors feel they cannot leave their abusive partners. In many instances, leaving can be more dangerous than staying, with abusers threatening to harm or kill their partner, child, or pet. Psychological manipulation can also cause survivors to feel isolated and cut off from crucial support networks, making them feel like they have nowhere to turn. The majority of survivors also experience financial abuse, where they either have no access to the household’s income, have been prohibited from working, or have had their credit score destroyed by an abusive partner.
Beyond these direct barriers preventing freedom from their abuser, survivors also face systemic obstacles. A lack of easily attainable resources such as emergency shelter options and transportation to service provision sites prevent victims from quickly finding support. Even in light of state and federal laws preventing housing providers from discriminating against victims, some landlords will refuse to rent to someone who has experienced domestic violence. Further, those who have immigrated to the U.S. face language barriers, fears of being separated from their children, and potential threats of family members in their home country.
Best Ways to Support Survivors
The most effective ways to help survivors of domestic abuse are to expand emergency shelter models, transitional housing, and services tailored to their specific needs—while concurrently improving accessibility of these resources.
Emergency shelter, specifically non-congregate options like Pallet that follow principles of trauma-informed design, offer survivors a safe and secure environment that allows families to stay together in their own private space. Transitional housing with integrated supportive service programming is also an ideal model for people escaping an abusive living situation, giving survivors the chance to achieve economic stability and physical well-being.
In 2023, roughly 10.4% of all beds within homelessness service systems were reserved for survivors of domestic abuse and their families. Expanding overall shelter space and placing a concerted focus on tailoring short-term housing solutions to the unique safety needs of survivors is needed. One example is allocating more funding to grants like those administered through the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).
By understanding the challenges survivors face in seeking out help and providing easily accessible emergency shelter, short-term housing, and services that directly address their needs, individuals and families fleeing abuse will be better supported to achieve long-term safety and freedom.
If you or a loved one are experiencing domestic violence or abuse, please refer to the following resources:
National Domestic Violence Hotline
National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center
Battered Women's Justice Project Criminal and Civil Justice Center
National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence
Ujima, Inc.: The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community
National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities
Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence
Treating homelessness as a crime is costly, ineffective, and does nothing to solve the root causes of this crisis. Now, more than ever, is the time to invest in real solutions.
Communities have long understood the implications of criminalizing homelessness. Even so, recent state- and federal-level policies—which permit incarceration as a response to people living outdoors in public spaces—ignore the fact that this approach is not a solution. Rather, it perpetuates cycles of poverty, addiction, incarceration, and, ultimately, homelessness.
Reenforcing this broken system is as costly as it is ineffective. Not only will parks, recreation trails, and city streets continue to be misused, taxpayer costs will spike due to increased encampment sweeps and putting unhoused individuals in jail and prison.
It’s long overdue to focus efforts and funding on real solutions: provision of stable shelter, housing, and supportive services that enable vulnerable populations to contribute to the economy and community at large.
Perpetuating Ineffective and Unjust Systems
Current policies seeking to justify the criminalization of homelessness willfully ignore the failure of past efforts. Punitive measures including incarceration, encampment sweeps, and implementing cruel initiatives like hostile architecture simply propagate a broken system that pushes unhoused individuals further from stable housing and employment.
A significant part of this inefficacy is the fact that incarceration is, in many cases, a direct path to becoming unhoused. This “revolving door” effect has long been observed. Findings indicate that while a person who has been incarcerated a single time is nearly seven times more likely to experience homelessness compared to the general public, if that same person is jailed a second time, the rate spikes to 13 times higher. This means that if people are incarcerated on the grounds of living unsheltered multiple times, they are virtually guaranteed to return to the streets upon exiting the prison system.
Encampment sweeps, or the municipal practice of clearing public spaces of tents and other temporary or improvised structures, share the same level of ineffectiveness. When people living in these unsanctioned camps are forcibly moved, they often will relocate to another site. This of course accomplishes nothing but moving unsheltered groups from one location to another. A recent example in Washington D.C. illustrates this reality: after clearing out roughly 74 people living in McPherson Square, an estimated two-thirds of the group were still believed to be sleeping on the street.
It is fair that community members want to preserve their parks and recreation areas, especially considering they are not designed as living spaces and often lack adequate hygiene facilities, running water, and waste disposal services for unsheltered communities. However, when no alternative options are offered in conjunction with sweeps, the same displaced populations are likely to return to previous encampment sites.
As evidenced, the only true actionable solutions are building more affordable housing to mitigate the shortage of over 7 million rental units and creating broader, more equitable service programming for vulnerable and low-income populations. Offering transitional models such as emergency interim shelter with integrated service provision is another underutilized approach that creates pathways to more permanent housing. Incarceration, sweeps, and all other punitive approaches unequivocally fail to address these root causes or any of the conditions that exacerbate chronic homelessness such as substance use disorder, institutional racism, and generational poverty.
Futile Allocation of Public Funds
In addition to being ineffective and inhumane, incarceration (and the municipal, administrative, and reverberating economic costs associated with it) is far more expensive than simply building more housing. Many cities across the U.S. have reported dramatic cost savings to taxpayers when a focus was placed on providing more housing rather than cycling unhoused populations through jails, prisons, and the healthcare system.
One report released by the NYC Comptroller’s Office that shows the daily costs per-person of different approaches displays the cost-effectiveness of housing provision: compared to the $68 and $136 daily operating costs of permanent supportive housing and emergency shelter, respectively, one day of incarceration at Riker’s Island costs $1,414 and one day of hospitalization costs $3,609.
Another example in Denver indicates a similar trend. The study focused on individuals experiencing chronic homelessness who were in frequent interaction with the criminal legal system and emergency health services. When that group was enrolled in a city-operated supportive housing program, annual per-person costs for public resources such as jail, the court system, police, and emergency medical services lowered by $6,876.
Truthfully, the societal costs of incarceration go much deeper than daily operations and administrative fees. An estimated $370 billion each year is lost for people who have a criminal conviction or have spent time in prison—an enormous sum that could be spent on educational opportunities, buying a home, or a number of other economic investments that foster growth and community improvement. And when considering the massive amount of consequential loss associated with incarceration due to forgone wages, adverse health effects, and developmental challenges of children with incarcerated parents, the aggregate cost burden is believed to be roughly one trillion dollars.
These studies are incontrovertible proof that substituting jail and prison for housing is a gross misappropriation of taxpayer dollars, while providing no observable positive effects on solving homelessness.
True Solutions are Rehabilitative, Not Punitive
For years, it has been evident that real solutions focus on rehabilitating vulnerable populations, not jailing them. Time and time again, it’s shown that the solution is cheaper—fiscally and societally—than the problem. Comprehensive research has proven that criminalizing homelessness is expensive, wasteful of limited public resources, and harmful to public health and safety.
Now is the time to focus our collective efforts and funding on real solutions: creating broader shelter and housing models alongside comprehensive supportive services for displaced populations. Only then will we be able to observe progress in ending this crisis and restoring equity, safety, and dignity to our communities.
Data collected from sites across the country shows how the Pallet village model helps residents transition to more permanent solutions.
Every person’s journey to permanent housing is different. The trauma of displacement means every individual encounters their own barriers to finding a stable place to call home. And once someone exits this continuum of care that includes congregate and non-congregate shelter, supportive housing, and other forms of assistance, their success story often goes undocumented.
Although it is challenging to track a person’s progress through the housing continuum with accuracy and consistency, it is crucial to seek out this information and ensure our approach is effective. Pallet’s mission is to provide the supportive environment needed for displaced populations to move onto permanent housing, and this data tells us if our model is working and how we can improve our methods to best suit the needs of every village resident.
Establishing an Open Dialogue is Key
Our partnerships with village service providers are essential in both tracking residents’ progress and gathering context for what resources are needed in each unique community. Site locations across North America are faced with specific root causes of displacement, meaning there is no “one size fits all” solution. This is why once a village is built, our work isn’t finished: details like ongoing operations, maintenance needs, and supportive service provision all tell a distinct story that informs the future of Pallet.
Survey responses from village operators show that on an average day, 10 people move from an existing Pallet village to permanent housing. This tells us that in a broad sense, the pairing of dignified shelter with wraparound services like food and water, hygiene facilities, healthcare, counseling, and employment placement programs are effective in equipping residents with the tools necessary to transition to more permanent solutions. This trend works out to 3,200 expected transitions per year.
Measurable Success
Our ongoing relationships with service providers also bring to attention success stories like Tim’s, who found his own apartment after living in the Salvation Army Safe Outdoor Space in Aurora, CO. Connections to a state-sponsored pension program via onsite staff and help from the Aurora Housing Authority were instrumental in leading Tim to his own home, showing an effective model tailored to the individual needs of each resident.
Vancouver, WA’s approach to address their homelessness crisis, centered on a robust scope of resident services, has also proven success in helping vulnerable individuals on the path to housing. Their first Safe Stay community, The Outpost, reported 30 people moving to permanent housing since opening. Meanwhile, Hope Village achieved 14 transitions in their first year of operations, attributing resident success to a compassionate, healing communal environment with resources including meals, food bank deliveries, clothing, transportation, and assistance obtaining legal identification.
A Way Forward
Aurora and Vancouver are just two examples of sites that have experienced success with the Pallet village model. We believe that while interim shelter is a crucial part in creating safe spaces for vulnerable people to stabilize, it takes a breadth of additional support. This is why we view our product development through the lens of trauma-informed design and lean on our lived experience workforce for perspective: to ensure we are continuing to refine our mission to serve displaced communities to the best of our ability.
By investing in this approach and making concerted efforts toward inclusive wraparound services, any city has the potential to provide displaced populations with pathways to stable and permanent housing.
Understanding the differences between affordable and attainable initiatives is key to a future of stable, equitable housing.
Skyrocketing rental prices, astronomical interest rates, insufficient supply: the severe lack of affordable housing options is not a new development. As of March 2023, a shortage of 7.3 million affordable rental homes was reported, disproportionately affecting low- and extremely low-income families and individuals.
Housing affordability has become a chronic challenge—homeownership has been deemed unaffordable in 80 percent of U.S. counties—prompting policymakers to address this crisis through a variety of affordable housing initiatives. But to make a true impact on housing initiatives, understanding the distinction between "affordable" and "attainable" housing is crucial. While affordable housing targets specific income brackets, attainable housing places a focus on removing a slew of barriers and bringing suitable options within reach for a wider demographic.
Challenges in Housing Attainability
Despite numerous federal programs aimed at providing affordable housing, a significant gap exists between demand and available support. Strict eligibility criteria and additional screening processes often exclude vulnerable populations from assistance: one in four extremely low-income families in need of housing assistance actually receive it. This leaves an estimated 40.6 million Americans burdened by high housing costs, where more than 30 percent of their income is spent on housing and limits their ability to meet basic needs.
Various systemic barriers, including discriminatory practices and economic thresholds, also hinder a person’s access to attainable housing. Landlord discrimination against housing voucher holders, coupled with restrictive zoning laws, further exacerbates the crisis. Moreover, individuals lacking necessary documentation or with legal system records face significant challenges in securing stable housing.
While housing assistance programs like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and the Housing Choice Voucher Program play a crucial role in federal housing strategies, recipients face significant disadvantages including resource limitations and systemic biases. In particular, public housing has experienced a history of mismanagement and underfunding, perpetuating generational patterns of poverty and instability.
Proven Solutions to Improve Housing Attainability
To effectively break the cycle of housing insecurity, a multifaceted approach is necessary. This includes increased government funding, mixed-income housing developments, and expanded access to private capital for developers. Additionally, lowering the multitude of barriers facing vulnerable and low-income populations—accomplished through reforms in zoning laws, enhanced support for renters through federal programs, and amending punitive regulations aimed at formerly incarcerated individuals or those with legal system involvement—is a crucial step toward attainable housing solutions.
By prioritizing attainability, creating innovative partnerships, and developing more inclusive affordable housing initiatives, we can work towards ending housing insecurity while building economic stability and stronger social communities.
To learn more about solutions that address practical, accessible, and attainable housing for all, download our Attainable Housing White Paper.
To ensure our shelter design truly meets the needs of Pallet village residents, we spoke with some of the first people living in our new S2 units to gain feedback and insight from their experience.
The core of Pallet’s mission is to provide safe, secure shelter for people who have experienced displacement and offer a healing environment that helps residents on their next steps toward permanent housing. In developing our innovative S2 product line, we incorporated crucial feedback from our own lived experience workforce and applied key principles of trauma-informed design, knowing that this input is an essential part of creating dignified and comfortable spaces for every Pallet village resident.
Everett Gospel Mission (EGM), a village in our hometown, was the first site to receive 70-square-foot models of our S2 Sleeper shelters. We connected with four residents who had lived in the original shelter designs at EGM and now have moved to S2 units—Kenny, Jimi, Summer, and Erik—to hear their feedback on the new shelters and learn about their stories.
Kenny
Kenny has lived at EGM for nearly two years, originally moving to the site with his friend Libby after losing their housing. He had never experienced homelessness before or spent any time in congregate shelters.
He says since moving to the S2 shelter, he’s noticed the thicker walls have improved insulation and heat retention, reduced condensation, and made the interior more soundproof—a helpful detail since he’s teaching himself to play guitar.
“You don’t hear the rain as much: it’s quieter, way quieter,” Kenny said. “I can be a little louder in the brand new one compared to the old one, because I like to turn the amp up real loud, you know, and play the guitar and stuff. It stays warm in there a lot longer too I’ve noticed. Yeah, it’s overall better.”
Kenny gets along with everyone else living at EGM and doesn’t find it hard to make friends with others in the village. He noted how he likes the residential windows in the S2 unit: him and his neighbor will both open them up and talk from the comfort of their own space.
“It’s kind of cool, because the bed’s right there, so I just open the window and I can talk to the neighbor, and he’ll open his,” he told us. “He bet me four bucks that they would touch if we opened them.”
Kenny easily won that bet.
Jimi
Coming to live at EGM after being hit by a car while crossing the street, Jimi is using his time in the village to focus on sorting out medical issues and navigating a settlement in the case of a broken lease agreement. Sporting a leather jacket and a slick pair of yellow Chuck Taylor’s, he told us he’s grateful to have a temporary space after a tumultuous period of having nowhere to stay and limited means to transport his belongings to a storage space.
“It helps me not have to feel rushed,” Jimi said. “I got a pretty good head injury when I got hit. I don’t remember like I used to. I used to be able to multitask, but now I have to concentrate on one thing. So, being here gives me a chance to plan things, do one thing at a time.”
Jimi mentioned the new unit offers a calmer environment because it’s quieter.
“The thickness of the walls really makes a difference as far as noise,” he said.
Being able to store and arrange his belongings neatly with the integrated shelving is also a plus.
“[There is] a good place to hang your clothes,” Jimi said. “They have little shelves and a place to put hangers and stuff. That’s a lot better. Feels like you can organize your stuff a little easier.”
Summer
Experiencing homelessness for four years before moving into EGM, Summer has been a resident of the village since it opened. She finds comfort in decorating and caring for her plants and flowers, a hobby she picked up since moving into the community. She even arranged planters in communal areas in addition to the inside and outside of her own shelter.
“I did all the flowers that are out here and all the gardening and stuff,” Summer said. “I was doing it for myself already and they said, ‘Hey, let’s put in more for everybody,’ so I just ended up doing all of it.”
Summer told us she likes the ability to customize her shelter and make it her own. She’s added extra storage cubes and shelves, as well as hung mobiles she’s made from the ceiling. A mirror, a TV, and, of course, more plants make Summer’s shelter feel cozier and more unique.
“Everybody always is like, ‘Oh my god, your house looks so much different than everybody else’s!’”
She noted the size of the windows, larger bed, and improved heat circulation are notable details that make the S2 unit comfortable.
Overall, Summer said her favorite part of living at EGM is the ability to feel settled and have a space of her own.
“I could sit, you know, and actually stay and decorate it,” she explained. “I can feel comfortable and actually move in and not have to worry about police making me leave or having to drag everything with me. I have a place I can go in and sit down and have room for company and a TV.”
Erik
Erik has only lived at EGM for four months, spending the first two in the original shelter design before moving into the newer model. He said the increased square footage in the S2 unit is a significant improvement in maneuvering his wheelchair, and the larger bed is a better fit for him.
“I can move around a lot better in a wheelchair,” he told us. “To be able to sit in it and turn around makes a huge difference. And the bed is a little bit wider, so I sleep a lot better. It’s lower too, because I was tending to sit up against the bed in the older one. Those made my legs fall asleep and cut my circulation off. With the new style bed, that’s totally better: I can sit up on the edge of the bed and my legs won’t fall asleep.”
He also said the tighter seals on the corner connections and improved insulation from the wall panels helps keep the heat in.
“Having it hold the heat is a big difference too because it makes you feel like you’re in a better structure, since it’s not leaking out the seams.”
When Erik was hospitalized due to heart failure, he lost his housing, his car was impounded, and he found himself living on the streets. This was after working his whole career in the construction industry: first building houses, and then operating his own concrete company. He said it was a shock to exit the hospital and lose so much, along with experiencing displacement for the first time in his life.
Even with this devastating loss and coping with his medical issues, he is appreciative to be part of the community at EGM and have his own shelter.
“I think it’s great and it’s a great program, it’s a great thing [Pallet] is doing making those and making them available for communities to put them in and help people out,” he said. “Because I definitely need help. So it’s a beautiful thing what you guys are doing, because when people need help, you’re part of the solution.”
To learn more about how the design of our S2 shelters was informed by those with lived experience, read our blog.
All the details that come together to make our new S2 shelter line were inspired and informed by feedback from our own lived experience workforce.
One of Pallet’s foundational elements is our lived experience workforce. As a fair chance employer, we provide opportunities for people who have experienced homelessness, recovery from substance use disorder, and involvement in the criminal legal system to build their futures.
We often talk about how our approach to designing Pallet shelters and implementing them within a healing community village model is informed by those with lived experience. In developing our S2 shelter line within the lens of trauma-informed design, these voices were crucial to ensure that our shelters provide private, safe, and dignified living spaces for displaced populations and encourage positive housing transitions.
There are many seemingly minute considerations that influenced the design of our S2 Sleeper and EnSuite models. To capture how important these details truly are for village residents, we gathered Pallet’s first Lived Experience Cohort—Josh, Alan, Sarah, and Dave—to describe in their own words how each design aspect is significant for anyone who has experienced the trauma of displacement.
Comfort
Significant changes in aesthetic, functionality, and fixtures make the S2 line a more comfortable living space overall. Smooth wall panels make the interior of each shelter more welcoming.
“The biggest thing is the aluminum [interior flashing] is gone,” says Josh. “So it feels like a home. It seems like someone took time to make it.”
When Josh was in Sacramento on Pallet’s California Roadshow, he noticed how attendees felt while touring S2 shelters.
“Almost everyone who walked in said, ‘This feels very warm. It’s so inviting to walk in here, it’s so open.’”
Dave comments on the effect this feeling would have on someone who has experienced homelessness.
“One of the most disturbing things to me when I was out there was coming to that realization: ‘I don’t have a f***ing home anymore,’” he recalls. “And to go into something that feels like a home, that you can call your little home, that’s really nice. That’s huge.”
Residential windows are another significant detail that Sarah notes.
“They give more lighting, so it doesn’t feel like a jail cell,” she says.
“They’re way better windows,” Dave adds. “[Residents] have a big, nice window to look out of now.”
Installing larger beds was also a noted concern, and the Twin XL is a more inclusive option.
“I think the larger sized mattresses are great,” she says. “Now villages can get twin sheets and covers and protective sheets that fit. And the fact that these new mattresses are waterproof, even the threading on the seams.”
The S2 EnSuite is Pallet’s first sleeping shelter with integrated hygiene facilities. Josh says the opportunity to have this kind of space with access to his own bathroom would have been a significant aid in his recovery journey.
“If I moved into the EnSuite, that would have blown my mind,” he quips. “If I was coming off the street or living in my Explorer like I was at the time, and moved into that, I might have been clean way sooner. Because it would’ve given me some hope that somebody cared.”
Safety Features
Pallet’s in-house engineering team created the S2 shelter line with safety at its core. In addition to the structurally insulated panels that offer durability and robust wind, fire, and snow load ratings, the elimination of exposed hardware in the interior is another detail that ensures safety for residents of all ages and walks of life.
Input from our lived experience team and feedback from Pallet village residents across the country also led to tweaks to the included fixtures, reducing the likelihood of essential safety functions being disarmed or damaged.
“We were pushing to get a cage over the smoke alarm, or something to prevent people from taking them off,” Sarah remembers. “Now [with the hardwired connection] you can’t shut off the power to the smoke alarm.”
The consideration that displacement affects different communities—from single residents with pets to families with young children—also influenced changes in other design elements of the S2 that may have gone unnoticed otherwise.
“I think the electrical panel is better: now we have the breakers on the outside and the plugs on the inside,” Josh adds. “So it keeps you from wanting to easily tamper with it.”
Dignity
Offering a more customizable layout and built-in wire shelving in the S2 line creates a dignified space for every Pallet shelter resident.
“Having a place to hang up clothes, that’s something I heard a lot when I was talking to residents in California,” Sarah comments. “That was a huge improvement, because if you’re still having to constantly live out of your bags and your suitcase, you’re not moving forward to get out of that survival mode.”
The ability to freely move the bed and desk is also a significant detail for people who have experienced institutional or congregate shelter settings.
“If I saw the bed set up in between two windows, I would say, ‘There’s absolutely no way I would pass out in between in between two windows,’” Alan quips. “I would sleep underneath the bed maybe. Because people walking past the windows, it just doesn’t make me feel very safe.”
Sarah agrees: “And then too, if you want to rearrange or just make it your own, everyone’s going to have a different feel of where they want to sleep on any given day. It gives you freedom. And if you have the freedom to live how you want to live, it gives you the sense of self-sufficiency rather than having to follow all the strict congregate shelter rules.”
Josh further highlights how significant this feeling of freedom can be when looking back on his own experiences.
“See, I would have never moved it, but having the opportunity to move it is a big thing,” he says. “Because when you’re in jail, your bed is where it is. Your seat is where it is. There’s no moving it around, so being able to move your house around like anyone else, it makes you feel more like a human being.”
Ultimately, our Lived Experience Cohort members agree that implementing these changes to create the S2 line advances our mission to help displaced populations transition to more permanent solutions.
“In the future when we come out with new products, it’ll probably be like, ‘Oh wow, I didn’t really think of this before,’” Josh offers. “But right now I think this is the best we can do. It really is, until we get more feedback on what the next thing is.”
“We are providing that space for people to take the next step,” Sarah replies. “We can’t personally give good wraparound services because that’s not our thing, but we can provide the environment for it. It takes all these little things to get out of survival mode, but the first step is to get off the streets, and that’s where we start. It takes a village to help a village.”
Adopting the principles of trauma-informed design is a crucial framework for creating a safe, supportive, and healing environment in every shelter we build.
When developing and designing Pallet shelters, our top priority is to best serve the needs of displaced populations. This is why we have our dignity standards in place: to ensure that each shelter village provides a positive, supportive community environment for every resident.
But we also understand our responsibility to design our shelters so they offer a private, healing atmosphere for people to plan their transitions to more permanent solutions. It has long been understood that the way we interact with and utilize physical spaces—along with our emotional and psychological reactions to those spaces—are dictated by a wide range of design choices. An airy, open lobby with large windows and ample natural lighting is bound to elicit a completely different response compared to an enclosed, fluorescent-lit office.
Only recently has this concept been integrated into architectural design specifically catered to vulnerable users. With trauma-informed care as a framework, trauma-informed design (TID) seeks to create physical spaces centered around principles like safety, empowerment, and well-being. Building with these concepts in mind can actively aid a person’s development, grow their ability to trust others, and avoid the possibility of re-traumatization.
Experiencing chronic homelessness, coping with substance use disorder, reintegrating into the community after being incarcerated, or suddenly losing your home to a natural disaster are all traumatic experiences. By viewing our product development and engineering processes through the lens of TID and incorporating features that promote healing, inclusion, and stabilization, we aim to provide shelter that supports the needs of those impacted by the trauma of displacement.
Here are some of the ways we applied the four main principles of TID—Safety & Trust; Choice & Empowerment; Community & Collaboration; and Beauty & Joy—in the design of our innovative S2 shelter line:
Pallet is committed to applying the philosophy of TID in our shelters to accommodate village residents who have lived through trauma. Applying these concepts, along with listening to feedback from real users and our own lived experience workforce, helped us develop the S2 shelter line as our most innovative solution to the crisis of human displacement. We believe that every design detail, no matter how small it may seem, can make a big difference in someone’s journey to permanent housing and reintegration.
To see how S2 shelters provided rapid shelter and warmth for unhoused Denver residents by the New Year, read our case study.
Look back at our top stories of the year: from product innovation to expanding our footprint and receiving dispatches from our villages around the country, these highlights capture what Pallet achieved in 2023.
As the year comes to a close, we’re looking back at the stories we’ve shared throughout 2023. With the most recent PIT count reflecting a 12% increase in homelessness in the U.S., the need for innovative solutions like Pallet continues to grow. Over this past year, our team has doubled down on lived experience-led product innovation with the development of our new S2 product line, all the while growing our capacity by adding over 300 additional shelters and laying the groundwork to expand our response into Canada.
Here’s a round-up of our top stories from this year.
1. Pallet Builds Its 100th Village
Just before Christmas in 2022, we crossed a milestone — building our 100th village. It’s located in Tulalip, WA which is just a short drive north of our headquarters. The location holds special meaning for some Pallet employees who previously experienced homelessness in the area and are now finding purpose in building transitional housing to help others in the community. The village is made up of twenty 64 sq. ft. shelters and one 100 sq. ft. shelter and was constructed in just two days by the Pallet deployment team. The Tulalip tribe manages the site and provides onsite services for community members. Residents moved into the 20 shelters early February 2023. [Keep Reading]
2. Jennifer & Alan: Closing the Loop Through Giving Back
The two first met each other a handful of years ago when they were living on the streets of the Tulalip Indian Reservation in Washington. Today, they’re coworkers at Pallet. Their witty humor makes them a dynamic duo dropping hilarious one-liners as they tell stories about their past. Indeed, they can have a crowd in stitches.
“I relate to many of the people here because we can laugh about things that most people would get appalled by,” Alan says in admiration of his co-workers, many of whom share similar lived experiences.
Jennifer agrees – they have witnessed the darker sides of life. But, she says, they’ve risen above them. “It’s like, you guys, we have overcome so much and we’re killing it now. We are rock stars,” she says, laughing.
She and Alan are proud to have surmounted substance use disorder and other challenges that are, truthfully, nothing to laugh at. Right now though, they’re excited to be working on Pallet shelters for a new village on the Tulalip Reservation where they were once unhoused themselves. [Keep Reading]
3. Introducing PathForward™
There is no one solution to end homelessness. Every municipality and every community have their own specific needs. While our Pallet villages coupled with wraparound supportive services are a successful model, we understand there are other strategies to address the homelessness crisis. Working closely with cities across the country, we realize communities want to find the right solutions and know our expertise and learnings from deploying over 100 shelter villages could help them drive change. So, we’ve launched PathForward™ homelessness advisory services.
Pallet’s PathForward provides support for cities to create customized solutions with defined goals and resources like funding roadmaps, implementation plans, policy research, capacity building, partnerships, project management and more. Our service uses data-backed strategies anchored by people with lived experience. Cities can work with Pallet in a variety of ways including long-term partnerships, special projects, and one-off advice. [Keep Reading]
4. Dignity as a Guiding Principle
To help our unhoused neighbors transition out of homelessness and build a better future, providing shelter is one of many steps. A dignified living situation means reliable access to food and water, hygiene facilities, transportation, safety, supportive services, and more.
We created our Dignity Standards with these basic needs in mind. Guided by input from Pallet team members with lived experience, their purpose is to hold all stakeholders accountable, including ourselves, and always act in the best interest of the communities we serve. They also function as guidelines for the cities and service providers who operate our villages, intended to evolve and refine as we learn what works best. Because without dignity, who are we? [Keep Reading]
5. Rebuilding Her Life: Linda
In our Village Voices series, we shine a spotlight on residents living in Pallet shelter villages across the country and give them the chance to share their stories.
Linda Daniels was walking down the street with her bags looking for a place to sleep that night. An outreach worker happened to notice her and asked if she needed help. Within two weeks, she was a resident of the Rapid Shelter Columbia village.
A month in, Linda says the chance to have her own space to rest, to return to after a long day as a custodial worker at the University of South Carolina, and to collect her thoughts has been pivotal in being able to move forward.
“It means the world to me, because I got my own space, and I got my own place to where I can call mine right now,” she says. “I like being by myself a lot of times. So if I’m going through something, I can come in my room and think about what I’m going through and try to make things better. And I think this is a wonderful thing.” [Keep Reading]
6. Dave: Right Where I’m Supposed To Be
Early on, Dave had already made his own way in life. He started his manufacturing career with Boeing at age 20, got married, had three children, and bought a home for his family. After achieving all this and growing up in a large family in Everett with good relationships with his parents and siblings, it might come as a surprise to hear what was going through his mind at the hospital on May 12th, 2019.
“I was 100% resigned I was gonna die in my addiction,” he recalls. “But then that moment of clarity, that spiritual awakening, that epiphany, whatever you want to call it, hit me in there. I’m like, ‘this is not gonna be my legacy that I died with a f***ing needle in my arm sitting in the hospital. I’m gonna fight this,’ you know? And I did. And I appreciate every single day.” [Keep Reading]
7. Four Ways to Fund a Pallet Shelter Village
Pallet shelter villages serve as transitional spaces for people experiencing homelessness. They provide the dignity and security of private units within a community, along with a resource net of onsite social services, food, showers, laundry, and more to help people transition to more permanent solutions.
Several components to consider when building a village include identifying which Pallet shelters best suit the needs of the community, finding a site location, setting up infrastructure, and selecting a service provider. Funding is also crucial. Below are four sources that can be combined to fund the costs associated with creating a Pallet shelter village. [Keep Reading]
8. Proven Safety: Rigorously Testing and Certifying Our Shelters
With thousands of Pallet shelters across the country, we’re constantly gathering feedback on their design from customers. This information is crucial for our in-house engineering team. It allows them to understand what our shelters must withstand in the real world.
With that knowledge, they can design Pallet shelters to meet various demands, and rigorously test them onsite.
And yet, we don’t stop there. We also third-party certify our shelters to truly validate their designs.
All this is critical because our shelters often go into storm-prone and extreme weather zones. They must reliably protect the residents who live in them, all while remaining cost-effective.
Our new S2 shelters illustrate our deep commitment to R&D. Building on our legacy of intentional, quality engineering, they advance our mission to offer safe, dignified housing for displaced and vulnerable populations. [Keep Reading]
9. Rethinking Post-Disaster Housing Solutions
By now it’s a familiar sight: cities and towns ravaged by hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, or wildfires; homes and living spaces decimated; and people ushered into stadiums, schools, or anywhere that has the capacity for those displaced. In 2022 alone, 3.3 million Americans were displaced by disasters—and one in six people never returned to their homes.
While mass congregate shelter is often the only viable option to aid survivors directly following a natural disaster, it is not a sustainable solution for the days, weeks, or months that follow. In the variable, unpredictable period when homes, rental housing, and other living facilities are being rebuilt, there is a distinct scarcity of interim shelter options that fit the diverse needs of displaced populations.
It’s time to take a closer look at why our current system of post-disaster housing isn’t sufficient, and to provide broader, more equitable options for people displaced by natural disasters. [Keep Reading]
10. Roxana: Power in Compassion
Most people would assume bringing a shelter village to life couldn’t be accomplished by a single person. Completing an undertaking of this scale is typically the culmination of a team of stakeholders overcoming various obstacles: identifying funding sources; finding an appropriate site; setting up necessary infrastructure like water and electricity; and rallying the community for support. Roxana Boroujerdi is unlike most people.
Located on the grounds of Everett’s Faith Lutheran Church, Faith Family Village comprises eight Pallet sleeping shelters and two hygiene units that will serve local families experiencing homelessness. The village will also offer supportive services that aim to create paths to employment, education, and permanent housing—alongside facilities and activities that create a safe and fun environment for children living onsite.
And even with her fair share of personal challenges, none of it would have come to fruition without Roxana. [Keep Reading]
After an emergency evacuation at a low-barrier permanent supportive housing site, Pallet was able to prevent resident displacement within 48 hours.
When thinking about emergency evacuations, it’s common that natural disasters like hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires first come to mind. But there are many other scenarios that can threaten the stability of a living situation and cause abrupt displacement, making the provision of emergency shelter solutions crucial in a moment’s notice.
Clare’s Place, a permanent supportive housing complex in Everett, WA, experienced exactly this kind of emergency in October.
When 48 of the 65 units in the building came back positive in tests for environmental contamination, all residents were forced to evacuate due to safety and health hazards. Clare’s Place is a low-barrier site that serves vulnerable community members including chronically homeless individuals, those diagnosed with mental illness, and people living with substance use disorder. Staff needed to identify an appropriate solution immediately to temporarily house the affected residents.
Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin promptly contacted Pallet’s Founder and CEO Amy King, looking to rapidly install shelter units to accommodate the residents evacuated from Clare’s Place. In order to serve the needs of those displaced, residents would need the ability to remain close to their possessions and case managers, so the units would ideally be built directly on the property.
Members of the Pallet Deployment team sprang into action. Working tirelessly overnight, they were assisted by Catholic Community Services (CCS, who operate Clare’s Place) and assembled 30 shelters in the parking lot. Snohomish County PUD also responded and supplied the site with power.
Within 48 hours of that initial call, shelters were deployed, assembled, and move-in ready as a safe and urgent solution to temporarily house residents of Clare’s Place. Because of Pallet’s stockpile of 64-square-foot sleeping shelters, the site was established with the urgency required for this emergency.
This unfolding of events speaks to the utility and efficacy of interim shelter as an emergency solution for displaced populations—particularly vulnerable communities that require hands-on supportive services. The capability to provide essential aid with urgency also points to the advantage of stockpiling this model of shelter. When residents living at the Clare’s Place site are able to move back into their apartments, the shelters will be stored as a supply for future emergencies in Everett.
To learn more about the instrumental role interim shelter can play in emergency situations, download our Post-Disaster Housing Continuum Infographic.
Through her success spearheading Everett’s Faith Family Village, Roxana is living proof that passion and perseverance can create lasting, positive change for the community.
Most people would assume bringing a shelter village to life couldn’t be accomplished by a single person. Completing an undertaking of this scale is typically the culmination of a team of stakeholders overcoming various obstacles: identifying funding sources; finding an appropriate site; setting up necessary infrastructure like water and electricity; and rallying the community for support. Roxana Boroujerdi is unlike most people.
Located on the grounds of Everett’s Faith Lutheran Church, Faith Family Village comprises eight Pallet sleeping shelters and two hygiene units that will serve local families experiencing homelessness. The village will also offer supportive services that aim to create paths to employment, education, and permanent housing—alongside facilities and activities that create a safe and fun environment for children living onsite.
And even with her fair share of personal challenges, none of it would have come to fruition without Roxana.
“I am 70, I have MS, and I was in a car accident and lost my knee,” she explains. “I have a lot of things that people might consider strikes against me. But with God, all things are possible.”
The idea for Faith Family Village was born in the throes of the pandemic while Roxana was running the church food bank. When people were no longer able to safely come inside and choose what they needed off the shelf, Faith Lutheran was forced to explore alternative options. The USDA was beginning to form partnerships with organizations to donate food to those in need, and someone from the Everett chapter of Volunteers of America (VOA) pointed them in Roxana’s direction.
“VOA told the USDA: ‘They should contact the crazy lady down at Faith Food Bank, she’d probably do it,’ she recalls. “So I told them to bring the big rig and we’ll work it out somehow. Little did I know that after a month, we had about 250 cars that came to pick up food—the line stretched [over half a mile] all the way to Value Village.”
After receiving help from a team of volunteers to distribute to the crowds, Roxana was able to connect with people one-on-one and ask why they came to the food bank. The amount of people that told her they were homeless or couldn’t afford to pay for their rent or food, including families living out of their cars, didn’t sit right with her. So she started researching.
Roxana discovered Pallet online and saw operational villages in nearby communities. She didn’t hesitate to contact the mayor of Burlington to see the Skagit First Step Center.
Mayor Sexton offered Roxana a tour, breakfast in the village’s community room (“and they gave me lunch because I stayed too long”), and even extended an invitation to stay overnight and experience sleeping in a shelter.
Learning about the structure and case management embedded in the village model prompted Roxana to take the idea of starting a new Pallet village at Faith Lutheran to fellow members of the congregation. While first met with opposition, she convinced the church council by taking them to a neighboring site in Edmonds and learning about the realities of hosting a shelter village community. The following council vote granted Roxana approval for building the village.
Then came the roadblocks.
Even with no experience navigating complex issues like land use laws and city zoning codes, Roxana tirelessly pushed through every obstacle in her path. First, she played an instrumental role in changing Everett city code to allow children to stay in Pallet shelters. Then she had to coordinate a series of tests to build on the church property—a survey for Indigenous artifacts, studies for noise and water runoff, and a slew of others. She had to obtain funding, which she procured through sources like Washington state senator project grants, sizeable donations from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), human needs grants from the city of Everett, and donations from various community and congregation members. Local businesses like Rodland Toyota, who were already active supporters of the Faith Food Bank, also stepped up to donate supplies and interior furnishings for the shelters.
At first, Roxana was worried about pursuing funding streams. But she soon realized it was just another duty she could carry out herself to bring the village closer to groundbreaking.
“It’s a lot,” she says. “When I started, it was a lot of weight. But now that I feel like I have a community of donors that are also invested, that helps a whole lot. And now I’m not so shy in asking people: ‘Can you give me this or that?’”
One of the most significant obstacles Roxana encountered was raising community support. Many neighbors of Faith Lutheran expressed strong feelings against building a village on the church grounds, citing concerns of attracting criminal activity or encouraging an unsanctioned encampment nearby. One homeowner with property bordering the church attended a community meeting, adamant that the site would never be welcomed. Roxana wasn’t fazed.
“I gave my talk about how many kids are homeless,” she recounts. “And what happens to those kids’ futures, like not graduating or joining a gang or becoming the next generation of homeless people.”
The very next day, the neighbor called Roxana and offered $2,000 toward the village. Through his involvement in the village’s progress, he later donated all the materials for an upgraded perimeter fence surrounding the playground.
“I think God touched his heart and said, ‘No, it’s not right that these kids have to sleep outside,’” she says.
Faith Family Village will be assisted in operational duties by Interfaith Family Shelter, another site serving families experiencing homelessness in Snohomish County. Roxana says the village will offer services focusing on development for both parents and children: obtaining proper identification; enrollment in financial and rental certification programs; applications for housing vouchers; opportunities to volunteer at the food bank as a reference for future employment; after school tutoring; meals and chore sharing; and even family fun nights to foster a sense of community. They’ll also have interactive learning opportunities like cultivating a fruit and vegetable garden with the direction of local Master Gardeners.
In the face of so many challenges, Roxana’s sunny outlook and passion eclipses any notion of giving up in the face of adversity. And she has a message for anyone else who wants to provide a glimpse of hope for their unsheltered neighbors, even if it seems unattainable:
“I would say you should go for your dreams and help all the people that you can,” she says. “Because doing all that brings more joy to you than you can ever imagine. You can do it. You should try. And the thing I’m looking forward to now is spreading family villages everywhere.”
Living in the Rapid Shelter Columbia village, Jeffrey says he finds peace in the village’s safety, and the work program he’s involved in has made him more independent to embark on a new journey.
Before moving into Columbia’s shelter village, Jeffrey Hoover spent much of the past two years trying to find a safe place to rest, moving between a temporary congregate shelter and sleeping outside.
During a period staying behind the library, he learned from another unhoused neighbor about the village being built nearby. He connected with a social worker in the library and made it a priority to move in as soon as he could.
“I went the very next day, because he told me on a Sunday,” he says. “Monday morning, I was there, sharp.”
He says sleeping outside had a feeling of freedom, where he could see the stars and breathe the air. But he constantly felt worried about his safety—either being harmed by the elements or arrested for simply living his life in public. Staying in the village has made him feel more secure.
“I really love being here,” he says. “Because number one, it’s safe. Number two, when I was outside sleeping, I was always worrying about, ‘I gotta use the bathroom, where can I go?’”
With the help of his case worker, Jeffrey was hired to help run the village itself with custodial and watch duties. He feels like it’s helping him find structure and represents a link to finding permanent housing.
“It has made me sharper,” he says. “It has made me more dependable, independent. And because of the kind of person that I am, I know that this job one day will fade out because I'm looking for something even better and bigger. And I’ll find a place one day soon that I can call home.”
In the wake of natural disaster, an inclusive range of shelter and housing models is critical to meet the immediate needs of every displaced individual.
Following destructive events like hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires, large populations are suddenly displaced from their homes and forced to find refuge wherever it is available. People are often directed to arenas, schools, community centers, or other public buildings to find a safe place to stay—at least for the night.
What comes after this stage is filled with uncertainty. To fully understand the landscape of shelter and housing options in the wake of natural disaster, it’s important to consider that each community has diverse needs. Examining the scope of housing models and offering equitable aid to displaced populations lays the groundwork for sustainable recovery.
Read on to learn the language and timeline of the Post-Disaster Housing Continuum.
1. Post-Disaster Housing Continuum
The stages of shelter and housing presented on a timeline starting immediately following a destructive event. From emergency shelter models to the prospect of rebuilding permanent housing, the path of the continuum follows a displaced person’s housing journey after an emergency.
Each stage offers specific benefits and are either based on existing infrastructure or constructed for the specific purpose of sheltering disaster survivors.
2. Emergency Preparedness
Before a disaster occurs, communities can build resilience through comprehensive preparedness planning. This includes drafting plans for staffing emergency response teams, arranging amenities such as food provision and hygiene facilities, and stockpiling rapidly deployable emergency shelter options that can be used to accommodate both responders and displaced communities.
This stage is fundamental to create true resilience, equipping cities to recover more quickly and effectively in the wake of disaster.
3. Emergency Congregate Shelter
Perhaps the most familiar of post-disaster shelter models, this stage is occupied in the days (or even hours) following an event or evacuation order. Stadiums, gymnasiums, and other large public buildings are used to rapidly shelter large groups of displaced people under one roof.
While effective at providing a space for large populations, this stage tends to present high barriers even when outside conditions are unsafe. People with pets and those with specific prior offenses are not permitted to stay in congregate settings, and people with trauma from violence and sexual assault do not feel secure in large, open settings with others.
4. Interim (Recovery) Shelter
Individual interim shelters can be deployed and assembled rapidly, and communities can be tailored to the needs of specific groups (people with disabilities or medical needs, first responders, relief workers, etc.). This model is best suited for the weeks and months following a natural disaster when permanent housing is rebuilt.
Although a crucial part of the continuum due to its versatility and ability to centralize supportive services, this stage is often overlooked and underutilized in post-disaster scenarios.
5. Temporary Housing
Forms of this stage of the continuum can range from hotels to RVs and are intended to serve displaced populations in varied timelines: depending on the extent of the rebuild period and the economic status of the person affected, temporary housing could be occupied in the weeks or even months following a disaster.
While more viable than congregate shelter for most people, this model has the potential to turn into long-term housing that isn’t dignified. When existing infrastructure like hotels are converted to temporary housing, these spaces are costly and cannot be used for visitors or tourists, which can adversely affect the recovery of local economies.
6. Long-Term Recovery Shelter
This model leverages temporary, rapidly implementable structures built on private property to serve displaced individuals, families, or workforces rebuilding permanent housing.
Allowing people to stay on their own properties while rebuilding their homes is often the most ideal solution to keep residents within their communities and looking toward the future. Units that can be quickly built and later disassembled as needed is an effective way to foster a path to long-term recovery.
7. Permanent Housing
Providing attainable, stable permanent housing for every person is of course the ultimate goal following destructive events. However, this stage cannot be reached immediately, and even when permanent housing is rebuilt, opportunities are often stratified based on socioeconomic standing. There is no linear path for every individual to reach long-term stability.
The need for urgent and dignified shelter and housing models following natural disasters highlights the necessity of every stage of the continuum preceding permanent housing. A range of equitable options is crucial for long-term recovery—and resilient communities can only be built when these basic needs are met for every person.
To learn more about how to serve the diverse needs of disaster survivors, download our Post-Disaster Housing Continuum Infographic.
Michael’s time in Columbia’s Pallet village has given him the chance to focus on himself, his goals of becoming a business owner, and starting his new journey.
Michael served in the Army for 18 years and returned home to Columbia when a house fire claimed the lives of his mother, father, aunt, uncle, and two children. After this devastating loss, he had nowhere to call home. Insurance didn’t cover the tragedy he had sustained.
He temporarily bounced between different local homeless shelters, struggling with depression and turning to alcohol and substances. It was at one of the shelters where a fellow guest told him about the Pallet village being built nearby.
Michael says moving into the village has given him stability to rebuild his life.
“I’m finding myself,” he says. “I made some slips and falls, but I’m eager to get right back up. I'm mainly right now focused on how I can get back to where I need to be in life. Not where I was, but where I need to be.”
Working with his case manager, Michael is making steps to securing documents that were lost like an ID, birth certificate, and social security card to get approved for permanent housing. When he moves out of the village, he hopes to own and operate an auto shop—he already has experience in the field and an automotive service excellence (ASE) certificate.
After experiencing trauma, Michael still needs time to recover and stabilize. But he says living in the Pallet village and having his own shelter has given him peace of mind: he’s attending counseling for his depression and starting to see the potential for positive change ahead.
“You know, like I was telling a lot of people, life is like a noun,” he says. “You have to change people, faces, and things in order to get a better outlook on your life. And for my aspect of looking out, I want to see a brighter future for myself.”
He has hope that a new life is waiting for him once he transitions out of the village.
“In five years, I want to own my own home and have my own business,” Michael says. “With a new family. I see that promise.”
Learn more about the Rapid Shelter Columbia village by reading our case study.
Understanding the link between equitable housing and public safety plays a key role in building safer, healthier, and more successful communities.
Housing is at the crux of many systems that compose a functional society, from healthcare to infrastructure. But even with decades of research proving the innate connection between stable, equitable housing options and public safety, conversations on the subject often overlook this significant relationship. On the contrary, many people believe the myth that some models of shelter and housing actually increase crime in surrounding areas.
Evidence shows these claims are false. When an inclusive range of shelter and housing options are offered to every community member, an abundance of positive effects can be observed: crimes committed by unsheltered populations out of desperation are significantly decreased; the cycle of incarceration and homelessness can be broken; and public costs are drastically reduced.
Recognizing the inherent link between housing and public safety and investing in a range of options that fit everyone’s needs has the power to make our communities safer, stronger, and more sustainable.
The Housing Inequity-Crime Connection
It is widely understood that crime does not exist in a vacuum: a number of environmental, social, and economic factors all contribute to the root causes of why people commit crimes. The fact that crime is more prevalent in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and areas with higher rates of unsheltered homelessness illustrates how a lack of access to stable housing is at the core of the issue.
Higher crime rates have been associated with neighborhoods that experience poverty, residential segregation, and a lack of essential resources like good jobs, schools, and healthcare facilities. These disparities can be linked back to practices like redlining, which represent historical institutional oppression and racism that siloed equitable housing and services to more advantaged areas. When people living in these areas are denied access to attainable housing and resources, they are incentivized to commit crimes as a means of survival.
Poor land use practices, foreclosures, and vacancies also affect crime in these neighborhoods. One study found that in Pittsburgh, crime increased 19% within 250 feet of a foreclosed home once it became vacant, and continued to rise as it sat unoccupied. Examples like this could be avoided in the future by using similar lots for development of supportive housing or subsidized market rate housing.
It’s also crucial to consider that in cases of violent crimes, vulnerable populations are much more likely to be victims than suspects. Homeless people are targeted in hate crimes at double the rate of crimes based on religion, race, or disabilities. Unsheltered women specifically disproportionately experience violent assault like rape, causing lasting trauma and suffering that creates a new set of challenges in living in communal settings like congregate shelter.
Therefore, when people have stable places to live, they are less likely to commit or fall victim to crime, creating safer communities in the process.
Breaking the Cycle of Incarceration
The reality of laws criminalizing homelessness—or attaching serious charges to minor, nonviolent offenses like loitering, panhandling, and littering—is further proof that people are expected to have secure housing and not live their life in public. This is a serious challenge, considering a nationwide shortage of 7.3 million affordable rental units.
Statistics on the disparity of homeless individuals being arrested for low-level offenses is alarming. Although homeless communities represent less than 2% of the population in cities like Portland, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, they accounted for 50%, 42%, and 24% of total arrests from 2017-2020, respectively.
And once a person enters the prison system, regardless of their offense, it makes them significantly more vulnerable to living unsheltered: formerly incarcerated people are 10 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general public. This is especially concerning when one considers the fact that one in every three Americans has a criminal record.
Upon release from the system, formerly incarcerated people face numerous challenges in securing appropriate housing. The inability to make rent, stigmatization from landlords, and barring those with drug offenses from public housing are just a few common obstacles. By lowering these barriers, along with focusing on new inclusive housing and subsidized market rate developments, the prison-homelessness cycle can be effectively broken and improve public safety in the process.
Investing in Housing as Public Safety
The overall costs of policing, corrections, courts, and other reactive measures associated with public safety far outweigh national investment in housing and community development.
While the nearly $260 billion annual budget of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows a concerted effort to fund more affordable housing and assistance programs, it pales in comparison to the price of operating the criminal legal system. When accounting for indirect economic effects of crime (property destruction and vandalism, utilization of healthcare and emergency services, forgone wages, etc.), the broader societal cost of the criminal legal system is estimated to equal $1.2 trillion.
Creating Safer, More Resilient Communities
There is undeniable proof that providing equitable, attainable housing is a guaranteed pathway to improving public safety. By incorporating this understanding into the development of new shelter and housing programs and acknowledging that the two concepts are inextricable from each other, we can make progress to end unsheltered homelessness and build safer, more successful communities as a result.
To learn more about the impacts of housing on public safety outcomes, download our Housing as Public Safety White Paper.
Even while cities face challenges in opening new shelter villages, there are various methods to overcome them and aid vulnerable populations experiencing homelessness.
Many cities that aim to address their unsheltered homelessness crises see the benefits of interim shelter villages but face barriers in opening new sites. After encountering a wide variety of obstacles in our work with cities across the country, we can share our successes navigating these difficulties as a blueprint for any municipality aiming to provide equitable shelter for their vulnerable communities.
Whether it’s community opposition, trouble accessing funding, finding proper potential sites, or issues concerning infrastructure and zoning ordinances, our Community Development team is well-versed in finding tailored solutions for each city’s unique challenges.
We have found successful techniques to overcome many different barriers, but the following three arise the most frequently. Read on to learn how a diverse set of cities have succeeded in opening their own Pallet village despite adverse conditions.
Barrier 1: Accessing and Obtaining Funding
One of the first concerns that arises when considering building a Pallet shelter village is a simple question: how will we fund it?
Navigating funding options presents its own set of challenges, but we have seen villages built across the country utilizing a spectrum of different sources, from federal assistance programs to private donations. Some examples include:
While all of these are viable funding sources, we have also seen cities successfully combine funding from each level, and in the process, aid their unsheltered populations with appropriate urgency.
Barrier 2: Zoning and Land Use Challenges
Finding suitable and affordable land to build an interim shelter village can be a daunting task without assistance. But by working with local government boards, involving the community, and approaching land use challenges creatively, we have helped bring many Pallet shelter villages to life.
The following illustrate a few examples of how cities have overcome this specific barrier:
One city sidestepped legal barriers by passing a city council vote to exempt a proposed site from specific building and zoning codes—while ensuring safety by working with the fire marshal during site development.
We witnessed a success story that involved creating an open forum composed of shelter organizations, community groups, landowners, and neighbors. By holding an open dialogue between all stakeholders in public meetings and coming to a solution that worked for everyone, the city was able to integrate a Pallet village into an existing residential neighborhood.
Being aware of emergency land use laws has helped shelter communities develop over a significantly quicker timeline: by classifying unsheltered homelessness as the crisis that it is, we have seen cities provide essential shelter and supportive services with urgency.
Creatively recategorizing property types has been another avenue of overcoming this particular barrier. One city even implemented a creative land classification to bring shelter and warmth to their unsheltered community right before the harsh cold of winter arrived.
While these solutions to these problems may not be self-evident, our Community Development team is adept and experienced in surmounting land use and zoning hurdles.
Barrier 3: Gaining Community Support
Community opposition often stands in the way of successfully building new shelter villages. We have found that by establishing an open line of communication between local governments and the public and providing education about the benefits of interim shelter, staunch opposition can often be transformed into outspoken support.
Some methods that have produced positive outcomes by engaging the community include:
Common concerns surrounding new shelter villages are often based on the fear that these developments will increase crime and decrease neighboring property values. Providing facts to prove the opposite is true—such as data showing crime rates decreasing in areas surrounding new sites—can often spur a collective change of opinion.
Demonstrating the inherent dignity and safety of Pallet villages has proven to be a boon to gaining community support: we have seen multiple cities host open houses where city leaders and heads of local organizations will stay in a shelter overnight to exhibit its potential in helping vulnerable people reintegrate and transition to permanent housing.
Ideas like creating a website to keep the public updated on crucial information and resources regarding a potential village or hosting community meetings that allow neighbors to voice their opinion has helped support efforts to develop new sites in various locations.
Interim shelter plays a crucial role in providing people with a stepping stone toward permanent housing, and examples like Pallet villages with onsite supportive services meet diverse needs of different displaced populations. And even while the model is proven to be an important part of resilient communities, city leaders are often impeded in the process.
Learn more about how Pallet’s Community Development team can help you maneuver barriers regarding funding, zoning and land use, and community opposition by reading our case studies.
Thorough and rigorous testing means our shelters can perform in varying extreme weather conditions—whether it’s rain, snow, wind or heat, we know that residents of Pallet villages across the country are safe.
With thousands of Pallet shelters across the country, we’re constantly gathering feedback on their design from customers. This information is crucial for our in-house engineering team. It allows them to understand what our shelters must withstand in the real world.
With that knowledge, they can design Pallet shelters to meet various demands, and rigorously test them onsite.
And yet, we don’t stop there. We also third-party certify our shelters to truly validate their designs.
All this is critical because our shelters often go into storm-prone and extreme weather zones. They must reliably protect the residents who live in them, all while remaining cost-effective.
Our new S2 shelters illustrate our deep commitment to R&D. Building on our legacy of intentional, quality engineering, they advance our mission to offer safe, dignified housing for displaced and vulnerable populations.
Pallet S2: The next evolution
The S2 line is the next chapter in Pallet shelters, shaped and guided by those with lived experience. Designed to be stronger, easier to assemble, and even more comfortable, our S2 products reflect feedback from residents of Pallet villages, service providers who operate the villages, and our own lived experience workforce.
This crucial input—gathered from all across the country—helped our engineers redesign interior features and simplify the structure, which in turn reduced costs.
Yet, their biggest focus was fortifying the S2s against intense weather. In doing so, they made the S2 shelter a reliable and universal solution for safe and comfortable living—virtually anywhere.
Engineered for the Real World
Whether it’s tornado-force winds, intense snow storms or severe heat, Pallet shelters must be engineered to handle it all. Pallet villages exist in places that experience severe weather events and our shelters must provide protection in these challenging environments.
“In south Florida, you have 140 mile-an-hour winds. In Maine, we have to withstand 40 lb. of snow per square foot,” says Pallet Engineer Trevor Russell. “We have villages in the deserts of California and the mountain towns of Denver.”
Water is a tough culprit for any structure. To shield against it, the engineers designed the S2 wall panels without rivets, and improved the subframe’s flashing and tension rods, eliminating even the smallest gaps where water might find its way in.
To maintain the S2’s ability to bear maximum snow loads while simplifying the design of its roof, our engineers updated from a two-piece design to a mono-pitch roof.
The new roof and subframe work together to create a unique tensioning and compression system. This increases the wind speeds the shelters can endure. The patent-pending design allows them to transfer sheer force through their sidewalls, providing incredible strength so they hold up in tornado-like wind.
“Our goal was to create shelters that work in the entirety of the U.S. and Canada,” Trevor says. Pallet shelters meet structural codes in nearly every state.
Rigorously tested onsite
Once Trevor and his team had created a prototype of the S2, they devised onsite tests to challenge it.
To test its waterproofness, they blasted it with a giant hose—inflicting an intense amount of direct water pressure all across the unit.
To simulate snow loading, they heaved sandbags onto its roof and measured the deflection of the panel.
And when it came to testing whether the shelter held together in the fiercest of winds, the team attached a winch and pulley system to the wall and plates to the shelter and pulled till they reached nearly 6000 lbs–nearly taking out a Pallet warehouse shop wall in the process
“The idea was to put sheer force along the walls and then see what fails,” Trevor says. “We started getting worried that the wall of the shop was going to fail.”
The S2 held up, withstanding the force of 155 mile-per-hour winds.
Third-party certified
Through this testing phase, the Pallet engineering team partners with a third-party structural engineering firm. These outside engineers are onsite to validate the tests and witness first-hand how the structures perform.
“We work with the firm to make sure our test design meets all the specs. Then, they review our testing data and make sure we pass whatever specifications we need to,” Trevor says.
Once a shelter design passes all tests, the engineering firm awards it a PE stamp of approval, which is an officially recognized certification of performance.
Inspired designs
Trevor was the mastermind behind the S2’s new wall panel designs and many other key features that make it our most weatherproof, comfortable yet rapidly deployable shelter to date.
“The best part is when we get to jump into new R&D projects and start throwing ideas out in that early phase,” he says. “We’re doing things that haven’t been done. So it’s a big, exciting challenge.”
The S2 line remediates feedback we heard from residents, service providers, city officials, and folks on the Pallet team who have experienced homelessness themselves.
“Working with our fair chance employees, it’s fun to learn from them,” Trevor says. “They’ve taught me new life perspectives. We’re all not all given the same opportunities in life and it’s important to give people chances.”
With his dedication and the rest of our passionate in-house engineering and manufacturing teams, plus the invaluable perspectives of Pallet users, we’ll continue delivering safe, comfortable shelter that give people a fair chance.
Learn more about the safety features and capabilities of our new S2 shelter line.
Recognizing housing as an essential piece of infrastructure not only increases equitable opportunities for vulnerable communities: it contributes to our resilience and progress as a country.
Housing and infrastructure are two seemingly distinct domains, yet understanding their interconnectedness is crucial to shape the progress of a nation. While infrastructure programs often conjure ideas of highways, bridges, and public utilities, housing is a cornerstone of this broader framework—not just a basic human need—and must be recognized as such.
Affordable and attainable housing contributes to the overall development and prosperity of a nation. According to recent studies, the U.S. has a shortage of 7.3 million affordable and available rental homes for individuals with extremely low incomes, and no state has an adequate supply of affordable units to meet these growing needs. Coupled with the 19 million American renters who spent 30% or more of their income on housing costs, it’s apparent that the U.S. is experiencing social instability and economic disparity.
The Infrastructure Improvements and Jobs Act (IIJA) signed into law in 2021 outlines a plan to increase the country’s competitiveness and invest in communities that have too often been left behind. Yet no part of this plan addresses the severity of chronic housing issues. If people are not housed, then the government and taxpayers cannot actualize the most fundamental benefits of any infrastructure investment.
Benefits of Investing in Housing as Infrastructure
Investing in housing as a component of infrastructure programs is a well-rounded approach to fostering an equitable and prosperous society and maximizes the return on costly infrastructure spending. This strategy can result in a myriad of positive environmental, social, and economic benefits, each playing a pivotal role in developing resilient and thriving communities at the local, state, and national levels.
Environmental Impacts
Low-income households, often residing in environmentally vulnerable areas, face greater challenges in relocating or rebuilding after disasters. By emphasizing low-income housing development projects that incorporate energy-efficient and sustainable features, we can enhance resilience to extreme weather and climate change impacts while also curbing greenhouse gas emissions—key ideas outlined in the IIJA.
Furthermore, these housing initiatives promote smart urban planning, reducing urban sprawl and thus preserving natural landscapes and biodiversity for a more sustainable future.
Social Impacts
Investing in housing infrastructure is a critical tool in the fight against homelessness, offering affordable housing options and support services that can substantially improve the lives of vulnerable populations. These investments also relieve the strain on social services, as stable housing promotes independence and reduces reliance on public assistance and health programs, thus leading to increased community well-being and public health.
Housing investments are also aligned with the goals of the U.S. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which holds jurisdiction over U.S. infrastructure and aims to strengthen community bonds, foster economic growth, enhance mobility, and promote equity by improving access to essential services. Yet without official acknowledgement from government entities that housing is infrastructure, this shared goal will perpetually be divided in resources and minimal in effectiveness.
Economic Impacts
From an economic standpoint, housing infrastructure is an engine for growth and productivity, which the IIJA aims to achieve. Housing infrastructure supports the bill’s efforts to create jobs during the construction and maintenance phases of housing projects and further boosts local economies by leveraging public and private resources to generate income and tax revenue. Moreover, the reduction in homelessness leads to cost savings in healthcare, emergency services, and welfare programs that ultimately reduce the tax burden on individuals and businesses.
Moving Forward
The state of our current housing landscape reflects the state of our society: A fractured housing system undermines our ability to function as a cohesive and prosperous nation and fully reap the benefits of expensive infrastructure programs. Without sufficient housing infrastructure, we jeopardize the stability and functionality of our communities, impeding our collective progress and prosperity.
To truly advance as a society and address the prevalent issues of homelessness and housing instability, we must recognize housing as an essential component of our nation's infrastructure and ensure every individual has a secure place to call home. Only then can our nation operate as a prosperous and resilient collective.
To learn more about the impacts and benefits of housing in federal and state infrastructure programs, download our Housing as Infrastructure White Paper.
After living for years unsheltered in a local park, Dawn is taking steps toward more permanent housing with the support of the City Net team at Chula Vista’s Pallet village.
For several years, Dawn and her partner had to be resourceful for basic necessities like bathing and keeping personal possessions safe. They lived in a tent in a local park, using a hose hooked up to the sink of a public restroom to take showers.
Even while working, she fought to keep her belongings secure.
“I’ve actually had people steal my personal property from my job,” she says. “There are people out there you think you can trust, and then there are people that you would no way want to trust.”
Dawn describes her partner Miguel as being her safety net for a long time. They moved from Kansas out to California, where she grew up, and stuck together for many years.
“I just went wherever he went,” Dawn recalls. “I felt safe and comfortable with him. And I do have a love for him, but the love in the beginning was a lot stronger.”
Dawn explains that Miguel lives with bipolar disorder and ADHD, and his struggles managing these conditions put a strain on their relationship. After being offered shelters in Chula Vista’s new Pallet site by workers from San Diego’s Alpha Project Outreach Team, their bond began to falter, and Miguel moved out of the village.
Now Dawn is looking to the future, working with her onsite case manager to overcome barriers to secure permanent housing. She faces a number of challenges that were too much to tackle alone while working and keeping herself safe: medical debts from over a decade ago that have gone to collections; not having an option to obtain private health insurance through her job but earning just too much to qualify for Medicaid; replacing her lost social security card; and rebuilding her credit score to qualify for an affordable rental.
“A lot of the rental properties want a score of 650 or above, and my credit’s not that great,” she says. “The accounts that are out there causing my score to be so low are 12-year-old hospital bills. And then they say, ‘If you don’t have this, we can’t qualify you.’ It’s just aggravating.”
The team at City Net have already helped Dawn to check some of these items off her list. They provided transportation to the social security office to replace her lost card, are working to pay off old bills to improve her credit, and have obtained a housing voucher that would allow her to find her own place.
“I’ve been going online and everything looking for a place as well,” she says. “And the other day, we went out driving around trying to see if we could find places.”
Surmounting challenges like these is made extremely difficult without a safe and comfortable place to stay. Dawn is one of the first residents at the Chula Vista Bridge Shelter, and after just a few months of being offered an ecosystem of support, she’s already heading in the right direction.
To find out how the city of Chula Vista came together to build the Bridge Shelter and aid their unhoused neighbors, download our case study.
By engineering Pallet shelters in-house, with feedback from people with lived experiences, we can react to market needs faster and design shelters that better meet the crisis at hand.
When our shelters provide the first steps out of homelessness for someone, we know they’re truly designed to meet that resident’s needs. That’s because at Pallet, we engineer our shelters in-house, and we base their designs on direct feedback from people with lived experiences.
In-house engineering allows us to iterate and improve on our designs quickly. It also means we can react faster to shifting market needs, producing the best solution to the crisis at hand.
In-house engineering keeps Pallet nimble
Designing any product is a complex process. With an in-house team of engineers, Pallet’s design process stays nimble. We don’t lose time coordinating with teams overseas.
At our headquarters in Everett, WA, our engineers bring expertise in aerospace, automotive and manufacturing engineering. They conduct everything from the engineering drawings to building the samples to testing them onsite. Owning each stage not only ensures we meet our high-quality standards, it also speeds up the design time and reduces costs.
Because Pallet builds our shelters in-house, our engineers work closely with our manufacturing team. Together, they identify improvements through hands-on prototyping. The engineers can make immediate changes, seeing how subtle refinements impact their designs in real time.
This efficiency means that when jurisdictions change their requirements for interim shelters or needs shift, Pallet can react by incorporating updated features in our products. We’re poised to respond to evolving needs.
And yet, designing the right solutions doesn't start in the engineering room. It begins by listening closely to the many perspectives and lived experiences of real users.
Designing around lived experiences creates better shelters
As a fair chance employer, Pallet employs people from all walks of life, including those who have experienced homelessness. These teammates provide our engineers valuable insights that only someone who’s faced the realities of being unsheltered can understand. Even the smallest detail can help us improve the way our shelters support residents’ mental, physical, and personal safety needs.
In addition to this close collaboration, our team gathers feedback on our shelters in the field. With thousands of Pallet shelters across the U.S., we see first-hand how well their livability and safety support different types of residents, from families to elderly people to those with jobs or pets.
We also pay close attention to how well they hold up to environmental conditions. Pallet villages in various regions help us understand how to prolong their life in different climates.
All this feedback back goes into the product.
New S2 shelters maximize livability
In November, Pallet will launch our newest line of safe, dignified, rapid-response shelters. Our S2 shelters represent many hours of feedback, iterations, testing, and dedication to delivering a better product.
The line builds from our proven foundation of safe, dignified livability and provides an enhanced space to heal. Constructed of materials with increased fire ratings and better wind and snow ratings for storm-prone zones, they feature smooth interior walls for protection against rough edges, and standard safety components (an egress window, fire extinguisher, smoke and CO detectors). Their superior slab door frame hosts a composite door with a peephole and kick plate for safety.
Throughout the shelter, patent-pending elements make it easier and faster to deploy. New materials boost insulation for better temperature efficiency. And freestanding furniture and easy-to-move shelving let residents customize their space to make it feel like home.
We’re proud of the new S2 shelters and the teams and individuals who contributed to their design advancements. With engineering and manufacturing capabilities in-house, we can focus on developing quality solutions that provide the stepping stones to a better future.
It’s proven that stable housing has positive effects on physical and mental well-being. By cultivating inclusive shelter and housing models for vulnerable populations, we can alleviate pressure on taxpayers and providers while fostering healthier communities.
Housing is often considered a separate entity from concepts like healthcare and essential infrastructure, even with abundant data proving otherwise. When communities have access to sustainable, suitable shelter and housing options, they not only demonstrate better health outcomes, but also reduce economic strain. A study conducted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness shows that taxpayers spend an average of $35,578 per year on each person experiencing chronic homelessness, but when this same population is provided with stable housing, these costs reduce by an average of 49.5%.
This study along with years of other research all show the same outcome: every aspect that contributes to the larger picture of well-being is impacted by the lack of a stable living environment. Physical and mental health, preventative care, chronic disease management, and access to healthcare services are all intrinsically tied to adequate and equitable housing opportunities.
Physical Health
Protection from variable weather, consistent access to hygiene facilities, and good air quality are all traits of satisfactory housing that are easily taken for granted. However, a lack of access to these basic needs can have a profound impact on physical well-being, especially when compounded by conditions like respiratory disease and symptoms stemming from substance use disorder that are common among homeless communities.
Constant exposure to extreme weather also puts unsheltered populations at risk. Hypothermia, heat stroke, and other weather-related conditions are immediate threats, and crowded, unsanitary living conditions increase the likelihood of spreading infectious diseases along with food- and waterborne illnesses.
Mental Health
Unstable living conditions are also detrimental to mental well-being. The stress of being unhoused is an observed precursor to the development of anxiety, depression, and self-harming ideations. A lack of safety, particularly with survivors of physical or sexual assault, is also a contributor to other mental health conditions.
This susceptibility to these challenges, along with the provision of a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) that equates to just 18% of the median national income, can also in many cases act as a catalyst to developing substance use disorder. Although many think that substance use is a common cause of homelessness, the social adaptation model shows this to be a misconception: many people struggle with destructive substance dependencies only after experiencing the harsh reality of living unsheltered.
Preventative Care
A markedly higher dependence on emergency rooms in homeless populations is rooted in lower utilization of preventative care. When people forgo routine procedures like vaccinations, check-ups, and screenings, they default to the ER when any health concerns arise – usually due to symptoms that could easily be mitigated.
The cause of this can be attributed to the barriers unsheltered groups face: without a permanent address, reliable contact details, or dependable transportation, establishing a primary care provider and obtaining necessary medications becomes significantly more difficult than it is for those with stable housing.
Chronic Disease Management
Effectively managing chronic conditions is another aspect of health adversely affected by housing instability. Even though 30% of people experiencing homelessness live with ongoing disabilities (compared to 13% of the general population), the lack of preventative care and precursors to physical and mental health issues make these vulnerable groups far less likely to successfully engage in necessary self-care and medication adherence.
Continuous monitoring, attendance to therapy sessions, and participating in the creation of specialized care plans are more likely to happen when a patient is in stable housing. This points to why homeless individuals are reported as having higher rates of illnesses like asthma, heart disease, and diabetes than their housed counterparts.
Access to Healthcare Services
Without a permanent address, it’s exceedingly difficult to obtain health insurance; without health insurance, it’s nearly impossible to pay for even routine medical care. Unhoused individuals are statistically less likely to have any health insurance, restricting access to vital services.
The perpetuation of historically classist and racist practices like redlining also plays a part in availability of healthcare facilities. Low-income and marginalized neighborhoods are commonly not in close proximity to quality hospitals and healthcare professionals, further constraining reliable means for care.
With evidence illustrating the clear link between housing and healthcare, it’s time to recognize the positive effects stable shelter and housing has on the health of our communities. Innovative models like the Pallet shelter village in Boston show the power of bridging the gaps in housing disparities and championing equitable healthcare access for everyone.
To learn more about the role stable shelter and housing plays in the overall well-being of your city, download our Housing as Healthcare White Paper.
After building a life for himself, Dave lost everything to addiction. Now, he wants to remind anyone struggling that there’s always hope to break the cycle – and he’s grateful for every day.
Early on, Dave had already made his own way in life. He started his manufacturing career with Boeing at age 20, got married, had three children, and bought a home for his family. After achieving all this and growing up in a large family in Everett with good relationships with his parents and siblings, it might come as a surprise to hear what was going through his mind at the hospital on May 12th, 2019.
“I was 100% resigned I was gonna die in my addiction,” he recalls. “But then that moment of clarity, that spiritual awakening, that epiphany, whatever you want to call it, hit me in there. I’m like, ‘this is not gonna be my legacy that I died with a f***ing needle in my arm sitting in the hospital. I’m gonna fight this,’ you know? And I did. And I appreciate every single day.”
After 20 years manufacturing commercial jet body structures, providing for his family, and caring for his wife who lived with lupus, Dave had surgery when he suffered a broken ankle and torn ligaments in 2004. He was prescribed Percocet and oxycontin for the pain.
It didn’t take long for a serious dependency to take hold. “I am ‘that guy’ that took too many pain pills,” Dave says. “I was eating them like crazy and I got the opiate bug. I battled that pill addiction for quite a while.”
Five years later he entered a detox program for the first time. Once off his suboxone treatment, Dave quickly began using oxycontin again by 2010. Shortly following this his struggle with addiction was compounded by personal tragedy, and the life he knew began to unravel.
Dave’s brother Michael passed away suddenly that year. Two months later, his best friend of 28 years committed suicide. His opiate use increased, and his marriage was under considerable strain.
“I went off the rails,” he says. “I slipped into drug addiction so bad. Things just started to absolutely fall apart.”
Dave remembers the day he was fired from Boeing – July 10th, 2011. He was already having trouble keeping up with his mortgage payments before losing his job and was separated from his wife. He lost the house shortly thereafter. After moving into a condo in nearby Lake Stevens for a short stint, he was evicted due to spending his rent money on heroin and meth.
“It’s crazy how much time goes by and how quickly things decline,” Dave says. “And I mean, I’m talking super quick: by the fall of 2013, I was homeless.”
Sustaining his heroin and meth use became Dave’s only responsibility. His first felony charge came in 2014, which led to a number of others. Running from DOC warrants, shirking court-ordered treatment programs, and multiple prison sentences are all part of Dave’s prolonged involvement in the criminal legal system. Experiencing these periods of forced sobriety and the desire to quit weren’t enough to put an end to his addiction.
He tells a story of being in custody and thinking he had broken through mentally: “I think about it now, how powerful drug addiction really is. I mean, in 90 days, I was president of my group, I was so involved in everything there. I thought, ‘Man, I got this.’ I was using drugs a week and a half after I left there. That quick. It’s just brutal.”
During this time, Dave had resigned to a life on the streets. He never leaned on his family, too ashamed to ask for help. He had convinced himself that this was what he deserved.
“[I thought] This is where I belong,” he says. “I belong out here suffering. I hated myself so much for the person I had become, leaving my kids, my family.”
The turning point came when Dave became extremely sick with symptoms stemming from his substance use. He was in so much back pain he could barely walk. His girlfriend at the time insisted that he admit himself to the ER, threatening to involve his dad if he refused.
Screaming out in pain going through an MRI, Dave was told he was experiencing sepsis from MRSA (a type of staph bacteria that has become immune to antibiotics) and two internal abscesses on his spinal cord. Dave spent six and a half weeks in the hospital detoxing and recovering.
The day he admitted himself to the hospital was the last day Dave used drugs. From that point on, he’s spent all his time rebuilding his life: serving time for the remainder of his felony offenses; re-entering the workforce; reconnecting with his family, namely his daughter and son; and focusing on his recovery program.
Dave started working at Pallet in January 2022, and describes it as a perfect environment being around coworkers who are on a similar path.
“I love this place, the whole culture here is just amazing,” he says. “It’s been awesome for my recovery. It’s just a great place to work, and everybody here is so supportive.”
Dave shares his story openly and earnestly, with what many would consider brutal honesty. Everyone at Pallet knows him for these qualities. His work ethic and attitude led him to a position as Pallet’s customer service representative after working on the manufacturing floor, giving him the responsibilities of coordinating with village service providers, fielding inquiries from people experiencing homelessness, and gracing the office with the sound of his booming laugh.
“To be standing here today, I’ve got a story to share, and I’m just trying to help people,” he says. “It’s like I’ve said before: I went through a lot of s***, but I really honestly believe that I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
By creating custom work plans tailored to the unique challenges faced by city leaders in Northglenn, CO and Huntington, WV, Pallet’s PathForward team proves that solving unsheltered homelessness is only possible by addressing the root causes.
Pallet’s PathForward homelessness advisory services was created to aid cities in identifying their unique homelessness crises and developing plans to directly address their root causes. As part of the National League of Cities’ Capstone Challenge, the PathForward team partnered with Huntington, WV, and launched a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) to assist the city’s most vulnerable community members.
Mere months after the CIT was established with the help of local public health experts, first responders, and city leaders, it has become an integral part of Huntington’s homelessness response network. The city was awarded with the 2023 United States Conference of Mayor’s Grant for Police Reform and Equitable Justice, using the $75,000 to buy a vehicle used as a “lifeline on wheels” and continue to fund the CIT Co-Responders team.
1,300 miles away in Adams County, CO, the city of Northglenn confronted different barriers in effectively resolving their homelessness crisis. While city officials had already implemented programs to aid Adams County’s homeless population, they encountered obstacles connecting to Colorado’s larger governing bodies and scaling solutions already put into place on a city level.
In February 2022, PathForward stepped in and set a plan in motion to facilitate the development of emergency shelters—aiming to provide refuge for Northglenn’s homeless residents and help them in the transition to more permanent housing solutions. This endeavor took many steps including identifying viable sites, finding suitable service providers, and ultimately presenting the plan to Colorado leaders working to end homelessness.
Pallet introduced PathForward because there is no one solution to end homelessness: each municipality and community have their own specific needs. We are motivated to utilize our experience building interim shelter villages and coordinating with service providers across the country (and now Canada) to help cities cultivate better solutions to fit their diverse needs.
Download the following case studies to learn more about our work in Huntington and Northglenn. To read about our services and how we can assist your city in ending unsheltered homelessness, visit our PathForward page.
Providing a broad, inclusive range of equitable shelter and housing solutions is the key to building resilient communities.
To create true equity in cities and towns, a full range of shelter and housing types is needed to support the unique needs of each individual. This is where the housing continuum comes in, highlighting the benefit of communities that come together to provide dignified solutions for every resident.
Providing a broad, inclusive range of equitable shelter and housing solutions is the key to building resilient communities.
To help better understand the language surrounding the housing continuum, we’ve compiled a brief list of terms defined by government agencies, organizations, experts, and advocates in the homelessness field.
A full range of shelter and housing types that fit the diverse needs of different socioeconomic groups comprising any given community. From temporary options to permanent market rate housing, there are many different models necessary to support every resident of a city or town.
Although the housing continuum might appear to be a timeline, there is no standard or predetermined path from one housing type to the next: each unique route a person takes is dependent on factors like social determinants of health (SDOH), income, and reliable access to an ecosystem of support.
This section of the housing continuum includes temporary shelter models like encampments and self- and co-governed sites.
Encampments are typically congregations of people experiencing homelessness (PEH) composed of tents, improvised structures, and cars that are subject to city-mandated sweeps. Self- and co-governed sites are usually overseen by residents who may take on responsibilities such as cleaning, maintenance, and security.
Both models have little to no access to case management or government funding.
The safe sleeping model comprises sanctioned or legal sites where PEH are allowed to stay for a set period of time, usually in tents, temporary structures, or cars. In some cases, limited resources and support are provided for residents.
A common type of temporary shelter designed to assist large populations of PEH under one roof where people are granted a bed only on a nightly, first come first served basis and are required to leave each morning. Residents have little to no privacy and are often divided by characteristics like gender or age; they are usually connected with supportive services but are subject to comply with stringent codes of conduct for entry and are faced with a number of barriers such as the inability to bring pets or personal possessions.
A rapidly built, cost-effectively scaled shelter type that provides PEH with the privacy of individual shelter in a community setting, meant to help people transition to more permanent housing solutions. This model’s low barriers allow residents to bring pets and possessions while still requiring codes of conduct to ensure safety. Onsite case management and supportive services are provided to meet the unique needs of each resident. This stage in the housing continuum is where Pallet fits in and is underrepresented in many communities.
A semi-permanent model that provides residents with private facilities and a longer length of stay, contingent on codes of conduct such as employment or sobriety requirements. This housing type takes longer to construct at a higher price point and is in many cases not intended to transition residents to permanent housing.
Service-based programs designed to meet the needs of people living with disabilities or chronic medical conditions. This model is often structured around long-term leasing, rental assistance, and supportive services put in place to support vulnerable community members.
A model broadly defined as housing in which the occupant pays no more than 30% of their gross income, including utilities. Subsidized to help low-income residents, this stage in the continuum often has high barriers due to eligibility requirements, long waitlists, and a lack of supply. Supportive services are typically omitted in low-income and affordable housing.
Prices of market-rate housing are defined by current real estate market evaluation and are the direct result of government policies and planning practices. Luxury housing is typically valued at the top 10% of properties on the local market, featuring prime locations, expensive materials, high-end amenities, and large square footage and lot size.
Both models present high barriers due to lack of affordability and are not connected to supportive services.
To create truly resilient communities, it is necessary to provide every shelter and housing type defined above. To learn more about the housing continuum and its importance in cultivating equitable and inclusive opportunities for every resident of your city or town, download our Housing Continuum Infographic.
By now it’s a familiar sight: cities and towns ravaged by hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, or wildfires; homes and living spaces decimated; and people ushered into stadiums, schools, or anywhere that has the capacity for those displaced. In 2022 alone, 3.3 million Americans were displaced by disasters—and one in six people never returned to their homes.
While mass congregate shelter is often the only viable option to aid survivors directly following a natural disaster, it is not a sustainable solution for the days, weeks, or months that follow. In the variable, unpredictable period when homes, rental housing, and other living facilities are being rebuilt, there is a distinct scarcity of interim shelter options that fit the diverse needs of displaced populations.
It’s time to take a closer look at why our current system of post-disaster housing isn’t sufficient, and to provide broader, more equitable options for people displaced by natural disasters.
No solution is “one size fits all”
Before a successful post-disaster housing system can be designed, we must acknowledge the needs of those displaced are not the same for every person. Someone with a large network of family and friends able to provide temporary housing faces different challenges than someone who doesn’t have anyone to turn to in a time of stress and trauma. A homeowner with good insurance to rebuild their house would have a vastly different experience following a natural disaster compared to a renter living paycheck to paycheck.
These inequities are highlighted when living situations are uprooted. Marginalized and low-income communities are disproportionately affected by disasters. This is largely attributed to the pitfalls of affordable housing, which tends to be older, less maintained, and built in less desirable locales (such as flood-prone areas), leading to a higher likelihood of being severely damaged and taking longer to regain its value. In many cases, rental companies find it a cheaper solution to simply not rebuild when their properties are destroyed, a decision made easier when no emotional investment is involved.
Further, renters, low-income homeowners, and those with precarious housing (such as seniors living on fixed incomes) are less likely to have adequate insurance that would meaningfully contribute to a new living situation. Assistance through programs like the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery can also take years to kick in, leaving many stranded without any financial support to rebuild their lives.
Even excluding the much-needed reform of long-term solutions, the current models of immediate disaster shelter have their own set of drawbacks.
Looking beyond emergency mass congregate shelter
Immediately following traumatic and destructive weather events, stadiums, schools, or other large community buildings are often the only options to provide improvised shelter for crowds of newly displaced people.
But even in a time of catastrophe, congregate shelter is not viable for many individuals and families. There are many reasons for this: people with past trauma from living with strangers, sexual abuse, or domestic violence do not feel safe sleeping in an open environment with others; those living with a sensitive medical condition can be put at risk when exposed to crowds and the potential of spreading infectious disease; and in many cases, people with pets, which provide vital emotional support, aren’t allowed to keep them in a congregate setting.
Interim shelter can lower these barriers and fill an underrepresented role in the post-disaster housing continuum. People can stay with their families and pets; they are afforded a dignified and private space to recuperate after losing their home and have access to onsite supportive services.
This model also acts as a crucial link between the hours following a disaster and the weeks or months it takes to rebuild in the aftermath. Pallet shelter villages can be rapidly deployed: within a matter of days of the panelized shelters arriving on the selected site, a village can be established with the urgency needed to aid survivors. And since shelters can be stored flat and are easily disassembled and moved, cities can stockpile shelters for even faster deployment and relief.
To meet the diverse needs of disaster survivors, it’s essential to provide a full range of shelter and housing options. It’s long overdue to examine and change our current response models—because resilient communities can only be built by creating equitable and inclusive opportunities to accommodate every individual.
With extreme weather becoming more common each season, our shelters have to readily withstand scorching and freezing temperatures, snow, rain, and strong winds. Learn more about why Burlington, VT chose Pallet to provide refuge from the bitter cold of Northeast winters for their unsheltered neighbors.
Pallet shelter villages serve as transitional spaces for people experiencing homelessness. They provide the dignity and security of private units within a community, along with a resource net of onsite social services, food, showers, laundry, and more to help people transition to more permanent solutions.
Several components to consider when building a village include identifying which Pallet shelters best suit the needs of the community, finding a site location, setting up infrastructure, and selecting a service provider. Funding is also crucial. Below are four sources that can be combined to fund the costs associated with creating a Pallet shelter village.
1. Federal Funds
The federal government has numerous programs available to fund aid for people experiencing homelessness. Notably, during the COVID pandemic, trillions of dollars became available. The $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed in March 2020. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) passed a year later. Both legislative acts provided local governments and nonprofits an opportunity to take an innovative approach to the homelessness crisis.
New Beginnings, a Pallet shelter village in Fayetteville, Arkansas, initially used private funding to get the project started. Later, they used CARES money to purchase equipment and materials supporting village operations.
A newly opened Pallet shelter village in Aurora, Colorado, used ARPA funding and Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG). ESG is a federal program to assist people to quickly regain stability in permanent housing after experiencing a housing crisis and homelessness.
Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) are also available. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program supports community development activities to “build stronger and more resilient communities.”
2. State Funds
States also set aside funding to address the needs of unhoused people. A Pallet shelter village in Everett, Washington, used funding from the state Department of Commerce. Specifically, the Shelter Program Grant funds “equitable and creative approaches to develop or expand shelter programs and bring people inside to quickly exit participants to permanent housing and positive destinations.”
To help their local homeless neighbors endure the bitter cold of winter, Boston obtained funding from the State of Massachusetts. Unsheltered individuals struggling with substance use disorder were able to find refuge from the weather after this state funding was accessed—the Pallet shelters were assembled just 10 days after breaking ground on the site.
3. General Funds
General funds typically refer to revenue collected by a local government from various sources, including sales tax, property taxes, and fees. These funds can be allocated to Pallet shelter villages. In addition to state funding, Everett’s service provider, Everett Gospel Mission (EGM), used money from their general fund to support the site. This funding was allocated by the City of Everett. Now that the site is up and running, EGM has been able to appeal to donors to fund the specific needs of the residents.
Sonoma County also utilized their general funds to address a growing crisis at the foot of the Joe Rodota Trail, where more than 200 unsheltered individuals were residing. The village, comprising 60 shelters along with onsite toilets, showers, and pet-friendly spaces, had residents moving in days after the site’s parking lot was transformed into a dignified and safe living area for the local homeless community.
4. Private Funds
Fundraising from the community and appealing to benefactors is another option. After holding several fundraising events, New Beginnings raised $600,000. Later, a local philanthropist donated a $1 million gift to complete the fundraising for the capital project and provided two years of start-up support for their programming.
Various other grants and programs can also bring a Pallet shelter village to life: PetSmart and a local foundation helped homeless residents and their pets find refuge in Grand Junction, Colorado; the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Grant made Riverside, California’s village a reality; and Los Angeles’ Veterans Village brought aid to unsheltered vets through the kindness of private donations.
Funding a Pallet shelter village is not a one size fits all model. With a bit of effort, the above sources, and sometimes even a combination, enable communities to provide private, secure, and dignified shelter for our unhoused neighbors.
Learn more about how Pallet shelter villages across the country have found success in various funding sources.
Devastating storms, unseasonable heat waves, and engulfing floods have become so common they seem like a fact of life. The frequency of destructive, costly climate and weather-related disasters have surged five-fold in the past 50 years.
But the aftermath doesn’t affect everyone equally: marginalized, low-income, and displaced populations have fewer resources to recover after a disaster and face more severe impacts. Relief efforts are usually focused on assisting those who are already insured, leaving vulnerable socioeconomic groups with little ability to salvage their living situation.
Climate change has serious implications for threatening the lives of people experiencing homelessness as well as displacing vulnerable communities. It is crucial that we address these disparities. By providing rapid and safe emergency shelter, offering supportive services like access to food and healthcare, and including unhoused populations in disaster planning, we can create a more equitable system and mitigate further tragedy.
Environmental injustices for marginalized communities
In the case of disasters like flooding, hurricanes, and wildfires, systemic inequities are brought to light, showing that historically marginalized and lower-income populations are affected disproportionately. Relief efforts help most people find emergency shelter, but if you’re uninsured, often times the assistance stops there—recent floods and wildfires have caused widespread damage and displaced those without adequate resources to rebuild their homes.
Hurricanes have been an overwhelming contributing factor in the homelessness crisis: Hurricane Katrina was the largest weather-displacement event in modern history, its survivors composing the majority of New Orleans’ homeless population still 18 years later; the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season caused the displacement of three million people across the U.S., Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic; and 2022’s Hurricane Ian, Florida’s deadliest storm in nearly 100 years, left many residents of low-income neighborhoods with nowhere to go.
The aftermath of such events causes the greatest damage to unsheltered people and marginalized communities living in lower-income areas. The reality of historically racist practices like redlining means that affordable housing is more likely to be built in flood-prone areas, and less likely to be rebuilt after a disaster. This is just one of many examples demonstrating how the root causes of homelessness and wealth inequity are further amplified and perpetuated in the wake of disastrous events.
Harsh cold and sweltering heat
Even with the normal shift of seasons, weather conditions can be hazardous to people experiencing homelessness.
For those with stable housing and reliable heating, winter doesn’t pose a serious threat even in the coldest climates. It’s not the same story for unhoused communities: people are at immediate risk of frostbite and hypothermia when temperatures drop, and as congregate shelters fill up, they have no place to turn. The lack of emergency shelter options and affordable housing means winter can have deadly consequences for our unsheltered neighbors.
And with wildly fluctuating temperatures caused by climate change, conditions are becoming more unpredictable and life-threatening. Global studies have shown how unsheltered individuals are 13 times more likely to die from hypothermia in the wake of worsening cold snaps, and survivors having shortened lifespans by an average of 17.5 years due to cold stress-induced conditions.
Heat waves are worsening, too. Between 2019 and 2020 in Maricopa County, AZ, researchers found that over 2.5 times the amount of people experiencing homelessness died of heat-related conditions. The “heat island” effect, in which temperatures rise in urban areas with less green infrastructure and a higher concentration of buildings and population density, also disproportionately affects unhoused people seek shelter.
In addition, it has been shown that public announcements regarding dangerous heat waves are not designed to reach vulnerable, unsheltered populations, leaving many unaware of the approaching threat of extreme heat.
Health risks, food shortages, and energy instability
Beyond weather and natural disasters, there are several wide-ranging effects of climate change that pose threats to people experiencing homelessness. A negative impact on health outcomes is one.
Living outdoors exposes unsheltered communities to significant risks: air pollution can aggravate underlying respiratory and cardiovascular conditions; vector-borne infectious diseases like West Nile virus and Lyme disease are more likely to spread; and exposure to either short-lived or prolonged weather-related trauma can worsen preexisting mental health issues.
Extreme weather and climate events also affect food security and water quality. Crops are commonly wiped out by floods, hurricanes, and wildfires, causing shortages, and driving prices up—and further making food even less accessible to vulnerable populations. Rising temperatures and flooding also contribute to pathogens contaminating both food and drinking water supply.
Energy insecurity is another factor intensified by climate change and credited as another cause of increased homeless populations. Rising energy prices have led to utility shutoffs and evictions for low-income households, forcing people out of their homes. Service outages caused by weather events also trigger major disruptions in vulnerable communities: without reliable energy, people are left without lighting, the ability to cook and clean, and access to essential information like evacuation notices.
For people experiencing homelessness, an unexpected extreme weather event can be a matter of life and death. The effects of climate change and their severe impacts on our unhoused neighbors highlight the urgency of the homelessness crisis: if we don’t work to eradicate both issues and create better disaster preparedness plans for all members of our community, we fail to protect our neighbors from harm.
It’s crucial that our shelters can provide safety and comfort to all residents, regardless of climate. This is why we perform rigorous testing to ensure they can withstand both the extreme heat and the bitter cold.
To learn more about how our shelters stand up to extreme temperatures, wind, and snow, read our blog.
After five months in and out of the hospital managing multiple chronic health conditions, Fred Myers was uncertain of his next steps.
“My situation became where I was a bit homeless. I was in the hospital at that point, and after I got out, I didn’t know where I was gonna go,” he says.
The staff in his doctor’s office heard about Rapid Village Columbia and learned Fred would be eligible to become a resident of the village. With the solitude of a private shelter, support staff to help him obtain the medicines he needs, and the companionship of his emotional support dog, Thunder, things started to look up.
“You know, having a roof over your head, it makes it a lot easier,” Fred says. “Having three meals a day makes it a lot easier. And having a support team makes it incredibly easier. Just knowing that you'll have staff members willing to support you in every facet, be it clothing, be it food, be it transportation. It makes everything a little bit more bearable instead of it being so hard.”
As part of job placement and engagement programs in the village, Fred is attending weekly Bible studies and working with the local Goodwill for job placement and education advancement opportunities. In addition to participating in these programs to fulfill his goal of becoming an entrepreneur, he’s working with his case manager to find permanent housing.
“Before this program, I kind of lost sight of that, but it's helping me rebuild the situations where I feel more confident in myself,” he says. “And it's helping me become a stronger man.”
But his favorite part about living in the village?
“Oh my gosh. My favorite thing? That has to be only one thing? Actually, I think my favorite thing is the community. Close knit. And having neighbors is awesome. We’re close enough to get to know each other and become very good friends. So, creating friendships and new paths has really been a venture for me.”
With supportive services, his own private space to rest, and the restorative power of community in the village, Fred is optimistic about transitioning out of his shelter and what the future brings.
“It's so awesome to me, if you come in the program, you take full advantage of it, you're going to get everything out of it that it’s meant to give,” he says. “I am the change I want to be. I’m not going backwards.”
Rapid Shelter Columbia, a Pallet shelter village serving 50 people experiencing chronic homelessness, opened just 70 days after plans were announced.
Read more about breaking ground on the site and cultivating community in Columbia
Addiction has become ingrained and unavoidable in the broader conversation about homelessness. It is common to blame drug and alcohol use on why people lose their housing, even with abundant data suggesting otherwise: a study found that while 91% of the general public believed drug use to be the cause of homelessness in young populations, only 10% of participants with lived experience said this was accurate.
While substance use is undoubtedly a prevalent issue for many people experiencing homelessness, it is rarely the sole factor leading to a loss of housing—in fact, studies have proven that dependencies on drugs, alcohol, or both are not direct causes of homelessness.
The order of causation is often confused and oversimplified. In reality, when people lose their housing due to financial hardship or relationship issues, the harsh environment of living unsheltered can act as a catalyst to developing substance use disorder.
This disconnect between perception and reality is due to the broad stigmatization of substance use, and a troubling lack of understanding around social determinants of health (SDOH), intergenerational poverty, insufficient mental health services, mass incarceration, and systemically racist practices like redlining.
To truly help our unhoused neighbors, it’s essential to challenge the mischaracterization and stigma of substance use and examine the root causes of homelessness—which go far beyond addiction and are deeply entrenched in political and socioeconomic systems.
The role of racism and marginalization
An overwhelming amount of evidence clearly illustrates how marginalized social groups (such as people of color, indigenous people, and the LGBTQIA+ community) experience homelessness at disproportionately high rates.
Even though Black people make up 13% of our country’s population, they comprise 40% of homeless Americans. This can be traced back to structurally racist practices like redlining and blockbusting, which rose to prominence with the National Housing Act of 1934. These effectively prohibited potential homebuyers who were Black from securing loans or mortgages and artificially inflated property values after driving people out of historically white neighborhoods, and, in turn, caused intergenerational poverty that still resonates today.
Disparately high rates of homelessness caused by historical traumas are also felt by indigenous communities including American Indians and Alaska Natives. These populations face unique and lasting challenges that stem from legislation signed into law nearly 200 years ago: a mistrust in the federal government, a severe lack of funding for affordable housing, and skewed data that leads to inequitable resources are just a few examples that contribute to imbalanced rates of unsheltered homelessness in indigenous communities.
Discrimination also has profound effects on the LGBTQIA+ community. Family rejection due to sexual orientation or gender identity and physical, emotional, and sexual abuse are common experiences that lead to feelings of ostracization and abandonment. A 2021 study shows the effects of this marginalization: 17% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults and 30% of transgender adults experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, compared to 6% of the U.S. population. Younger people are even more vulnerable. In 2022, 28% of LGBTQIA+ youth reported experiencing homelessness or housing instability.
The revolving door of incarceration and homelessness
Beginning with sweeping, punitive “tough on crime” laws that were enacted in the 1970s in response to an uptick in violent crime, the U.S. is still today one of the world’s largest jailers. Even after statistics of these targeted heinous crimes decreased, the prison system incarcerated more and more people for committing public order crimes like drug use and possession, prostitution, public drinking, gambling, and vagrancy—and gave them longer sentences. Since 1980, the number of people incarcerated for such crimes has risen 1,049%.
These minor offenses are therefore seen as just cause for incarceration. Once a person exits the prison system, it is remarkably difficult to rebuild a life: jobs and housing will routinely deny applications, which is why formerly incarcerated people are nearly 10 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general public. This vicious cycle is maintained by laws that criminalize homelessness like sleeping in public, panhandling, and public urination.
The U.S. prison system causes and perpetuates homelessness by focusing on retributive measures rather than reform and giving people a fair chance at a new life.
Stigmatization and sidelining of mental health services
Deinstitutionalization, or the process of closing public psychiatric facilities and moving patients to a model of community health services, is a core part of the discussion around the link between mental illness and homelessness. Although it is inaccurate to attribute this as the sole factor why people living with mental illness end up on the streets, there is no debate that the poor planning in discharging these patients and the dearth of needed supportive services play a significant role.
As of 2022, 21.1% of people experiencing homelessness live with mental illness. For people with conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and neurodevelopmental issues, having access to stable housing and social services is key—but with an acute scarcity of available affordable housing and lack of publicly funded mental health resources and outreach workers, they are often discharged back onto the streets without regard after visits to the ER or being held in police custody.
Ultimately, there are various historical and societal reasons why people experience homelessness, and addiction is simply one issue closely tied to the trauma of living unsheltered. To end the homelessness crisis, we must address these root causes, build a reliable ecosystem of support, and offer compassion and understanding to those who need help—because every person deserves access to a stable and permanent place to call home.
In our Village Voices series, we shine a spotlight on residents living in Pallet shelter villages across the country and give them the chance to share their stories.
Linda Daniels was walking down the street with her bags looking for a place to sleep that night. An outreach worker happened to notice her and asked if she needed help. Within two weeks, she was a resident of the Rapid Shelter Columbia village.
A month in, Linda says the chance to have her own space to rest, to return to after a long day as a custodial worker at the University of South Carolina, and to collect her thoughts has been pivotal in being able to move forward.
“It means the world to me, because I got my own space, and I got my own place to where I can call mine right now,” she says. “I like being by myself a lot of times. So if I'm going through something, I can come in my room and think about what I'm going through and try to make things better. And I think this is a wonderful thing.”
Linda says she became homeless after experiencing family and marriage problems. Her tendencies to put others’ needs before her own made her lose sight of her duties and, in turn, found herself with nowhere to call home.
“People were drowning around me and I'm trying to save everybody, but at the same time I'm drowning with them because I'm neglecting myself and my responsibilities,” she says. “It tore my heart apart. It really did.”
The opportunity of living in the village and to recharge in her own space has given Linda an optimistic view of rebuilding her life. She plans on maintaining her job, getting a place of her own, and focusing on her own needs.
“I’m ecstatic about this,” she says. “Makes me want to cry because if you only knew my whole situation, this is wonderful to me. And my case manager and the people that helped me to get back into my own place means the world to me.”
She also has some advice for anyone going through a similar situation:
“I want them to know that when it seems like it’s not working out or it’s turning for the worse, keep moving forward. Don’t stop. No matter what, how bad it looks, how hard it looks like it’s getting, never give up. Never. And that’s why I’m here.”
Rapid Shelter Columbia, a Pallet shelter village serving 50 people experiencing chronic homelessness, opened just 70 days after plans were announced.
Read more about breaking ground on the site and cultivating community in Columbia
There are many types of housing to consider in the larger conversation of ending unsheltered homelessness, all with their own benefits. Commonly referred to as the “housing continuum,” the progression for a person experiencing homelessness from sleeping on the street to, eventually, securing permanent housing, is not a linear path. In the same way that no two people are the same, there is no standard route from living unsheltered to finding a stable home.
Interim shelter is the stage in this continuum where Pallet fits in. Compared to congregate shelter (which houses as many people as possible under one roof), and transitional housing (which consists of semi-permanent and permanent structures that are more expensive and time-consuming to develop), interim shelter is its own distinct model. It offers people their own dignified space to take their next steps while being a cost-effective, rapidly deployable model to address unsheltered homelessness.
Lowering the barriers of congregate shelter
Congregate shelters have become an undesirable solution due to health and safety concerns and often come with insurmountable barriers for those experiencing homelessness. Long wait times for a bed and limited operating hours mean that people working night shifts are excluded, and in most cases, everyone is required to leave in the morning—making the search for somewhere to sleep a daily challenge.
Upon entry to the shelter, guests are separated from their possessions, making this temporary stay often seem like a setback. And due to the extremely temporary nature of the model, people seeking work can’t use the shelter as an address in their job applications.
Many people worry for their safety, especially those who have experienced sexual abuse, leading to low-quality (or non-existent) sleep.
Separating guests by age or gender means couples and families are often split up. These shelters also don’t allow pets, which provide vital emotional support for many people experiencing homelessness.
Perhaps above all other reasons, there is an immense shortage of shelter beds to accommodate unhoused communities.
All these barriers speak to the inefficiency of congregate shelter reintegrating people experiencing homelessness: those who spend most of their time and energy struggling to finding somewhere safe to sleep don’t have the resources to take their next steps and sustainably transition out of homelessness.
The interim shelter model lowers these barriers: residents don’t have to worry about relocating each morning; couples, families, and pets are allowed to stay together; and the safety of a private space with a locking door provides solitude and peace of mind.
Faster, more cost-effective, and more adaptable
The transitional housing model is similar to interim shelter but places a focus on building semi-permanent structures that are not designed for rapid assembly and disassembly. Using costly materials leads to a significantly more expensive build-out, especially when scaling the model to accommodate larger unsheltered populations.
Transitional housing options also take a much longer time to build. Homelessness needs to be addressed immediately—the streets cannot act as a waiting room.
The value of building semi-permanent housing is also a question of infrastructure and the goal of ending homelessness. When structures aren’t intended to be disassembled with speed, available land for accessible permanent housing decreases and reintegrating residents is less incentivized.
In comparison, interim shelter villages are less expensive, can be deployed on a much faster timeline, and are operated with wraparound onsite services that provide residents with crucial support. This model fills the gap in the continuum between living unsheltered and permanent housing, all while being adaptable to the changing landscapes of the homelessness crisis in different cities. Interim models also minimize resource distraction from the development of permanent housing supply and innovative home ownership models, which should be prioritized for funding.
Permanent housing is not the immediate solution
Ending unsheltered homelessness entails every person having reliable access to their own stable, permanent home. Unfortunately, breaking into the current housing market is challenging enough, but it becomes exponentially more difficult for people who have experienced homelessness, incarceration, or have a history of mental health or substance use issues.
Before even having a chance to go through the process of finding a home, you need documentation like an ID, social security card, and birth certificate. In many cases, encampment sweeps mean unhoused people have lost these essential documents and need assistance to obtain new copies.
In densely populated areas of the country, it’s not uncommon for unsheltered people to wait years, or even decades, on lists for subsidized affordable housing. This is a clear symptom of larger systemic inequity from underfunded and under-resourced public housing policies.
Regardless of all these barriers, there is a glaring lack of available affordable rental housing—for people with extremely low incomes, there is a shortage of 7.3 million affordable rental homes.
Having access to safe, dignified shelter with onsite services can be a life-changing opportunity for unhoused individuals. Interim shelter addresses the essential needs of our unhoused neighbors with urgency and is a crucial piece of the housing continuum that demands more attention, funding, and community support.
Read Why Rapid Response Interim Shelter is Crucial
Read Debunking Myths: Homeless people shouldn’t own pets.
Homelessness is a matter of life and death. While providing permanent, stable housing is the ultimate goal to help people experiencing homelessness, there are many laborious steps between living outside and finding a place to finally call home. And there’s no time to spare.
Rapid-response shelter, specifically interim housing, fills this void and allows people to find stability and structure to take their next steps. Alongside social services, access to necessities like food, water, and transportation, and a safe, private environment in a community setting, this housing model is an essential component in the pursuit of ending unsheltered homelessness.
What is rapid-response interim shelter?
Interim shelters like those in Pallet villages are designed to be urgently deployed and provide private temporary shelter for individuals, couples, or families. “Rapid-response” simply means these shelters can be swiftly and affordably built to address the needs of unhoused individuals. “Interim” indicates that they are intended to act as a stepping stone for people to stabilize and take their next steps.
The low-barrier shelter village model allows residents to bring their personal possessions with them, and stay with their partners, family members, or pets that are often not permitted in other temporary shelter options. This approach offers the space and privacy for unhoused communities to recharge and plan for their future with access to wraparound services, and the chance to transition to permanent housing in a safe and dignified environment.
The power of community
Pallet is more than shelter: our village model is key for many residents to gain access to an ecosystem of support, become a part of a healing community, and successfully reintegrate.
When living in encampments, people rely on their neighbors for information and camaraderie. An abrupt transition from this environment to individual housing can in many cases lead to feelings of isolation and psychological distress. The chance to move into a private shelter in a communal setting means residents feel like part of something larger than themselves and has profound positive effects on mental health.
Going beyond housing means providing people with essential resources to be able to transition out of homelessness. These resources are ingrained in the Pallet shelter village model. Reliable access to food, water, hygiene facilities, and transportation, as well as individualized assistance in securing documents, obtaining health care, and finding a job are key in creating a living situation with a standard of dignity.
The service providers who operate Pallet shelter villages ensure that all residents have these tools at their disposal to make steps toward permanent housing.
Bridging the gap
Most would agree that housing is a human right. And while helping every person to find their permanent home is the aim, the streets cannot act as a waiting room while low-income and accessible developments are being constructed.
That’s why rapid-response interim shelter plays a critical role in bridging the gap. Providing immediate housing and services is an essential piece—Pallet shelter villages can be deployed with speed and can address cities’ particular homelessness emergencies at scale. While many permanent developments can take years to complete, each Pallet shelter can be assembled in under three hours with minimal tools.
Unhoused communities need shelter now. It’s time to recognize the urgency of going beyond permanent housing solutions—and allocate the time, effort, and funds to make rapid-response interim shelter a priority in ending unsheltered homelessness.
Read Debunking Myths: Homeless people shouldn’t own pets.
Many fear that even city-sanctioned shelter villages will mean an increase in crime. Real-world evidence shows this is a myth—and in many cases the opposite is true.
The homelessness crisis and violent crime were two of the top concerns for Oregon voters according to a 2023 poll. This holds true across the country, and many see these sensitive issues as inseparable, making it even more challenging to work toward a solution.
In our experience building over 100 Pallet shelter villages—and working with officials in over 85 cities—worries about increased crime top lists of concerns for potential neighbors. This is understandable. People are invested in their community and naturally protective of it. Widespread myths and stereotypes about homelessness only increase fears of how a local shelter village might impact community crime rates.
But we’ve seen firsthand how a well-planned and well-run shelter village changes minds. Neighbors, city officials, and shelter village residents almost always see it as a boon to the community, with benefits that outweigh any downsides.
Crime rates in the area often drop when unhoused people leave the streets for safe personal shelter and the peace of mind it brings, plus access to the wraparound services they need to take steps toward permanent housing.
How shelter villages reduce crime
In data collected from 2020 to present in the surrounding neighborhoods of eight different Pallet shelter villages in Los Angeles, a significant reduction in crime rates shows how secure shelter and supportive services play positive roles in building community. While rates of crime committed by unsheltered suspects rose citywide by an average of 19.4%, they dropped by an average of 24.9% within a quarter mile of each site. In one such instance, the rate dropped a drastic 63.8%.
We saw a similar story play out at a Safe Stay Pallet shelter village in Vancouver, Washington. In the year after the village opened, crime in the neighborhood dropped substantially, with a 29% reduction in calls and officer-initiated visits compared to the same period the previous year.
Fewer incidents of criminal activity were recorded in Denver, too: even as total citywide crime rose 14.3% in 2020-21, in the areas surrounding Safe Outdoor Space (SOS) camps, it dropped 2.8%. What’s more is that the following year, crime around SOS neighborhoods was reduced an additional 14.1%.
Homelessness and crime
While people experiencing homelessness are involved with the criminal legal system at higher rates than the general population, the reasons are complex and often stem from the mere fact that they have nowhere to live. Unhoused people are also many times more likely to be victims of crimes—especially violent crime.
In most places, homelessness itself is a crime. Homeless status offenses—purported crimes of vagrancy, loitering, or trespassing—are unavoidable for people experiencing homelessness, and research shows they lead to more crime because the cycle of arrest and incarceration makes it significantly harder to find housing.
Crimes committed by people experiencing homelessness are most often out of desperation to meet basic survival needs. Take away desperation and much of the crime disappears with it.
The solution starts with a safe place to sleep
Unsanctioned tent encampments with no support services and no oversight increase risk across the board—to physical and mental health, safety of self and belongings, and to the surrounding area in the form of increased crime. But when people enter a secure, organized shelter community with safe personal shelter with heat and air conditioning, meals, and professional support services for all aspects of their well-being, crime becomes unnecessary.
An evaluation of a supportive housing program in New York City found that after two years, 86 percent of participants remained housed (compared with only 42 percent of the comparison group, who didn’t receive supportive housing services), and they spent 40 percent less time in jail.
“It’s easier to have hope when you’re treated as a whole person,” says Rusty Bailey, former mayor of Riverside. "It’s easier to be motivated—in counseling, in substance treatment, in a job search—when the people around you see you as worthwhile. I know Pallet’s shelters offer these things because I spent more than 10 nights in a unit in 2019. I wanted to know what we were providing. I found the shelters to be highly functional and offered residents a stable environment from which they could begin to improve their lives. During my stay in the personal shelter, I spoke with a number of residents experiencing homelessness who desired their own shelter like the one I slept in.”
As one Pallet shelter resident explains, “I have my own space. I could close my door and lock it. I go out. I don’t have to worry about anybody coming into my room and stealing. The [service provider] helped me get my ID, they helped me get my Social Security card and my birth certificate. It’s new to me. To trust in people—is it really happening? It’s weird, but it feels good.”
A dignified, supportive environment is key
Like all communities, a personal shelter village—and its residents—thrive with organization and a management team invested in its success. This means:
Pallet established five dignity standards that all our shelter village operators must meet for the safety and dignity of all involved. These standards address access to hygiene facilities, meals, transportation, safety, and supportive services. Easily accessible services for medical needs, substance use and mental health treatment, and help navigating the challenging path to stability and permanent housing are especially critical.
A way forward
Rather than further criminalizing homelessness in our cities and living in fear of our unhoused neighbors, providing safe personal shelter tied to a potentially life-saving support system—a proven model for success—will help break the cycle to ultimately end this crisis and create safer communities for everyone.
Read Debunking Myths: Homeless people shouldn’t own pets.
Communities of color and other marginalized groups experience homelessness at disproportionately high rates—a consequence of structural racism and discrimination.
More than a million adults and a similar number of children are impacted by homelessness each year according to the 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. From 2020 to 2022 alone, chronic homelessness rose 7.1 percent and unsheltered homelessness 3.4 percent, putting more unhoused people at greater risk.
The data is clear: homelessness is a humanitarian crisis on a vast scale affecting people nationwide. But the disparity with which it affects BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities and other marginalized groups is even greater.
Structural racism and discrimination create disparities
Data collected by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows that 11 out of 10,000 White people experienced homelessness in 2022, while the rates of Black Americans and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders were 4 and 11 times higher, respectively. Similar disparities exist to varying degrees among other communities of color and marginalized groups such as LGBTQIA+ Americans.
Decades of discriminatory and racist policies and practices at all levels of government, segregation, and for American Indians and Alaska Natives, forced relocation, have prevented equal opportunity, devalued property, and inhibited intergenerational wealth. This leaves these communities more exposed to housing instability and at greater risk of homelessness.
The impacts of this kind of policymaking are clear across the data on homelessness. Despite comprising a relatively small percentage of the general U.S. population, BIPOC communities and other marginalized groups are overrepresented in the homeless population—three to one for Black Americans and as high as five to one for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
A national survey found that people ages 18 to 25 who identified as LGBTQ+ experienced homelessness at over twice the rate of their heterosexual peers, and nearly a quarter of young Black men ages 18 to 25 who identified as LGBTQ+ reported experiencing homelessness in the previous 12 months.
Putting systems in place to address and eventually reverse the effects of past policies will take time and dedicated partnership at all levels.
Permanent housing alone is not enough
There is no question that we’re in dire need of more affordable permanent housing in this country. Lack of investment has created acute shortages. Meanwhile, wages have not kept pace with housing costs. According to census data, more than 40% of American renters—19 million households—spend over a third of their income on housing. In communities where rent consumes more than 32% income, homelessness will almost certainly continue to rise.
But affordable housing alone won’t end the homelessness crisis. Getting people off the streets and into permanent homes starts with safe, stable transitional shelter and an ecosystem of services capable of providing each person the individual support they need to rebuild their lives. Without the foundation that support builds, people are much more likely to experience homelessness again.
According to AHAR, the number of transitional housing beds in the U.S. fell from roughly 211,000 in 2007 to 86,000 in 2022, a 59 percent drop. However, policymakers are beginning to acknowledge the need for accessible temporary shelter that is dignified and culturally appropriate to the specific needs of the communities.
In fact, the Biden Administration’s All In: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness notes, “The key components to effective emergency shelter include culturally appropriate, gender-affirming, and specific, low-barrier access and housing-focused services aimed at rapid exits back to permanent housing.”
Transitional housing can help
At Pallet, we believe the primary function of temporary housing should be providing a central location to access community services that help people end their unhoused status. This puts the individual on a path of stability with not only a safe place to sleep but also a supportive environment set up to appropriately meet their unique needs. While long-term solutions are put in place, we play a critical role in bridging the gap with immediate transitional housing and connection to wrap-around social services.
Our shelters are a safe and affordable way to quickly shelter historically marginalized groups at particular risk. Our team has extensive end-to-end expertise in the multi-stakeholder process required to create healing transitional shelter villages at speed and scale. We’re also a resource for help securing funding, identifying appropriate sites and housing types, working with community stakeholders, partnering with service providers, and building the shelters onsite.
Pallet’s goal is to empower municipalities to end homelessness. If we understand the unique challenges different communities face, we can find solutions that have a lasting impact.
Read How homelessness impacts the LGBTQ+ community
Homelessness is not just about permanent housing. While affordable housing is certainly part of the answer to the equation, the streets cannot act as a waiting room for those who are unsheltered. Housing alone will not solve our nationwide homelessness crisis. And the federal government agrees.
At the end of last year, the Biden-Harris Administration announced ALL IN: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, which outlines ways to reduce homelessness by 25 percent by 2025. One of the focus areas in the plan is helping response systems meet the needs of people who are unhoused and unsheltered. The plan will, “increase the availability of and access to low-barrier, and culturally appropriate shelter, especially non-congregate shelter.”
The plan also states: “Emergency shelter—both congregate and non-congregate—serves a temporary and life-saving role for people in crisis and should be implemented with as few barriers as possible. The key components to effective emergency shelter include culturally appropriate, gender-affirming, and specific, low-barrier access and housing-focused services aimed at rapid exits back to permanent housing.”
An ecosystem of support
We believe housing is a human right but breaking the cycle of homelessness means caring for the person’s individual needs. An ecosystem of support is needed alongside permanent housing to transition people from the streets into safe spaces. That can mean providing access to healthcare, mental health support, counseling, transitional employment, food, and much more.
If we don’t address the issues that drive chronic homelessness such as a lack of access to social services and the cost and speed of building long-term affordable housing, the cycle will continue. It’s among the reasons why policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels are developing opportunities for emergency and transitional housing.
Research shows having a safe space improves well-being and health and overall life expectancy, boosts pathways to education and personal development and influences future employment opportunities. The benefits of ending homelessness improve the quality of life for individuals and families in addition to strengthening our cities and towns. You can learn more in our white paper, Responding to Your Local Homelessness Emergency.
Transitional housing makes a difference
Pallet has built thousands of safe, secure, and dignified transitional shelter units for people experiencing homelessness across the U.S. with our lived experience workforce. We identify realistic and data-backed approaches to make a meaningful difference. While long-term solutions are put in place, we play a critical role in bridging the gap with immediate transitional housing and connection to wrap-around social services—a proven model for success.
When temporary shelter sites are operated with adequate support services, we see people take advantage of those services and get the help they need and eventually transition to permanent supportive housing when it becomes available. A recent study that measured the effectiveness of shelter villages for people experiencing homelessness in Oregon found that 69 percent of villagers were satisfied or very satisfied with their village.
Most importantly, we need to make decisions informed by those with lived experience. This quote from ALL IN: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness from a Portland, Maine area resident who experienced homelessness sums it up best:
“We can never ever go back to sheltering people as we once did. Too much has changed since this pandemic began. Congregate housing and large shelters didn’t work that well in the first place, did not support the dignity of the homeless as people. The pandemic has shown us clearly that other ways of securing housing—such as hotels, small transitional units, and private low-income housing units—are essential, and more creative thinking needs to be encouraged if we are going to eliminate massive homelessness.”
Read Why housing is a human right
The first thing Sarah noticed when she came to Pallet was how happy everyone looked. “I was waiting to interview, and I noticed everyone that was coming in seemed to be happy,” she recalls. “They had a smile. They made eye contact and said hello. I was like: $#%@ people are really happy to be here!”
After her interview, she was told she got the job and Sarah started as a manufacturing specialist in September ’22. It was the next step on her path to focusing on herself and her recovery.
Growing up in the Everett, Washington area, Sarah’s childhood was tumultuous. “I didn’t feel safe as a child,” she says. “You pick just about anything, name it, and it happened to me as a child.” She experienced sexual abuse, homelessness and witnessed her parents’ domestic violence growing up.
Sarah was also in the foster system for a while before her grandmother took her in. “Things didn’t work out there,” she explains. “I was just lashing out.” She’d skip school and was eventually expelled. She went to live with the parents of her then boyfriend. The two would later marry.
This would be the first of two long-term relationships for Sarah. “I used to be really afraid of being alone and not being in a relationship,” she says. “I had two very long-term relationships—10 years each with my kids’ dads. I have now come to realize I don’t need a man to complete me.”
When her first marriage ended, Sarah, who had dedicated a decade to her children and husband, didn’t know how to process the breakup. “I found myself feeling lost,” Sarah says. “I didn’t know how to process my feelings in a healthy way, so I ended up using drugs. I emulated the behavior I grew up watching my whole life.”
Eventually her situation improved, which is when she met her second husband. She had two more girls, but her life became rocky again as she experienced major health issues after her fourth daughter was born. She was also dealing with the death of her brother and marital problems that eventually led to divorce. To deal with her losses, she coped in the only way she knew at the time. “I got lost in methamphetamine–numbing myself to make it go away,” she says.
By 2019, Sarah had been in and out of the criminal legal system, lost her house and was homeless. Her life continued to be turbulent until she decided in late 2020 that she needed to get treatment, or she was “going to die.” She adds, “as a parent you’d do anything for your kids. You’d kill for your kids; you’d die for your kids. I had to decide to live for my kids.”
Her first attempt to stay sober wasn’t successful. But then she decided to stay with a childhood friend and enrolled in an intensive outpatient program. She also contacted another friend who had gotten sober through the sheriff’s program. “I called him, and he gave me the numbers of some social workers,” Sarah says. “I called one and within five minutes, I had a sheriff pick me up. That’s the first time I’d been in the back of a sheriff’s car without handcuffs on.”
Focused on her sobriety, Sarah got housing at a women’s house in North Everett where she has since become the live-in manager. (“I help by leading and being an example for the women in my house,” Sarah notes.) She also started a part-time job at a cleaning business with a woman in her program. “I just needed something part time to have money,” she says. “My job at the time was working on my recovery, clearing my head and getting that first year under my belt because that’s the hardest.”
Then her friend Jennifer, who worked at Pallet and was the women’s house live-in manager at the time, encouraged Sarah to apply for a full-time position. Being a Fair Chance Employer is essential to Pallet’s success and helps us empower people like Sarah who can process and problem-solve with compassion, sensitivity, and creativity.
At first, Sarah wasn’t ready, but after a while she decided it was time. “Coming [to Pallet] was the next right step for me,” she says. “I’ve never had benefits. I’ve never been eligible for a 401K. It makes me proud of myself.”
Sarah is learning how to deal with stress and not let her self-worth be wrapped up in those around her. “I just focus on what I can do today and not future trip,” she says. “I know I’m going to get there. I see the light at the end of the tunnel now.”
Pallet is a certified Living Wage Employer
There is no one solution to end homelessness. Every municipality and every community have their own specific needs. While our Pallet villages coupled with wraparound supportive services are a successful model, we understand there are other strategies to address the homelessness crisis. Working closely with cities across the country, we realize communities want to find the right solutions and know our expertise and learnings from deploying over 100 shelter villages could help them drive change. So, we’ve launched PathForward™ homelessness advisory services.
Pallet’s PathForward provides support for cities to create customized solutions with defined goals and resources like funding roadmaps, implementation plans, policy research, capacity building, partnerships, project management and more. Our service uses data-backed strategies anchored by people with lived experience. Cities can work with Pallet in a variety of ways including long-term partnerships, special projects, and one-off advice.
As mission-driven problem solvers, we see homelessness as a human-rights crisis necessitating urgent and bold action. PathForward uses wholistic strategies that dig into the intersectional root cause of homelessness. We identify realistic and data-backed approaches to make a meaningful difference.
“Solving homelessness involves an entire ecosystem of support requiring city officials, service providers and advocates to work together,” says Amy King, CEO, and founder of Pallet. “We’ve supported countless cities addressing homelessness and we are thrilled to formalize our experience and expertise through Pallet’s PathForward to help even more communities, not just with shelter but also with a wholistic, results-driven response.”
One of the cities we’ve worked with is Huntington, W. Va. The city was experiencing a homelessness crisis that was heavily impacted by the opioid epidemic, and a low-quality, declining housing supply that left city officials with limited solutions. Partnering with city leaders, we identified one of their highest priorities was a non-emergency response for people experiencing homelessness, mental health crisis, or other issues requiring alternative responses and de-escalation. Through the National League of Cities’ Capstone Challenge, PathForward supported Huntington with the implementation of the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). The program launches in March 2023.
“The City of Huntington worked with Pallet through the National League of Cities’ Capstone Challenge to address our challenges with homelessness,” says Huntington Mayor Steve Williams. “I have always found public-private partnerships to be a key component of success for local governments, and our partnership with Pallet was no exception. Their expansive insight, experience, and willingness to do deep dives into this complex issue were a critical reason why we were able to develop and launch a Crisis Intervention Team to assist the most vulnerable individuals of our population.”
PathForward is backed by data and expertise–we’ve deployed over 100 transitional shelter villages across the U.S. with our lived experience workforce. Pallet has been working with cities since 2016 to provide solutions that are dignified, cost efficient, and effective in ending homelessness. Our team of experts and people with lived experience work with cities to advance compassionate and innovative strategies that fit their needs and empower communities.
Notes King, “Cities can no longer wait to activate strategies that drive real and lasting change.”
It’s crucial that Pallet shelters can withstand various weather conditions—so no matter where in the world our shelters are located, they can handle the elements. To ensure our products can provide proper shelter in extreme temperatures, Pallet’s engineering team consistently does performance testing.
Here’s a look at how the Shelter 64 and Shelter 100 are designed and tested.
Exterior
Keeping village residents comfortable begins with the exterior. Pallet shelters are composed of seven prefabricated panels that can be assembled in under an hour on-site by our deployment team. These panels are white and opaque with a glossy finish, which reflects the sunlight. Thanks to the reflective nature of the panels that make up the shelters’ exterior, they require less electricity to maintain comfortable interior temperatures.
Insulation
Proper insulation is vital in both cold weather and hot temperatures. The exterior panels have a foam insulating core made of expanded polystyrene (EPS). For frigid climates, we offer thicker wall and roof insulation, a 4500-watt heater, and insulation under the floor panel as part of a cold-weather package. In warm climates, air conditioning units can be installed to help keep the shelters cool.
Testing
Our engineering team tests shelter effectiveness in summer and winter temperatures to ensure our design keeps residents at a comfortable temperature.
For cold-weather testing, members of the engineering team brought the shelters to a food storage facility. It had a massive cold chamber that maintained a consistent temperature of -16°F. A consistent temperature is an essential component for proper testing. The team used an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of various surfaces and used thermocouples (sensors that measure temperature) attached to a laptop to record internal and external temperatures throughout the duration of the test.
After gathering the cold chamber test findings, the team performed a reverse test with smoke. This test enabled them to identify the exact locations where even the smallest gap could allow warm interior air to escape the shelter.
Additional design improvements included adding foam seals and insulating the floor for cold-weather climates. With better efficiency comes less energy consumption. Because of the design improvements, a comfortable 70°F can be maintained inside Pallet shelters even when outside temperatures drop to as low as -20°F.
Wind and Snow
Tests for windy and snowy conditions show the shelters can withstand 110 mph wind and a 25 lb./sq. ft. snow load for standard units. Depending on the location, the Pallet team can make adjustments to increase the snow load to 50 lb./sq. ft. and wind to 170 mph. A safety feature that comes with every shelter is hold-down rods at the corners of the unit. These allow the shelter to be secured to the ground.
Always Evolving
We are committed to evolving our products in both big and small ways. Last year, we launched two new categories: Hygiene and Community for a complete village model. We also introduced a small but important addition to our line: a folding desk and table.
At Pallet, we continue to test for efficiency so we can grow and improve our product line.
Read: How Pallet shelters are tested for cold conditions
Pallet villages are informed by those with lived experience. This shapes everything we do from our product design and program development to safety and dignity.
The villages are created to be a transitional steppingstone from unsheltered homelessness to permanent housing. They provide the dignity and security of private units within a community setting. Residents have access to a resource net of on-site social services managed by a local service provider, appointed by the city or county leading the project.
Pallet approaches safety in several ways. Our shelters are designed to meet or exceed industry building, fire, and safety guidelines, and are independently inspected by local authorities prior to residents moving in. We’ve also worked with village operators, residents, and our team members with lived experience to identify dignity standards we believe should be upheld at any Pallet shelter site. These standards include an on-site service provider to ensure residents have the ongoing support required for their safety and 24/7 security.
Personal Safety and Dignity
There are five standards informed by those with lived experience, that should be addressed at any Pallet shelter site supporting those experiencing homelessness or displacement. As well as hygiene facilities, meals, and access to transportation, they also comprise safety and supportive services.
Security features can include infrastructure with exterior fencing, a locked and monitored point of entry, and adequate lighting. Safety considerations also include fire prevention, sufficient staff properly trained in trauma and/or conflict resolution, and unobstructed pathways. A zero-tolerance policy toward violence, abuse of power sexual harassment/assault, or discrimination of any kind is mandatory in our villages.
One of the essential safety features of a Pallet shelter is the locking door. When residents are inside their cabin, they can relax and be sure their space can remain private. A locking door also means their personal belongings are safe. When someone is experiencing unsheltered homelessness, there’s always a risk they’ll be asked to move, and it’s challenging to hold onto one’s possessions.
Pallet villages provide a central location to access community services that help a person end their unhoused status. This starts with case management, social workers and other professionals who can create client-centric plans for getting residents stable housing, health care, employment, and more.
Weather Protection
Pallet shelters are equipped to handle wind, snow, and varying climates across the country. Our engineering team has performed numerous tests to ensure we’ve produced a quality product where people are protected.
Climate Control
Keeping people comfortable begins with the exterior. The panels of Pallet shelters are white and opaque with a glossy finish. Reflecting sunlight is helpful in the summer. Air conditioning units also help keep the shelters cool. They require less electricity to maintain comfortable interior temperatures due to the reflective nature of the shelter’s exterior. We offer two options including a 6000 BTU AC for extremely hot climates.
Proper insulation is vital in cold weather and high temperatures. The shelter exterior panels have a foam insulating core. We offer thicker wall and roof insulation, a 4500-watt heater, and insulation under the floor panel as part of a cold-weather package for frigid climates. It maintains a temperature of 70F when outside temperatures drop as low as -20F.
Wind/Snow
Tests for windy and snowy conditions show the shelters can withstand 115 mph wind and a 25 lb./sq. ft. snow load for our standard units. Depending on the location, we can also adjust to increase the snow load to 50 lb./sq. ft. and wind to 170 mph. An additional safety feature that comes with every shelter includes a proprietary staking system, which allows the unit to be secured to the ground.
Fire Safety
Any structure is susceptible to fire danger. Our team’s construction industry background and knowledge helped in the selection of materials that would be safe for people to reside in, strong enough to weather the elements, and easy to assemble so we can set up villages quickly.
Pallet shelters are made up of a unique material mix specifically selected for safety, ease of use, and cost efficiency. The panels meet a Class C fire rating. This classification is a measurement of effectiveness against light fire exposure and is standard practice for all residential and commercial structures. Examples of other Class C building materials include hardboard siding panels, plywood, and Masonite. Brick, for example, falls under a Class A rating. There are five classification levels.
The shelter’s fire rating meets International Building Code requirements as well as local standards in all the 15 states where we currently have villages. Pallet makes fire rating information available before a city moves forward with contracting to build a village. This gives cities time to independently verify that the structures meet local code requirements. After they are assembled, the shelters are also inspected to ensure they meet code and local fire regulations before residents move in.
These measures, paired with the efforts of local authorities, ensure that cities and counties can build Pallet villages with confidence.
“Pallet shelters are designed to prioritize safety, and this is a key reason we chose this shelter intervention,” said Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas. “They meet code requirements by the State and City departments, including the Oakland Fire Department.”
Further, fire safety isn’t solely about materials used. Another component includes measures that increase the likelihood of having enough time to safely escape a fire. If a three-bedroom home catches fire, building inspectors have set a standard to protect the resident. Those measures include fire alarms and ample windows and doors that can be used as an exit. Pallet’s shelters make the same considerations and can be even easier to exit in the event of an emergency given their relatively small size. There are also hinges on the outside of doors so if someone is incapacitated (not just in the unlikely event of a fire but also if they’re having a personal crisis) the door can be easily removed.
In addition, all Pallet shelters are equipped with standard fire safety equipment. They include:
“In designing our shelters, we borrowed fire safety best practices from our background in traditional permanent housing construction,” says Pallet Founder and CEO Amy King. “These practices, paired with independent inspection by local fire authorities, make Pallet a safe solution for cities.”
The units are spaced several feet apart – dictated by local fire code – to minimize the damage if a fire occurs. Shelter spacing also provides more privacy between residents and their neighbors within the village. For additional safety, service provider staff should perform regular wellness check-ins on residents. These checks are an opportunity to make sure residents keep the egress door clear and that there are no other fire hazards within or between the cabins.
Safety and dignity are always a top priority at Pallet. People experiencing homelessness are already in a vulnerable position. Our goal is to create a safe environment for them to thrive so they can transition to permanent housing.
Much like food and clean drinking water, shelter is a basic human need required for people to live. Without it, we go into survival mode and function at the most fundamental level at best.
Recently, there has been a push at both the federal and local levels to recognize housing as a human right. The Biden administration has done so as have governors like New York’s Kathy Hochul.
That means, if people have a right to life, then they should have the right to what is required to live life. The United Nations defines it as “the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity.” It goes on to declare these rights include “security of tenure, adequate conditions, protection against forced evictions and access to affordable housing,” according to the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Housing as a human right is not a new concept. During his 1944 State of the Union address, President Franklin Roosevelt said, “the right of every family to a decent home” was an economic truth that was “self-evident,” linking the right to housing to the Declaration of Independence. Safe and affordable housing was also recognized as a human right in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly. It has been reiterated in international treaties, resolutions, and declarations most of which the United States has signed onto.
Declaring housing as a human right is all well and good. Putting it into practice is another thing entirely. Housing is still treated as a commodity rather than a right and to date no federal laws guarantee a right to housing. Some local governments like Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and New York have adopted a “right to shelter.” However, a right to shelter in most cases brings those experiencing homelessness indoors to stay in temporary shelters.
So, it’s no surprise homelessness keeps rising. In fact, 582,462 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January of 2022, according to the HUD 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report. Currently, our country has a system of temporary or congregate shelters that theoretically reaches 354,000 people on a given night.
There are some challenges with traditional congregate shelters. Those experiencing homelessness might not want to go to a shelter because they’re concerned about their safety—especially women who are often victims of sexual abuse. In addition, many shelters don’t allow pets or personal items, and others don’t allow families to stay together. While those restrictions exist for a reason, it’s also very understandable why those experiencing homelessness find them to be a barrier. That’s why now more than ever, we need additional rapid solutions, that get to the root of the crisis.
Housing influences so many aspects of our lives that we take for granted—from physical and mental health to safety, to access to both food and employment. Offering a dignified solution with transitional shelter is one way to bridge the gap to permanent housing as we work to secure a right to housing. Our rapidly deployable shelters offer the dignity of a private space. They have a locking door and windows, include a bed, climate control system, and storage.
Pallet shelters are built in a community environment, and we work with local service providers who help residents get the resources they need such as healthcare, transportation, and job placement. It will take a bold move, like a legal right to housing, to address the country’s affordability crisis and growing number of people experiencing homelessness. Time and political pressure are needed to shift housing policy at a local and national level toward a rights-based model.
We believe housing is a basic human right that all people are entitled to have. As some politicians look to innovative plans to solve the current housing crisis, we need to work together to find comprehensive solutions to end unsheltered homelessness.
Today, American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) experience the second highest rate of homelessness in the U.S. Our recent exploration of the impacts of homelessness on Native peoples lends perspective to the complex cause-and-effect relationship behind this crisis, and many of the same factors play into the myth of adequate funding.
Yet anyone unfamiliar with the data might understandably look at it like this: The federal government is obligated to right the wrongs of decades of historical traumas, so funding sufficient to end this emergency must reach the tribes. That is not true for several reasons.
Federal funding for tribal housing assistance has stagnated since 1998
A lack of affordable housing is directly tied to higher rates of homelessness on tribal lands. But despite helpful increases in the past few years, Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) funding levels have remained largely static in the quarter-century following its start in 1998. Because the IHBG is the primary source of funding by which tribes provide affordable housing on reservations, an inadequate contribution translates directly to a critical housing shortage.
An estimated 68,000 new homes are needed to eliminate overcrowding and replace inadequate housing on reservations – and an increase in population since that data was collected has likely worsened the shortage.
High Inflation and increasing reservation populations play a role
Though the dollar amount of IHBG funding has increased slightly over time, inflation has taken a toll in the 25 years since it began, eating away at the value of the contribution. It now represents only a fraction of the 1998 value—a serious impact considering that even at full 1998 value, these dollars did not meet the demand for affordable housing.
Meanwhile, reservation populations have increased since 1998, significantly lowering the per capita allocation of IHBG funding. In the period from 1999 to 2014, the per capita amount decreased over 33% – with real consequences.
Other factors combine to intensify the crisis
Barriers to development including limited private investment, low-functioning housing markets, and poverty mean that Native communities face some of the worst housing and living conditions in the United States. In nearly every social, health, and economic indicator, AI/AN people rank at or near the bottom. According to the latest counts, 1 in 4 AI/AN people were living below the poverty line, almost twice the national rate, yet only 12% of households said they were in assisted housing.
Much of the existing housing is insufficient and overcrowded. According to a 2017 study, homes in tribal areas had deficiencies that far exceeded the national rates of 1-2%.
And among AI/AN households in tribal areas, 16% are overcrowded, compared to 2% nationally. The practice of “doubling up” – living with friends or family despite overcrowding – masks literal homelessness and skews the data that government agencies rely on to allocate funding.
The result? Tribal housing assistance is in desperate need of an overhaul and an infusion of dollars.
Even if funding levels rise sufficiently to meet the affordable housing crisis head on, how much time will pass before conditions measurably improve on tribal lands? Construction is a slow process and, when tied to grant funding, often hindered by red tape that can add years to a project.
The tribes need solutions now, not five years from now. Nearly 80% of Native people no longer live on reservations, due in large part to living conditions there. This leaves many feeling disconnected from their culture and caught between two worlds, with no sense of belonging in either. Understanding this – and the points discussed above – illustrates how when we assume indigenous communities are getting the help they need, we only leave them more vulnerable to going unnoticed.
There are signs of progress. With All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness announced in December 2022, the government acknowledges the work to be done both nationally and specifically to improve conditions on tribal lands. The intent is to “ensure state and local communities have sufficient resources and guidance to build the effective, lasting systems required to end homelessness.” One of its four main strategies: Increase access to federal housing and homelessness funding for AI/AN communities living on and off tribal lands.
While long-term solutions are put in place, Pallet bridges the gap with immediate transitional housing and connection to wrap-around social services – a proven model for success. At the end of 2022, we built a shelter village on the Tulalip Tribal Reservation in Washington state – a good example of a solution tailored to its community. The Tulalip Tribe will run it with the ability to provide culturally appropriate resources. We know there’s no one-size-fits all approach to solving homelessness. But when advocates can create an ecosystem of support such as this, there’s potential for great progress.
6 impacts of homelessness unique to indigenous communities
Get them in a room together and Jennifer and Alan laugh – a lot. The two first met each other a handful of years ago when they were living on streets of the Tulalip Indian Reservation in Washington. Today they’re co-workers at Pallet. Their witty humor makes them a dynamic duo dropping hilarious one-liners as they tell stories about their past. Indeed, they can have a crowd in stitches.
“I relate to many of the people here because we can laugh about things that most people would get appalled by,” Alan says in admiration of his co-workers, many of whom share similar lived experiences.
Jennifer agrees – they have witnessed the darker sides of life. But, she says, they’ve risen above them. “It’s like, you guys, we have overcome so much and we’re killing it now. We are rock stars,” she says, laughing.
She and Alan are proud to have surmounted substance use disorder and other challenges that are, truthfully, nothing to laugh at. Right now though, they’re excited to be working on Pallet shelters for a new village on the Tulalip Reservation where they were once unhoused themselves.
“I’m super happy about the village because there’s a lot of my friends still stuck out there in Tulalip, doing the same dumb [stuff] I was doing,” Alan says. “Now they can potentially move into a Pallet shelter. And the guy that they used to get high with and go commit burglaries and crazy [stuff] with, is the same [guy] who built that shelter for them.”
Alan’s a machinist. He creates the individual parts that form the skeletons of our shelters.
Jennifer works in maintenance and repairs; she just transitioned from being an HR safety specialist. Sometimes she also works onsite erecting the villages. She feels a connection to the people who move into the shelters.
“When you get the opportunity to go out in the field and watch people take down their tents and cry and be so thankful and tell you that as they’re moving their stuff into a unit” it’s powerful, she says.
Years of substance use and cycles of recovery and recidivism led to Jennifer and Alan living unhoused on the Tulalip Reservation in the same circles for about six years. Alan lived in a tent surrounded by 30 other tents. Jennifer sold drugs.
“I needed drugs, she had drugs, that’s how we met,” Alan quips.
“As long as I could keep drugs in my pocket, I was ok. It meant I had money,” Jennifer explains.
Life on the streets was extremely hard both physically–such as defending oneself from attacks—and emotionally; there’s often a loss of self-worth, Jennifer says. “You have to be a survivor. You have to do things you normally wouldn’t do just to get by.”
“People tend to think of drug addicts as being weak,” Alan says. “But it’s the opposite; you’re battling every single day. You’re not thinking about tomorrow, you’re thinking about how am I going to get through today. You’ll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes.”
Through their own journeys and fortitude, Jennifer and Alan both eventually entered clean and sober houses. Jennifer started managing the women’s house, and Alan, the men’s. Jennifer came to Pallet about a year before Alan and found the structure and accountability she needed to start rebuilding her life. Soon she was promoted to HR. “Alan’s manager referred him to me as a great worker and we needed people,” Jennifer says. She helped hire him.
“I just love that when I got into HR I could get more people in and be a fair chancer,” she says. “To watch your fellow co-workers thrive and grow, you get so much reward out of that.”
Being part of a fair chance employer feels like an extension of how she, Alan and others provided support to each other on the streets. “Being in the circle of addiction, you still take care of each other,” she says. “Some days are harder than others. You’re just ready to give up and you just need that one person to believe in you.”
With co-workers who believe in them and stable jobs, Jennifer and Alan are thriving. Alan just moved into an apartment and got his license back. Jennifer lives in her own place with her daughter.
Through their work on Pallet’s 100th village—the Tulalip village—Jennifer and Alan are striving to provide these critical transitional shelters to friends who are still unhoused on the reservation.
“For me, it’s about being part of solving a bigger problem,” Jennifer says. “What makes me excited about the Tulalip build is coming from there–it’s literally closing that whole circle and being able to give back.”