As the population of homeless people continues to increase, overpopulation, crumbling infrastructure, and lack of adequate services will cause traditional shelters to continue to fail. Incorporating practices not typically found in the built environment, a new shelter typology can emerge and reevaluate the negative perception and diminish the stigma surrounding homelessness. If adaptability and community based elements are introduced together in conjunction with other significant architectural interventions, the newly introduced system will have a direct impact on communities and homeless individuals within these communities. Most importantly, if successfully implemented, the new homeless shelter typology will address the psychological issue of homelessness on a long term basis. The newly defined shelters will be more than just a shelter, but a space which includes services for community enhancement, rehabilitation, skill training, and teaching. The new typology will investigate the feasibility of creating more than just a building, but a space of healing and long term rehabilitation. The services of the new typology will include spaces not just for surviving, but for living.
Redefining how a shelter functions, this overture will not only address how the public perceives shelters, but it will also address the public opinion of homelessness. Through the integration of community based rehabilitation and incorporation of positive design principles, shelter design will be completely reevaluated. Not only functionally, but also psychologically, sociologically, and aesthetically.