Creating homes for everyone in need
Permanent homes are critical for human wellbeing. Right now, the United Nations says 1.6 billion people need safer structures.
Shelter will help rally the resources, materials, and logistics necessary to meet this basic need.
We’ll partner with designers, suppliers, governments, and other organizations to help create safer, healthier conditions for the whole human race.
Project brief
Shelter is exploring how Lifeco could support safe, stable housing without imposing one design or delivery model on very different communities. The need spans homelessness, unsafe structures, disaster recovery, overcrowding, and unaffordable housing. Durable progress combines homes with secure tenure, infrastructure, local services, and policies that keep people housed.
Working principles
- Start with residents’ priorities, dignity, accessibility, safety, tenure security, and total cost of living.
- Use Housing First where homelessness is the issue; do not make treatment or compliance a precondition for a home.
- Design for local climate, hazards, materials, labor, maintenance, and community infrastructure.
Organizations and resources to learn from
These independent links are starting points for research. They are not endorsements, funding recommendations, or claims of partnership.
- Habitat for Humanity — community-based affordable housing in the United States and around the world
- Community Solutions — data-driven, community-wide efforts to end homelessness
- Build Change — safer, disaster-resilient housing and locally led construction systems
Near-term milestones
- Choose one clearly defined housing problem and geography rather than treating every housing need as the same.
- Map resident-led groups, public agencies, service providers, builders, and financing already active there.
- Publish a partner-reviewed pilot brief with costs, safeguards, resident outcomes, and a maintenance plan.
Current status
Research and relationship-building. Lifeco is not yet operating a field program under this project.
How to help
We welcome people with lived experience of housing insecurity, affordable-housing and Housing First practitioners, architects, builders, disability advocates, and public-interest finance experts. If that is you, contact Lifeco and mention this project.