About the Project

Overview

The Haven Homes project is an effort to develop new ways for housing to better serve individuals and society.

Through this project, we aim to convince large-scale real estate developers to build Broad Appeal Specialty Housing (BASH) to reduce problems caused by growing homeownership costs. To prove the BASH concept, we are building homes that model how specialty features can cost-effectively create homes that are lifechanging to certain people, yet still appeal to a wide audience.

To show the versatility of BASH, for our first housing projects we chose two very different specialties—trauma recovery housing and pet-friendly housing—and we built features from both concurrently into two different kinds of structures: Haven House, a group living facility made from an existing residential single-family home, and Cloud Nine Studios, a new commercial multi-family apartment building.

To that end, we followed principles of trauma-informed design and made animal-supportive homes that help their inhabitants—both human and feline—feel better and heal.

Goals

While the original goal was only to popularize the BASH housing model, during the course of the project, additional goals have been added.

For example, we developed several therapeutic modalities to help overcome common barriers that impede trauma recovery therapy. After putting these modalities into practice, we are working to continue developing them and research their efficacy, then share the results to contribute to the emerging field of trauma-informed design.

We also developed several animal-supportive architectural concepts that benefit not just the people and pets who will use them, but also the property owners, making these features financially viable for rental properties and affordable housing projects. Similarly, we are working to continue research and development and share what we have learned so that these concepts can benefit more people and animals.

Finally, so far we have built two trauma recovery housing facilities for women, which are in high demand and short supply. In addition to maintaining these buildings, we are working to maximize their impact by coordinating with other organizations who are in a position to put these facilities to their best use.

Multiple Paths to Success

While these goals are all interrelated, they each have success conditions that can be achieved independently and in multiple ways.

For example, the project could fail to popularize any concepts—with nobody else ever adopting BASH nor any therapeutic modalities or animal-supportive architecture concepts—but if Haven House and Cloud Nine Studios consistently provide housing to the people who need it, that will make the project a worthwhile endeavor even if the ideas we attempt to share never travel a mile beyond where they were conceived.

Likewise, everything else could fail, we could go bankrupt, and the two facilities we built could be sold at foreclosure and turned into generic student housing, but if a single major concept became widely popularized, e.g., if litter closets became somewhat common, if only in the DIY community, or if the Recovery Pathway were to be validated as an effective therapeutic tool and used elsewhere, the value of good done would likely outweigh the amount invested, making the project a net positive for the world and able to be considered a success.

However, this project is aiming higher. For example, by working to bring about this scenario:

• After presenting our ideas to several large-scale developers, one decides to build a sizeable complex of animal-supportive homes.
• This taps into the enormous unsatisfied demand that comes from over half of all renters planning to become pet owners, yet finding truly pet-friendly housing virtually absent from the market.
• The developer rents all the units so quickly that they beat projections and they immediately plan another similar complex, enjoying their first-mover advantage and forcing competitors to follow suit or build different types of specialty housing to remain competitive.
• Capitalizing on the national attention being paid to the local housing industry, the City of San Diego, in partnership with locally-based Petco, launches a jointly-funded campaign to brand San Diego as the most pet-friendly city in America.
• As part of this campaign, grants are made available to fund the additional costs of animal-supportive architecture to affordable housing projects.
• BASH, now mainstream, spreads to other cities and countries. Animal-supportive housing is the universal spearhead, followed by other types that vary by region, ultimately leading to increased home satisfaction worldwide and millions of animal lives saved due to the abundance of pet-friendly housing.

Such a scenario would completely achieve several of our primary goals—and here’s a plan to make that happen—but should that plan fall short or the stars not align quite so perfectly, hundreds of lesser possibilities in which these objectives are only partially realized would still be considered successful.

Future Goals & Moonshots

Mixing my arrogance with weapons-grade optimism and extrapolating to infinity.

Broad-Appeal Specialty Housing (BASH)

• Make renting more desirable than owning for many
• Make semi-communal living compatible with capitalism
• Develop new kinds of BASH
• Homes for people in wheelchairs with cats
• Homes for people with large dogs
• Homes for blind people with large dogs
• Homes for people with small children
• Homes for people with small children with disabilities
• Homes for people with autism

Animal-Supportive Architecture

• Prevent millions of animal deaths
• Soften impact of housing crisis on animals
• Normalize animal-supportive homes
• Popularize key animal-supportive architectural concepts
• Make pet ownership easier

Trauma Recovery

• Continue research and development of therapeutic modalities
• Measure efficacy and publish findings
• Increase animal companionship in trauma recovery therapy

Haven House

• Expand Journey Nexus to include external gallery

Cloud Nine

• Secure permanent endowment to allow residents referred by qualified organizations to stay regardless of ability to pay

Artist Community

• Share and support app that enables communal art projects that benefit artists

Immediate Local Area

• Contribute to neighborhood

Greater Local Area

• Make San Diego even better than it is today
• San Diego branding campaign
• Pet-friendly housing fund
• Make San Diego safer

World

• Avert major war
• Improve mental health through pet ownership
• Build stronger social bonds through semi-communal living
• Reduce conflict between socioeconomic classes

Disability Advocacy

• Finish and popularize new building method that benefits people with disabilities
• Extend/improve the ADA

Mechanical Engineering

• Popularize decentralized ventilation

Promises Fulfilled

• Build an animal sanctuary

Sample Metrics

• Goal: Normalize the concept of pet-friendly features. Increase recognition and usage of general terms for new animal-centric architectural concepts.
  Metrics: Search result volume, Wikipedia article activity, inclusion in major real estate search engine filters.
• Goal: Increase demand for pet-friendly features.
  Metrics: Keyword search trends, real estate market research.
• Goal: Increase the number of homes built with pet-friendly features.
  Metrics: Real estate market research.