68.5 million people are currently displaced from their homes by violence, war, and natural disasters. This number has nearly doubled over the last fifteen years and continues to grow. As protracted conflicts prevent refugees and displaced people from returning home, millions of refugees are spending 5 to 38 years in what were meant to be temporary provisions. Basic shelters designed to deploy quickly in immediate response to a crisis instead become long-term dwellings for families who have little to no resources to rebuild their lives. This reality hampers a person's ability to flourish.
At Every Shelter, we want to change the paradigm and give the forcibly displaced a voice in how their homes are built and designed. Temporary provisions will never be like the homes displaced people were forced to flee, but they should be safe and comfortable. We work to make every shelter feel more like a home.
About Us“Housing is absolutely essential to human flourishing. Without stable shelter, it all falls apart.”
Matthew Desmond John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and codirector of the Justice and Poverty Project
We work directly with partner agency field staff and the displaced populations they serve to create appropriate, human-centered solutions to the problems they face.
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Solutions are rarely one-size-fits-all, but when we discover a scalable solution (such as Emergency Floor), we work diligently to share the innovation and scale the impact to benefit as many people as possible with effective designs at low costs.
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Our network of skilled volunteers gives aid agencies a direct link into the quick, responsive innovation of the private sector, connecting people who want to help with those who already are.
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Co-creation is scary and humbling, because it doesn’t always align with “conventional” logic, and it doesn’t allow outsiders or power mongers to play superhero. But, it does make room for the human spirit to triumph — and that is always sustainable.
Read MoreEveryone has the right to adequate housing. This right is affirmed in dozens of international treaties, conventions, charters, policies, and laws. But what does adequate actually mean? Is it purely subjective, or are there standards to which we can hold one another accountable?
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