‘Impactful and beautiful’: how US homeless shelters are getting a radical redesign

New approach focuses on how physical environment shapes people's lives, harnessing the therapeutic power of design

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When a former resident of the Path Home Family Village in Portland, Oregon, called and asked if he and his partner could get married at the shelter, Brandi Tuck, the executive director, knew that the shelter's redesign had truly worked.

Homelessness is the hardest, most power-stripping experience a family can have together," Tuck said. And for a family to have such a positive, dignified experience and want to come back is just a perfect example of how impactful and beautiful this place is."