Construction Maison

The lack of affordable housing and the city's overburdened shelters led to a range of possible ways to combat the problem—but it was inspiration from the houseless community themselves ("houseless" is a preferred term within the community) that led to the start of an innovative solution.  In the spring of 2016, a group called the Village Coalition—made up of advocates, activists, and houseless individuals—joined forces with several student fellows and faculty Sergio Palleroni and Todd Ferry from the Center for Public Interest Design (CPID), a research and action center within the Portland State University 's School of Architecture. Working together, they created the POD Initiative (Partners On Dwelling) to address  houselessness in the city. They observed that the houseless community had been establishing their own informal "villages" around the city. As a result, the group reached out to the greater architecture community , asking them to apply their...

What do a man without fear, an alcoholic P.I., a bulletproof ex-convict and a living weapon all have in common? The urge to defend, of course. That's right, guys. This event has literally been years in the making, but fans of Marvel's Netflix shows can finally watch Daredevil , Jessica Jones , Luke Cage and Iron Fist unite in the first season of The Defenders. While you're all casually watching the biggest TV event of the year, we mustered up zen levels of concentration to unpick every # Marvel easter egg , comic book reference and link with the #MCU to be found in The Defenders . Join us as we break down all eight episodes of Season 1 in microscopic detail. Episode 1 — 'The H Word' — While the title obviously refers to the word 'hero', something which The Defenders themselves are keen to avoid, The H Word also happens to be the title of a book by author Perry Anderson which explores the political theory of hegemony (leadership). We doubt it's a coi...

(Photo: Nadezhda1906 / iStock / Getty Images Plus) This story was made possible by support from readers like you. Help Truthout report on the urgent issues of health care, climate change, US foreign policy and more: Make a tax- deductible donation today . When April's paternal nephews first came to live with her, one was two months old and the other was one-and-a-half years old. She had to fill out the paperwork necessary to retrieve the older boy from foster care, where he had been placed months earlier after being removed from his mother. Under California law, if a potential caregiver -- any adult in the household or any adult who might have "significant contact" with the children has an arrest or conviction for anything other than a minor traffic violation -- they must apply for a criminal record exemption . Granting the exemption is at the discretion of each county -- and often the social workers assigned to the family. This has led to an uneven application of the ...

More prosaically, co-living can simply mean roommates and common rooms, like a dorm. For some developers, it’s a form of adaptive reuse: many co-living sites, like WeLive at 110 Wall Street , are leased, in this case from the landlord of what once was an office building, drained of its tenants by Hurricane Sandy. Slide Show Adventures in Co-Living Credit Photographs by Andrew White for The New York Times There are still co-living evangelists, like Brad Hargreaves of Common, who has promised that “the genuine and organic relationships our members build with each other,” as he wrote in a post for Medium, would not be tainted by allowing journalists to sleep over at Common properties (though they were welcome to tour). With over $23 million in financing, Common now operates in five cities, including out of eight houses in New York City. Some co-living ventures have collapsed under the weight of their ideals, like the utopian Pure House , started by Ryan Fix, now 42, in his Williamsburg l...

Five persons suspected of ramming a van into people in Cambrils in Spain have been shot dead, police said hours after 13 people were killed in a similar incident in Barcelona. 7-year-old Sydney boy Julian Cadman is missing after the Barcelona terror attack . SUSPECTS in Spain’s twin terror attacks had been planning an even bigger assault than the deadly car rampages they carried out, police said, as distressing details emerged of families torn apart in the horror. Police said they shot dead five “suspected terrorists” who had knocked pedestrians down in the Catalan seaside resort of Cambrils in a second attack in the early hours of Friday, and arrested four others as Spain reeled from the deadly violence . Catalonia’s regional police identified three of the suspects who were killed as Moroccan nationals. They were Moussa Oukabir, 17, Said Aallaa, 18, and Mohamed Hychami, 24. Police said they suspect 12 people of involvement in the attacks: the five who were killed, four who wer...