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Oakland to Open Eco-Friendly Homeless Shelter

Posted by: maryereynolds

29 January 2008 - 6:00am

Crossroads, a 125-bed homeless facility, incorporates green building concepts to better serve its clients. Many homeless people have respiratory-related health problems and a green building will be healthier for them.

"Crossroads may be the only homeless shelter built green from the beginning. It has a solar-paneled roof, hydronic heating, ceiling fans, nontoxic paint, windows that can be opened for fresh air, and desks and bureaus made from pressed wheat. David Kears, the director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency explains, 'The building has to be healthy to make people healthy.' Wendy Jackson, executive director of the East Oakland Community Project, spent 10 years raising the $11 million for the new state-of-the-art facility."

Full Story: A Shelter Is Built Green, to Heal Inside and Out
Source: The New York Times, January 28, 2008
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