Along with communal showers and bathrooms, the village will also include laundry, storage facilities, and offices for social service providers.

A community of tiny shelters aimed at helping unhoused people transition to more permanent housing is being built in a vacant lot in Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood, where the neighborhood's eponymous park recently became a flashpoint of the heated debate over the city's perennial and growing homelessness crisis.
"The village's 38 cabin-like structures will contain a total of 74 beds, according to Alexis Florio, speaking for Lehrer Architects. The prefabricated units are made off-site by a company called Pallet" and can be assembled in under an hour, writes Barry Lank for The Eastsider LA. "In addition, contractors are assembling a hygiene trailer with toilets and five showers. The village also include[s] a guard booth, a storage unit, and a large administration office unit with a laundry facility and room for social service officials." The structures cost around $9,000 each including installation, with a total project cost of $3 million—well below the close to $5.7 million budget approved for the project. Operations costs for the site are expected to be $1,485,550 for Fiscal Year 2021-2022.
Earlier this spring, Echo Park Lake, located less than a mile to the south of the tiny home village, was the site of a tense standoff between unhoused residents and their advocates and police as the city cleared the massive encampment that had developed in the park during the pandemic. While the city has placed many of the former park residents in hotel rooms via Project Roomkey, advocates say the forceful removal was unnecessary and the services provided are inadequate, especially during a pandemic.
FULL STORY: A "village" of 64-square-foot homeless shelters is taking shape in an Echo Park parking lot

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie