Why a One Million Person Shelter Initiative?

There are currently 80 million refugees, and between 200-250 million people sleep homeless daily.   The number of refugees has been steadily growing year-on-year, and with a further 3 to 4 billion people to be born between now and the end of the century, with drought, flooding and wars, a new shelter provision solution is needed.

Currently, emergency shelters are designed to last for a period a little over 12 months, based on the outdated idea that most refugees are able to return within that period.  However, in Somalia and Kenya, many of thee so0-called temporary camps have been established for 20-30 years.  In the absence of durable solutions, camps fall into disrepair and adults and young children are forced to live in squalid conditions. For internally displaced, there are often fewer options. For children growing up in such a context, without education, jobs, or a vision of a future, the next generation will remain trapped in a viscous cycle of poverty.

Yet, billions of dollars is spent on shelter annually, by the international humanitarian community, through country humanitarian response plans. As temporary shelter falls apart, but the numbers of forcibly displaced continues to grow, a more effective (scale) and efficient solution (value-for-money) is needed. Dignity Designed and Delivered is that solution.

The aim of the Million Person Shelter Initiative is to disrupt the current system by changing the fundamental design premise, while also changing the financing model to allow far greater spending to support those disenfranchised from their own societies. Solving the growing problem requires new ways of thinking, new partnerships, more resources and greater awareness among global leaders of the growing costs of failed stop-gap measures.

We are looking for partners and volunteers to join this cause, to have a demonstration effect that will perhaps, by 2050, see an end to homelessness on the scale that is beginning to emerge.