Safe Housing for All
At Ink Built, our mission is to bring the safety of shelter and the comfort of home to every single person no matter their identity, status, or experience.
This means that we think most about the people who are receiving the least attention and care; our neighbors who experience the immense stress and trauma of losing their home.
For these folx who are often used to being treated as problematic and less-deserving, we believe that meeting them where they are in recognition of their inherent value and gifts as human beings is not only medicine for their experience, but essential to the healing of societal beliefs that perpetuate marginalization, neglect, community conflict, and the systems that continue to create the conditions of poverty.
Safe housing is a human right, and it is our collective task to make that a reality.
Beyond Shelter
The lived experience of each human life is the foundational center of design.
From this intentional mindset, we bring our best design creativity along with a trauma-informed understanding and sense of care to this work. We do not have one-size-fits-all solutions, but we do have open ears and a continuously open curiosity about the real experiences of people who are living along the precarious edge of housing instability.
This makes design a relational process, and the place where we can shape new and better ways of providing sheltering homes that offer the stability every human being requires to discover who they are, all that they are capable of, and the gifts they’re here to offer back to the world.
All of us will thrive when the essential ingredients for a healthy, meaning-filled life are prioritized and made available to everyone.
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We humans are a meaning-making species. We experience joy when we can feel, imagine, and express ourselves and all we care about. Spaces that nurture joy are spaces that remind us of who we are, and what we are becoming.
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Our bodies are multi-sensory, constantly receiving signals and energies from the world around us; some more acutely than others, and always affecting the health of our physical systems. Spaces that honor these realities provide opportunities for regulation through thoughtful treatment and mitigation of noise, light, and activity; offering choice and control wherever possible to ensure comfort for all kinds of human bodies.
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We are all, Nature. When physical and social spaces isolate us from our relationship with the natural environment, our health suffers. When we are connected with the web of life, through all our senses, we thrive.
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In recognition of the unique light that each and every individual carries in the world; it is our responsibility to ensure that every single person feels welcome by removing as many barriers as possible that prevent their right to belong in community.
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Physical safety for our bodies, loved ones, and belongings is fundamental to our ability to thrive in presence with ourselves and others. Spaces must consider safety through multiple lenses, since traumatic experiences trigger fear and offer safety in sometimes opposite ways for different people. Clarity of way finding, open sight lines, options for refuge or retreat are essential ingredients to safety in spaces.
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Our social bodies thrive in community when we feel like our presence matters. While spaces cannot direct social behavior, they must certainly be shaped through an understanding of conditions that support trust; thereby empowering supportive connections between people.
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Just as we long to connect with others, we also long to express our unique independence. Our personal sense of power is elevated when our freedom to choose, to move, and express is honored and maintained in the spaces we share.
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Hope is not an aspiration, it's a state of mind. Hope is available when our inherent value and the gifts we carried are seen and supported.
Partnerships
We know that these places of shelter need to support our lives in ways that are more sustainable and more interconnected than the current status-quo if human life is to thrive across future generations. This is the place to invest much more of our hearts, minds, hands, and resources.
What we make isn’t actually what matters most; it's how we do it that determines the quality and stability of soil from which our efforts rise.
Cultivate Initiatives
Building “good soil” for healing through connection, skills, and purpose.
Open Door
Holding inclusive, responsive space for people in transition.
Our Streets
Repairing inequality with nourishment, food, and care.
Project Homeless Connect
Bringing safety and resources directly into neighborhoods.
LoveOne
Delivering deeply considerate permanent supportive housing solutions.
Growing Together
We look forward to working alongside many more new friends on this shared journey toward a more caring, inclusive, and abundant community life where all are welcomed with the dignity and joy they so deserve. Join us in this shared journey.