Homeless People Display Rare Creativity by Building Village under Bridge, it Has Clinic Facility
- Homelessness in Okaland, California, United States, has forced some unhoused people to think out of the box by building a village for themselves under a bridge
- Oakland is home to more than 4,000 unhoused people; and the village they built has taken them away from the streets where they hitherto called their homes
- The village is called Cob on Wood and it has a lot of facilities that give residents a sense of dignity
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Some homeless people in Oakland, California, United States, have found a way to solve their housing crisis by building a village under a bridge.
According to The Guardian, the village which is called Cob on Wood is a collection of beautiful small structures built from foraged materials.
Source: UGC
Briefly News gathers that in this collection of structures, there’s a hot shower, a fully stocked kitchen, an outdoor pizza oven, a composting toilet, and a clinic.
There is a store that people go to receive donated items including clothes and books.
Dmitri Schusterman, a nearby resident who helped organise and build the centre at the end of 2020, said each component was built by hand.
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In his words:
“It is about uniting everybody. It is working. This is the vision we had and it is working like a miracle.”
Leajay Harper, a woman who had to send her children to live with her mother because of a housing problem, said she now lives in a place where her kids can spend time with her.
The woman, who is the kitchen manager in Cob on Wood, lost her house after losing her job during the 2008 financial crisis. She was born and raised in Oakland.
In other news, Yahaya Ahmed, a Nigerian engineer, built a house in Kaduna using 14,800 sand-filled plastic bottles as bricks.
Ahmed is the director of a non-governmental organisation, Developmental Association of Renewable Energies in Nigeria (DARE).
The engineer said the house was built by his organisation to encourage the recycling of waste materials, create jobs and ensure a safer environment in Nigeria.
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Source: Briefly News
Stefan Mack (Editor) Stefan Mack is an English and history teacher who has broadened his horizons with journalism. He enjoys experiencing the human condition through the world's media. Stefan keeps Briefly News' readers entertained during the weekend. He graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2010 with a Bachelor of Education (BEd), majoring in History and English. Stefan has been writing for Briefly News for a number of years and has covered mainstream to human interest articles.
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
