Thanks to a fantastic piece in Spanish newspaper El Pais who have shared the innovative approach Jimmy’s has taken towards providing a front door for those who might otherwise be sleeping rough in Cambridge.
Having read the 2023 research from Jimmy’s Cambridge and the Cambridge Centre for Housing & Planning Research on the modular homes projects, journalist Juan Antonio Aunión visited Cambridge and Jimmy’s modular homes’ sites towards the end of 2023. Inspired by the work he saw he recently shared what he’d learned in newspaper El País, the biggest newspaper in the Spanish speaking world reaching as far as Latin America and north America.“The first six modular houses for homeless people that Jimmy’s Cambridge opened in 2020 on the grounds of the Church of Christ the Redeemer and have a common garden that brings a lot of life to the mini-community.
“Each of them has its porch and, unlike those that would arrive later, they also have a large common garden. Because if one of the keys is independence—the powerful image of your own door, which can be opened and closed whenever you feel like it—another is the possibility of connection so as not to feel isolated. “We have learned that a reduced number of units [three of the developments have six houses, and the other has four] is better to create a mini-community and that it is very important to have a common space. That’s what that big garden is for, because it creates a space where people can go out and get to know each other. That first urbanization is precisely the one that works best. It’s not about just piling up houses,” explains Mark Allan, the CEO of Jimmy’s Cambridge.”
Read the full article here.
Photo Credit Manual Vazquez