Media

Zakkary Haze, a care coordinator with Urban Alchemy, stands at the front door at the Eighth Street Shelter on Wednesday December 20, 2023.

To maintain the facility’s critical beds, Austin officials went on to consider the shelter’s temporary lease by the city and linking its operations with the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, or ARCH, next door. Both facilities came under the management of nonprofit Urban Alchemy, which was chosen last year to helm the ARCH after that facility’s previous management exited on short notice.

“Not only does it look different outside, but the lives of the people inside are also being changed.”

“What we found in the early iterations of safe sleep is that some people preferred tents because it gave them a sense of ownership.”

While some homeless advocates regard the tiny home cabins that have sprouted by the hundreds across Los Angeles as the minimum acceptable form of shelter, Urban Alchemy views tents as a way to create shelter quickly and cheaply without compromising the benefits most valued by people accustomed to living on the street — privacy, nourishment, security and a sense of autonomy.

Today a place was opened that will house 40 homeless people in Culver City. This site has transition workers for 24 hours a day, as well as support services. They will have food, bathrooms, showers, garbage services, laundry service and healthcare. The mayor and other officials were at the opening. The place will be operated by Urban Alchemy.

In the coming days, Culver City plans to open the city’s first-ever “safe sleep” site, where unhoused residents can live in tents and access meals, showers, restrooms and health services. The location will have 20 tents, each sleeping one or two people depending on whether they’re family members, Mayor Albert Vera told LAist.

Safe Sleep site is the first of its kind for Culver City. Twenty transitional suites with around the clock staffing and supportive services – including three meals a day, restrooms, showers, garbage collection, access to laundry services, health care and additional supports – will be available for residents at the site. The Safe Sleep location will be operated by Urban Alchemy, a nonprofit that develops other safe sleep sites across the country. Urban Alchemy is an organization with a mission to transform traumatized urban spaces through supportive and compassionate care.

Twenty tents have been erected in Culver City, to help house the homeless, in what the city is calling the “Safe Sleep” program. Kirkpatrick Tyler with the non-profit group Urban Alchemy is part of the effort. He says the village, put together in what used to be a city parking lot, is meant to feel welcoming and comfortable. There is even a “Hello” welcome mat.