Rex Hohlbein & Jenn Lafreniere: Creating the BLOCK Project

Living Buildings offer permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness

Communities are stronger when everyone has access to safe, affordable housing. This central principle guides the BLOCK Project, which offers homeowners in Seattle a tangible way to help address homelessness by placing a BLOCK Home in their yards. 

“We want to use design to create a path for everyone to get involved in ending homelessness,” Jenn Lafreniere, originator of the BLOCK Project, said in a TED Talk she delivered with Rex Hohlbein, the other originator who is also her father. “There are times, circumstances, conditions, when we all know that we need to come together to take action,” Rex added.

As in many cities, too many people are living outdoors in Seattle. In fact, the city issued a civil emergency proclamation about homelessness in 2015. In the years since, the issue has only worsened, particularly during the pandemic. 

Jenn and Rex were looking for a way to make a difference. Their solution was to create a way for people to get involved while also providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness. 

“It’s like when a river is about to crest and flood a town and everyone pitches in to stack sandbags and do whatever they can to help,” Jenn noted.

The BLOCK Project was born. 

The project builds fully equipped, healthy homes that are permitted and placed in homeowners’ backyards throughout the city, giving residents a place to call home. At the same time, the BLOCK Project offers neighborhoods across the city an opportunity to make a difference to address homelessness.

Every BLOCK Home is designed to achieve the Living Building Challenge. From rainwater capture and solar energy generation to FSC wood and Red List-free materials, BLOCK Homes are Living Buildings. 

“We want these to be a dignified place to live,” Rex noted in the TED Talk. “The International Living Future Institute provides the needed framework and inspiration to keep us moving forward with sensitivity and clarity, helping us create the type of buildings and communities our world needs,” he added in an email exchange.

“All of us know we need to be in service to efforts addressing the climate crisis,” Rex stated. “How we shape the built environment has the ability and responsibility to define human interaction with the natural world. Our future depends on finding sustainability in those relationships, across all levels.”

While the BLOCK Project provides housing, it also reorients neighbors to see people experiencing homelessness as individuals; to learn their stories and understand their passions; to build relationships and friendships. “When we see the individual person within the larger issue, this is the beginning of the solution,” Rex concluded.

The BLOCK Project continues to move forward under the direction of Facing Homelessness.

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