“Creating a non-institutional environment was important in our aim to put children first,” says Lotus House founder and executive director Constance Collins, a former real estate developer who, following her retirement more than 15 years ago, was moved to start the organization focused specifically on creating a safe haven for women making the transition from homelessness.
Uplifting design is front and center at the state-of-the-art, five-story Lotus Village building in Miami by Coral Gables, Florida-based Behar Font & Partners, P.A. and locally based Civic Construction that provides shelter and support services for homeless women and children. The custom furnishings (many of them child-sized), for instance, include natural wood-framed pieces with rounded edges and upholstered seating in soft colors. There are also plenty of cribs on hand and rollout beds for toddlers underneath the adult-sized mattresses.
Art plays a role in the effort. Portraits by and about women—on loan from the Margulies Art Collection at the Warehouse in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District—adorn the corridors and Healing Hands salon, and a mural by graffiti artist Ahol Sniffs Glue, who was assisted by the children living there at the time, enlivens a covered outdoor play area. “Art fosters a sense of dignity and shared community,” Collins explains.
As does the slate of educational opportunities available, including vocational and job readiness training, employment services, and life skills classes. For example, the children learn to grow food in a climate-controlled hydroponic science lab and urban garden housed in a shipping container. The produce is used in meals served to the guests. “We take a very holistic approach,” Collins says. “Going from the street to a home of your own is almost impossible if you don’t have an enriched support system to help you heal and build a foundation for the future.”
Lotus Village has sheltered more than 5,800 women and children since it opened its doors in 2018, more than 80 percent of them transitioning to outside housing after staying, on average, for six months. “We’re hopeful that more communities will step forward and provide the trauma-informed solutions that are needed for women and children to reclaim their lives,” Collins says. “If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that it takes a village.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s November 2020 issue.
