Homelessness in the US is on the rise with more than 567,000 homeless Americans reported in 2019, up from 552,00 in 2018, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. In 2020, historic unemployment rates due to the coronavirus are preventing many from paying their bills and their rent, and while some regions have offered rent freezes others have been less accommodating.
In recent years, shuttered department stores have already started to be converted into homeless shelters. One such space is the Landmark Mall in Washington, D.C., which transformed a defunct Macy's store into a shelter in 2018.
"The idea that spurred this transformation represents a new way of thinking that is bringing together three economic phenomena: the collapse of the brick-and-mortar retail industry, the disappearance of affordable housing in America's boom towns, and the struggle to reduce homelessness, which remains as intractable as ever," Washington Post reporter Terrence McCoy wrote in 2018.
Now, in 2020, some are advocating that dying malls continue to take this approach. TechCrunch columnist Jon Evans argued that turning empty retail space into public housing space or homeless shelters could have a significant impact in cities like San Francisco, which has one of the highest rent prices and homelessness rates in the country.
"If our post-COVID-19 world is one in which demand for office and retail space plummets, which seems likely, let's take advantage of that space to help deal with the housing crisis which has plagued wealthy cities across the world," Evans wrote in March.