For the second consecutive year, Los Angeles has reported the highest homeless population in the nation: 13,000 people, 95 percent of whom are living outdoors, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. While its root causes are diverse and complex— dwindling affordable housing, wealth stratification, lack of social services, and a warm climate among them— architecture students at the University of Southern California have designed an immediate solution: communities of modular, stackable, 92-square-foot “emergency stabilization” units that can be deployed in less than two weeks, just about anywhere.

Funded by Santa Monica design incubator the MADWORKSHOP Foundation, USC launched the Homeless Studio for 11 fourthyear students, instructed by faculty members R. Scott Mitchell and Sofia Borges, who is also the foundation’s acting director. The course, which included lectures from visiting homeless- rights activists and site visits to the Skid Row Housing Trust, culminated in a design competition for a temporary 30-unit residence for Hope of the Valley, a women’s shelter in Mission Hills, California.