"Breaking New Ground" competition seeks affordable housing solutions for Coachella Valley workers

Breaking New Ground is an architecture and ideas competition that addresses the dire need for affordable housing and healthy living conditions for low-income farm and service-workers in California's Coachella Valley. The competition is asking the global architecture and design community to put their creative thinking caps on and develop innovative, implementable solutions for a community whose housing needs have been neglected for decades.

Scheduled to launch this October, "Breaking New Ground" is part of the 10-year Building Healthy Communities initiative organized by The California Endowment.

Read more about the competition below.

Background: "The Coachella Valley, one of the nation’s most vital agricultural and tourist economies, generating $4 billion in economic activity annually, suffers from a chronic shortage of affordable housing. This economy relies on both a permanent and seasonal workforce to harvest crops and work in tourism-related service sector jobs. The region is facing an unprecedented crisis in which thousands of families and individuals are forced to live in unhealthful, substandard conditions. Many workers and their families live in vehicles, on streets, in parking lots and even outdoors in makeshift camps. They have little or no access to healthcare, transportation, and other supportive social services. Lacking alternatives, many end up living in unpermitted mobile home parks that are not kept up to code. Trailers are sometimes held together by nothing more than plywood and duct tape, while residents dodge wild dogs, rats, open sewers and exposed wires.

The ambitious scope of the competition is matched by an unprecedented awards package of $300,000 to be shared by four finalist teams. Four student finalist teams will share $25,000 and an additional $25,000 will be provided for awards of merit and recognition.

This is the largest competition in the nation and the only one of its kind to focus on subsequently building affordable housing for low-income households and families in need.

Breaking New Ground will be a springboard to building an affordable housing community in partnership with the County of Riverside."

October registration dates and jury members to be announced.

For further info, click here.