What Is Trauma-Informed Design?

For many of us, the global lockdowns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic have made our homes places of respite, healing, and renewal. But for many others, including the unhoused, “home” is not always healing and can in fact be just the opposite.

Shari Stratton knows that all too well. For her, “home” meant a constant threat of domestic violence. When she eventually left, she had nowhere to turn until she found Arroyo Village, a supportive housing complex designed for those with traumatic histories. In a written profile she said she had stayed with friends and had applied for a shelter but instead was provided an apartment in Arroyo Village. She had worried that apartment living would be loud, a trigger for her PTSD, but that hasn’t been a problem for her.