Rudy Bruner Award Collection

Title

Casa Rita

Description

1987 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Silver Medal

Casa Rita in Bronx, New York, converted a vacant school building into an empowering temporary shelter with services for homeless women and children. Conceived by the local Latina community and operated by Women in Need (WIN), it offers housing for 16 women and up to 39 children along with programs and services to help residents build the life and work skills they need to succeed on their own.

Case Rita provides a safe, compassionate, and stable environment that focuses on common space and a communal lifestyle. Living arrangements and programs emphasize responsibility and facilitate networking, self-help, sharing of tasks, cooperative child care, and group problem solving. This approach enables residents to achieve increased independence as they work toward permanent housing. WIN worked with the local community to secure support for the shelter, and it supports the local community by employing area women to help manage the programs.

Coverage

New York, NY

Date

1986

Subject

homelessness

transitional housing

emergency housing

cohousing

supportive housing

social services

community development

Contributor

New York State Division of Social Services

Contributor

en Public Agency

Women In Need, Inc.

Contributor

en Developer

Conrad Levenson, Architects and Planners

Contributor

en Architect

City College Architectural Center

Contributor

en Designer

South Bronx Development Organization

Contributor

en Community Group

Rights

This digital collection is made available for research and educational purposes. Researchers are responsible for determining copyright status, and securing permissions for use and publication of any material. Copyright for items in this collection may be held by the creators, their heirs, or assigns. Researchers are required to obtain written permission from copyright holders and the University Archives prior to reproducing or publishing materials, including images and quotations. For inquiries about reproduction requests and permissions, please contact the University Archives at: http://library.buffalo.edu/archives/.