E.D.A.R.

This video features Union Rescue Mission's CEO Andy Bales and a family at URM showing how the E.D.A.R.s work.¹

EDAR stands for Everyone Deserves A Roof - the cross between a shopping cart and single-person tent was inspired by President and founder of EDAR, Peter Samuelson, when he sought to provide the self-described needs the homeless he interviewed on his bicycle route.

Eric Lindeman and Jason Zasa are the creators of the current model of the EDAR having won a design competition Samuelson sponsored at Pasadena Art Center College of Design.

EDAR's are given free of charge to homeless individuals who are best able to benefit from their recycling and shelter capabilities. EDAR units also provide a sense of ownership and pride to those largely deprived of both. And as Peter Samuelson asks, "Well into the twenty-first century, if the best our advanced society can do for the hundreds of thousands of homeless human beings... men, women and children... who live among us is the cast-off box our refrigerator came in, what exactly does that say about us?"

Visit www.EDAR.org for more information

The shelters were particularly important to Union Rescue Mission and the other LA missions this winter season with the overwhelming increase in shelter needs. ABC Los Angeles reported last month:

Officials at a winter shelter in Burbank say they have seen a 1,000 percent increase in demand since their doors opened on Dec. 1.

In this video from urm.org, you can see how the regular living quarters at URM were altered to incorporate EDARs and provide more space for families this winter.

(Also... I did a vlog for CP a while back... you can watch me stumble over myself in the URM archive room here, if you like.)

¹Video first reviewed on The Hobo Soul