The Triumph - Community-Based Short Term Family Housing | Washington, District of Columbia | 2018

Architects: DLR Group
Design Architects: Sorg Architects
Client: District of Columbia Department of Human Services
Photographers: Kevin Reeves Photography

Design Team: Suman Sorg, Robert Widger, Rachel Chung, Matthew Davitt, and Luke Giaccio
General Contractor: MCN Build
Landscape Architects: Carvalho and Good

Named "The Triumph" by the community - this new 50-unit residence in Washington Highlands near the border of Maryland serves families from across the District of Columbia as a short-term family housing program created to prevent cases of homelessness. The residence provides families with a beautiful, inspiring, and dignified environment along with in-house support services to help families re-join their communities within a shorter time frame.

In 2016, the District of Columbia Department of Human Services launched an initiative to transfer homeless residents from DC General, an existing over-populated and dilapidated central emergency shelter, to smaller scale, service-enriched, community-based shelters located throughout the city – part of a District-wide solution to the District-wide challenge of homelessness. A critical goal for the success of these shelters is that, in addition to safety and security, they must provide a sense of warmth and dignity for the residents as they transition to more permanent housing solutions. The Triumph represents the Ward 8 response to this initiative.