Eleventh International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Conservation and restoration projects often fall prey to dualist notions of divisions between humanity and the environment, such that the immediacy of the restoration project at hand can obscure the ways in which we cannot achieve environmental justice without social justice. A re-conception of urban restoration projects would center the impact of these projects on our most vulnerable populations and seek to incorporate partnerships with social services, in addition to environmental organizations, at each stage of project development. Without a reconceptualization of the scope of urban restoration, low-SES and homeless communities will never benefit from the work done to reshape our built environments and seek a sustainable urban existence. We look to interactions with people experiencing homelessness who live along the Los Angeles River and among the restoration projects around Goleta and Santa Barbara to consider the unequal distribution of the human impacts of conservation- both the benefits and the potential harm and invite discussion from others interested in these issues.