Lester’s Army contributor Kate Grauer was struggling to make rent on her West End apartment, so after a year of retirement, she took on a full-time job in a grocery store. Kate is in her 70s and she started to ask herself, ‘How am I going to live, if I can’t work?’ Her solution: design a shelter and live in it.

The first time Leni and I talked about the Shelter Project was in May of 2008. ‘I need a shelter,’ I said. I was retired but had to return to work just to pay the rent. We at Lester’s Army Magazine are taking a closer look at homelessness, where to create a community, not just an empty room to live in. – Kate Grauer, Project Coordinator

The Shelter Project was inspired by Kate’s story and in 2009 the project was launched with the aim of producing a conceptual design for a model of emergency shelter that suits the needs of seniors. Through a series of workshops conducted at the Lion’s Den Adult Day Centre in East Vancouver, a model was designed by a group of 11 seniors, with input from other senior’s organizations in the community. The design for emergency shelter depicted on this page was determined through discussion, writing, story telling and visioning.

The Shelter Project was initiated by Lester’s Army Magazine and is created and run by seniors.