This Design Guide is intended to support Catholic Charities
Housing project teams – developers, project managers,
architects, designers, contractors, and other decision-makers
– as they conceive and begin new projects. It is to
help orient efforts and keep players and partners focused
on critical common goals. It can be used as a reference
to establish baseline criteria or as an authority for team
accountability. But perhaps most of all, it should help to
create a unity, or common approach, around Catholic
Charities Housing project strategies and best practices;
not just locally, but nationally.
This document aims to approach the problem of Catholic
housing holistically. While much time, effort, research, and
consideration has been invested in the development of
this document, we still consider it living and evolving. It
should engender further discussion and development.
This is perhaps a Version 1.0, and we believe it can and
should expand. It is not exhaustive.
We offer this as an optimistic act – a catalyst. To achieve
everything in this document in one single project would
be a dream. We understand there are constraints that set
the guardrails for every project, especially limited financial
resources. It’s possible that a given project might only
achieve a small portion of what’s covered in this document
and that might be considered a “win” depending on the
context and constraints. But it is our responsibility to
reach. The project team must believe that these things
are possible, before they can ever be realized. For without
a renewed vision, aspirational goals, and sincere efforts
by all stakeholders, how will we accomplish and advance
the mission that the Lord has placed in front of us?
Lastly, the Design Guide provides principles, foundation,
and framework from which to build a project from the
bottom-up, as opposed to top-down. However, that
doesn’t mean that the look of a housing project doesn’t
have a final aesthetic goal. As an extension of the Church,
the physical result, the visible built outcome, should
communicate Catholic identity in a recognizable way,
while still looking like a home – a place in which people
can dwell and flourish in community, and would love to
be a part of.