Alex “Fitz” Fitzgerald volunteers in the kitchen of the PorchLight Eastgate shelter in Bellevue, Washington. One day last summer when he was cooking, shortly after the facility opened, a deer wandered up to the back patio, where everyone could see it through the cafeteria’s floor-to-ceiling glass windows. “It lifted everybody up,” says Fitz, who was formerly unhoused. “People started breaking out their cell phones, taking live feeds, ya know? Being close to nature has a psychological effect. It makes them think about their wellness.”
A direct connection to nature is exactly what Block Architects had in mind when designing the 100-bed shelter to replace the previous facility used by PorchLight (formerly Congregations for the Homeless) elsewhere in Bellevue. “These are men who
