Tools:
Paid Placekeeping / Endowed Operations + Maintenance

“Placekeeping” is a term used by planners Roberto Bedoya and Jeremy Liu, who use it to reframe priorities for community development. When placekeeping work is compensated, even in a small way, then the value of the placekeeper’s time and continued participation is recognized as key to a site’s future.

Landscape Architects can work within conventional project structures to pay local people for placekeeping by incorporating it into RFP responses and additional services sections of design contracts. Easy additions could include:

  • Paid Surveys

  • Funded Community Engagement

  • Funded Workshops

  • Pay Neighbors to Go Door-to-Door

 

Case Study

Urban Alchemy (U.A.) in San Francisco offers an effective model for paid placekeeping in underserved communities.

U.A. Practitioners

  • Care for 24 locations across San Francisco + Los Angeles

  • Create access to safe and clean public restrooms

  • Reduce litter in neighborhood parks and public areas

  • Negotiate behaviors with individuals in civic spaces

  • Serve as docents in public space

Dillon, Ian. “How to Reintegrate the Homeless into Their Communities.” The Dirt, 2 Dec. 2019.
“Urban Alchemy.” The Housing Innovation Collaborative. Accessed 5 Jan. 2022.