RELEVANT PURPOSE PODS

“Purpose Pod” is our name for a series of durable buildings that serve a higher

• Our “Purpose Pods” are a series of durable shipping container pod buildings that serve a higher purpose: helping people transition from the streets to permanent housing. Built with this purpose in mind, our Purpose Pods are made from individual 20’ or 40’ shipping containers and can be combined to create a complete transitional housing community. This series includes a variety of sleeping, kitchen, bathing, laundry, office, and storage pods, making it easy to choose the units that fit your transitional housing community’s unique needs. Given the small size and simplicity of the pods, they are easy to customize and quick to build. With the unbeatable durability of steel containers, these Purpose Pods are a practical investment for the community that will last for many years to come.

Transitional housing communities are temporary housing solutions designed to help our unhoused neighbors transition from emergency shelter to permanent housing. These communities act as a stepping stone by providing unhoused individuals with stability, safety, and necessary social services to support them in finding long-term, permanent housing.

Our prefabricated Purpose Pods are made from upcycled shipping containers with corrugated steel as the exterior skin, meaning they are highly durable. With routine maintenance, our Purpose Pods are predicted to significantly outlive most other emergency shelters and transitional housing pod builds. Shipping container pods are naturally fire-resistant, and we provide a higher level of insulation than most transitional housing village pod manufacturers. We also prioritize installing materials inside the containers that can withstand heavy use and frequent cleaning. Because Purpose Pods are relocatable and stackable, your investment lasts far longer than just one village.

The number of Purpose Pods required will be customized to fit the location and size of the proposed transitional housing community. Based on our experience, four full restrooms can serve a village with up to 38 occupants.

We recommend one person for each of our standard sleeping units. That said, the sleeping pods can be easily customized to accommodate couples or families. We work with each community to make sure our Purpose Pods meet the needs of their residents.

So far, we have built Purpose Pods for several transitional housing villages in Portland, Oregon, including the Harrison Community Village and the Oak Street Village. We also built a custom multi-container “Community Pod” for the Kenton Women’s Village in Portland.

We sought input from local transitional housing nonprofits, people with lived experience of homelessness, and local jurisdictions during the design process to ensure that our standard Purpose Pods are designed with the community in mind. Because our Purpose Pods are made using upcycled shipping containers, they are significantly more durable than other transitional housing options on the market. Under normal conditions, it is unlikely they will need to be replaced or even repaired for many years. We also provide a higher level of insulation than most emergency housing shelters to ensure residents are as comfortable as possible. The durability and reliability of our Purpose Pods means that your investment will last for many years to come, an your residents will be more satisfied with the village amenities.

Like all of our prefabricated container buildings, we work closely with Oregon and Washington States to attain plan approval for the community pods. The sleeping pods must be reviewed and approved by the local jurisdiction. The local jurisdiction will also issue permits for the site work and placement of the Purpose Pods.

The community’s amenity pods, which include the restroom, laundry, kitchen, and office pods, are all built to meet the requirements of the Oregon Structural Specialty Code. These are the same code standards that you would use to build a typical office or non-residential structure. The local building official will review the sleeping pods for local code compliance.

Purpose Pods are among the fastest shipping container units for us to build given their small size, simplicity, and the immediate need for emergency housing. Depending on our current manufacturing schedule, it takes roughly 6-8 weeks to build a Purpose Pod from start to finish. We can build multiple Purpose Pods at the same time.

Relevant Buildings is a one-stop shop for all of your transitional housing project design-build needs. We provide design, engineering and permitting services, prefabricate the buildings in our shop, and deliver them to your site.

Before delivering the Purpose Pods, all site utilities need to be installed under the local permit. Engineered foundations need to be poured so our buildings can be properly anchored down. After the pods are placed, concrete sidewalks and ADA ramps can be poured for seamless entry into the buildings.

Depending on the size of the pod and layout of the site, our Purpose Pods can easily be relocated with small machinery. Once your project is in motion, we will work with you to determine what type of equipment is needed to deliver your specific pods.

We primarily use high-quality, environmentally friendly, closed-cell spray foam insulation. This provides a high R-value per square inch, which means excellent temperature regulation, protection from condensation, and sound absorption.

The HVAC installed in each space is customized to the project budget and the community’s needs. The communal units will either use a permanent space heater or a ductless mini split for heating and cooling. The laundry rooms, kitchenettes, and restrooms will also have a ventilation system in place. Our standard sleeping pods include an all-in-one heating and cooling system to keep the residents comfortable all year long.

Relevant Buildings installs any cabinets, appliances, mechanical units, and plumbing fixtures before delivering the pods to their destination, which reduces the amount of work that needs to be done on site. For other furnishings that aren’t attached to the building (beds, desks, laundry equipment, etc.), we recommend customers purchase those separately, although we can include them as an optional upgrade.

The steel exterior of the shipping containers provides natural fire protection to the occupants inside. The interior walls between two sleeping units are also 1-hr fire rated.

Yes, all of our Purpose Pods feature ADA-compliant floor plans and interior fixtures.

We partner with jurisdictions and charitable operators across Oregon and Washington to provide Purpose Pods to transitional housing villages in the Pacific Northwest.

The Purpose Pods are meant to assist you in providing any services you wish to offer your residents. If our pre-designed Purpose Pods don’t quite fit your needs, we will work with you to design a pod to best serve your community.

The cost for transportation varies greatly depending on the distance between the project site and our shop in Oregon City, as well as how many Purpose Pods we will be shipping. Once we understand the scope of work for your project, we can provide cost estimates for transportation.

Please contact us on our Tour/Contact page and we will be happy to set up a time to talk more with you.

o Yes, we’d be happy to give you a tour! Please contact the Relevant Buildings’ team on our Tour/Contact page to schedule a tour.