Design Goal:
- The homeless population in South Bend needs personalized care and preventative measures to help alleviate their situation.
- Each individual has a unique story, we must identify the common denominators amongst a large group
- This process does not just entail finding a home, but also creating an emotional support system to gain confidence and self efficacy.
- Homelessness transcends the singular aspect of not having housing, our recommendation must address multiple aspects of the individual’s daily life
User Perceptions:
- Currently, the homeless population sees the resources that South Bend offers as helpful in the short-term, but there is a need for longer-term solutions that can help to get this population off the streets for good.
- Some users express discontent with “the system”- they see themselves as having limited access to medical care and sufficient resources (social security, Medicaid, etc.)
- Many believe the system is not personal, making it challenging to constantly deal with different groups of new people to attain necessary resources (i.e. social services, food, housing).
Problems/Needs/Opportunities:
- There is a disparity among the psychological needs of the homeless population. While some put forth efforts to get out of homelessness, others enjoy the disconnect from society and would prefer to live this way. These two diverging populations will require different types of solutions.
- There is a need for “adequate treatment and services SOONER.” People tend to use the resources after they have already fallen into homeless, while preventative measures could alleviate the issues before it gets to this point.
- Need long-term resources. The short-term solutions seem to be useful and helpful, but don’t change the situation at hand. Food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters are great emergency resources, but need more transitional programs to make a long-term impact.
- Opportunity to target a specific subset of the homeless population and create a viable, specific solution for this group of people.
- Disabled
- Convicted
- Mentally ill
- Substance abusers
- A lack of motivation may hinder the homeless population from utilizing the resources that we would provide.
Functional Attributes:
- The solution needs to be versatile and able to be individualized based on the person and the case.
- It will not be a “one-size fits all” offering, making the problem more complex.
- Needs to be actionable, we want our solution to actually make a difference
Constraints:
- As we observed with our analogous immersion, it is incredibly difficult to allocate resources when working with a cost constraint. This issue will definitely impact the viability of our solution and our ability to create a cost-effective result.
- We must refine the scope of our project to address the issues of one subgroup within the chronic homeless population (i.e. those with criminal records, mental illness, or substance abuse issues). We simply cannot provide an effective solution attempting tackle the entire population.
- Recommendation must be specific and actionable
- Cannot focus on those about to be homeless and those who are homeless
- Each homeless individual has a unique story and therefore we must focus on what specific groups have in common