You've got to love the spin on this one.

An interesting example of information design. A visual explanation of where your income taxes go.

For some people homelessness is where all the injustice, misfortune, and mistakes of their life drain to. It's the final resting place for these problems. It's the result of these problems, and homelessness couldn't exist apart from these ingredients.

• Mental Illness


• Substance Abuse


• No Affordable Housing


• Lack of Education


• Abuse and Violence


• Personal Tragedy


• Natural Disaster


• Living Outside Social and Cultural Standards


• Economic Depression


• Lack of Safety Net (Family, Friends, Neighbors, Community)


• Government Regulation


• Prejudice and Discrimination

I use to think of homelessness as it's own separate social problem, but I'm beginning to realize that it's really the organic clumping of various issues. Each dependent on the other.

Ryan Jahn sent me a review of an exhibit that is currently at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.


Photo from Core 77

The exhibit is called: Design for the Other 90%

“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.”
—Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises

I think it's a pretty awesome idea and I think there is a lot of potential for design being used to help people in need.

I'm just afraid this will become another fad (think Cradle to Cradle) and we're doing this work more for ourselves than for the people who need help.

It's just hard for me to think that people really need a stylish cardboard box, but who am I to judge. Go test it, give it to somebody who could use it. See what they think after a week using it. (This seems to be another problem with these projects. We want to help, but we're not willing to literally put ourselves in their shoes.)

I also think it's easier to create a better box than to understand why they need boxes at all.

I'm not really a big fan of rallies or politics in general. There seems to be a lot of strong demands and the raising of voices, but in the end not much action. I think that energy and passion could be better used in doing something; not trying to convince a politician to do something.

However, I did attend the Vote for Homes! Mayoral Forum. I actually really enjoyed it. It made me feel like there were other people who care about the same things I do. I think that is the primary value of these events.

Click To Play

Anyways here's a clip of the pastor who works at the church where this meeting was held. He's well spoken and just barely goes over the top. I should probably go to this church.

I found an interesting blog today. It's written by the folks at Coalition for the Homeless in Cleveland. Apparently they went to a recent National Coalition for the Homeless board meeting. They had a lot of negative things to say about some major cities. Here's what was written about Philadelphia.

Philadelphia and a few other cities are fighting over the creative use of statistics that "show" we are making progress in solving homelessness. Solving homelessness on paper seems to be the new trend by local and federal government agencies. This way they get to send out a press release congratulating themselves for figuring out how to spin data to show progress.

It's interesting that he mentions the display of information, because that's exactly what I'm working on. I'm not sure if he's saying that organizations, individuals or politicians are doing the spinning. I'll ask him.

The past couple weeks I've been working on trying to understand and organize the Occupational Services department here at Project HOME. (I'm actually an O.S. Intern and I spend the majority of my time helping people with their resumes, job searches, etc.)

This has been interesting because it's pretty scattered. It seems that this department had been closed for a while before I got here. Everybody seems to have carried on with what they thought they were suppose to do, but there has been no overarching vision.

This graphic shows how I think we should work. It borrows a lot from the past systems but also introduces a couple new ideas.


The left is the original sketch and the right is cleaned up.

I went to a "focus group" this morning at work. I mention it only to say that there are a lot of knowledgeable, passionate people who work here at ProjectHOME. I forget that often when I am caught up in my daily to-do lists. Sometimes I feel like I'm all alone in these challenges, but the reality is that I am not. That's energizing.

So during this meeting I decided that I need to get more people involved in this project. I think it would be very productive to get some people in a room and wrestle with this complex problem.

I've found that one of the crucial interactions missing from professional environments is the "heated debate." I miss passionately arguing with my peers, not to prove myself right but to force me to commit and defend my perspective and to challenge and learn a foreign one.

So for my next task I'll be designing a brainstorming session to invite all these experts to tear apart my assumptions.

Every project needs a home where it can grow and be nurtured.

I was in Baltimore a few weeks ago and saw this parking meter. It was out of place because it was bright blue and placed about 10 feet away from the road.

Upon closer inspection I saw that it was actually a way for people to give money to the homeless. It was created by the Baltimore Downtown Partnership.

Pretty sweet.

I just read online that a Temple student will be spending his spring break experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia.

I've done this sort of thing on a couple occasions. Always a memorable experience.

I think it's important that designers have empathy. This is a first hand, contextual way to do it. I'm not sure why I've overlooked this vital aspect of the process.

I've emailed him and asked if he wanted a traveling companion. We'll see what he says.

Both of these attacks occured in Philadelphia in 2006. I don't get it.

Teens allegedly kill man after he ‘mooned’ them
March 29: Martin Malone, 47, was taunted as he rummaged through a trash bin and was then killed after he showed his buttocks to his attackers. Christopher McEneaney, 16, and Andre Mark, 18, were charged in the slaying of Malone. He was stabbed with a multi-tool and bludgeoned with a shovel.

Woman attacked while sitting on bench
October: A women in her late forties was accosted by a man who punched her in the stomach and face. The incident occurred while the woman was sitting on a bench along the Ben Franklin Parkway. The victim’s boyfriend intervened until police arrived. The couple was taken to the hospital with scratches and bruises. To the victim’s outrage, the attacker was not arrested.

Here's a simple illustration of my mental model of the experience people have with homelessness in Philadelphia. A mental model basically describes how people think things work. Often they are not accurate, but they are useful in gaining information on how people understand things.

After more research I will produce an implementation model which will describe how the process actually works.

Safety Net

• Number of single parent homes
• Average age / ethnicity of single mothers
• Nursing home statistics

Jobs

• Number and history of low-skill jobs in Philly
• Unemployment rates

Housing

• Funding numbers for Philadelphia Housing Authority
• Number of low-income rental units
• Average price of units in Philly
• Number and location of shelters

Government Aid

• Statistics on welfare and benefits
• Veterans information
• National plan to end homelessness?

Here is an interesting example of designers/cartographers using their skills to address homelessness. The company is called Cartifact and they have teamed up with the LAPD to map out the data that is collected on street homelessness.

I think it is interesting, but I don't know how useful it is. It clearly communicates the proximity and density of the people but that's about it.

I would love to see it include more data points. Why not include stats on the political climate, the state of government aid, location of shelters, weather information, patrol car routes, or census data for the specific area.

While this sounds like it could get very messy and confusing I think that's where design comes in. Gestalt and other visual design principles help us share all this important knowledge in a way that doesn't overwhelm or intimidate the viewer.

Edward Tufte is all about packing as much information as possible into a small space. He's got some pretty books about it too.

A few weeks ago I was getting some feedback from my supervisor on a proposal I had written. There was a line that said something like, "This project is designed to benefit the homeless."

She made it clear to me that people aren't homeless. People experience homelessness. For some this experience may last one night, one month or a year. For others it will last their whole lifetime.

This begins to hint at the complexity of this issue. How do you categorize such a diverse group? What if you had to categorize people who live in apartments? I can't think of any traits these people might have in common.

However, we do try to simplify this issue be resorting to the stereotypes. The bums we see in movies. The crazy alcoholics asking for change in the subway. These characters speak loudly and choose to be more visible, but they do not begin to represent the entire group.

It is precisely this sort of stereotyping that can to lead to poor understanding of the problem. This in turn causes ignorant decisions to be made that will negatively affect these people.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could change this?

Some people might point out that there are a lot of reports, statistics, papers, journals, films and books about homelessness.

I would agree with them.

They might say, "The last thing we need is another bar graph showing how bad this problem is."

I would agree with them.

I am not trying to develop another pie chart about homelessness. I want understand this issue and share that knowledge with others.

I am attempting to create a concept map of homelessness in Philadelphia. This diagram will illustrate the various people, politics, causes and theories entangled in this controversial social issue. It will also explain the relationships and connections within this complex wicked problem.

I think the first step in addressing any issue is to try to understand all sides. That's what I attempt to do with this project. I think providing all interested parties with a common basis for discussion helps us be more effective.