Through the Strategic Design and Management Master's Program at Parsons School of Design, my team and I in Design Innovation and Leadership class, we decided to test a few different ideas that could help intervene in the homelessness system as chief design officers. We picked The Right To Shower social enterprise to identify how much impact it creates on the homeless community and system.
The Right To Shower enterprise believes access to cleanliness is a fundamental human right. Individuals in the homeless community have limited access to everyday necessities and services — including showers. As a result, they feel "othered" and rejected by society, which affects their dignity. The enterprise builds mobile shower units to help people living on the streets.
Do social enterprises like The Right To Shower are going to prevent and solve the root causes of homelessness? Let's take a quick look at what we came up with within this design and system values project.
System mapping has been applied to assess the complexity and interconnections on how to intervene in the homelessness model to stop the cycle from repeating itself.
Indeed, lack of showers causes hygiene issues among the homeless community, affecting the homeless population's overall health and mental conditions. Moreover, we have found that taking care of hygiene can provide promising results in a wicked system. However, it will not solve the root issues that cause homelessness.
INTERVENTION
Preventing hygiene issues can lead to a minor health crisis and provide support. Our proposal can have an impact and positive outcomes on some parts of the homelessness system dynamic.
Using the system mapping framework helps explain the reasons for the system's dynamic behavior behind the causes of homelessness, and designing and testing policies could be integrated with the model. The purpose of our research is to test how different types of intervention strategies could impact the state of homelessness.
Intervening in the homelessness system requires Cybernetic Leverage, which requires intervention on a large scale.
We assessed Donella Meadow's 12 Leverage Points to intervene in the system and close the loop.
Value-Based Leverage requires intervening in the Transcending paradigm (1), which requires a complete makeover in the entire housing and economic systems to eliminate and prevent homelessness. Parameters (12) such as funding, taxes, or charity would not solve the homelessness issues since it is a wicked loop. They rarely change or intervene in this system. The size of buffers and stabilizing stocks (11) --buffer stocks-- such as shower facilities and shelters will not eliminate homelessness issues. Limiting financial risk is the leading solution to end the wicked system. Stocks (homeless population) result from a weak economic system that does not protect individuals from being on the streets. Stocks and Flow structure (10) reveals that the housing structure needs to be fixed internally. There should be enough housing units that allow individuals with no income to reside. It could start with lowering rent or providing income through government assistance programs instead of creating shelters. Individuals could still pay rent while they are residing in their homes. Instead of funding shelters, the housing system needs to be fixed and provides living units for free. The existence of shelters itself means that individuals are vulnerable at anytime to become homeless.
By understanding the homelessness system, some preventions and design solutions identified could help distinguish the wicked causes of homelessness and a few of the most prominent loops characterizing the problem's wickedness, perhaps focusing on unemployment.
The Right To Shower enterprise can help with elevating self-esteem and restoring dignity. It can focus on the transitionally homeless population and prevent the status from becoming chronically homeless. Provide services through The Right To Shower, which can help find jobs, offer community support, and find a temporary shelter until they are employed and have a permanent stay. Providing mental and health support can support the episodically homeless individuals to seek health and mental support services on-site, use funding to pay for hospital and medical services, help with housing and shelter applications, and allow them to apply for government assistance. The most crucial goal is preventing individuals from being chronically homeless.
The goal is to increase the outflow rate while the inflow rate remains unchanged (increase shower facilities) for the homeless population and provide services that will help them find permanent shelters. Reduce the inflow rate while the outflow rate remains unchanged or increasing the outflow rate and reducing the inflow rate concurrently.
As much as The Right To Shower is trying to cause a change and create an impact, it is just an idea that might work on the system that has wicked problems, yet it is not going to solve or prevent homelessness.
I used Miro Whiteboard to create the system map based on the research findings on the causes of homelessness in the United States. Since many homeless people suffer from health and mental related problems, as well as other medical, psychiatric, and substance use disorders. Economic macro and micro-level causes of homelessness are examined and identified to ensure that government policies will lead to sustainable and stable solutions.
References: Nourazari, S., Lovato, K., & Weng, S. S. (2021). Making the Case for Proactive Strategies to Alleviate Homelessness: A Systems Approach. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(2), 526. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020526
Comments