The Design and Testing of a Student Prototyped Homeless Shelter

Abstract

On any given night in 2015, over 500,000 people were homeless and 31% of them slept in unsheltered locations. Given the seriousness of this situation, the purpose of this research study was to test a student prototyped, portable shelter with six men who were homeless. Qualitative interview questions were developed by the research team. Six, open‐ended questions for baseline interviews and 11 open‐ended questions were used after the men slept in the shelter for two nights. The men ranged in age from 25 to 56 years and had been homeless for 1–5 years. Two of the men were African American and four were Caucasian. Several themes emerged from the data collected: dignity, safety, security, control, privacy, and portability. While the research team thought that carrying the shelter on your back was a novel idea, none of the men liked this design feature. The majority of men carried backpacks and stated that individuals who are homeless would not carry the shelter, rather they would hide it. Dignity also became an issue, as these men did not want to advertise their homeless condition by carrying the shelter. Safety and security from the “law,” “animals,” and “other homeless” people were other concerns. All of the men liked the privacy and control the shelter provided as it allowed them to eat, sleep, and talk on their cell phone when they wanted to. Giving these men a voice and allowing them to actively sleep in the prototype gave the research team a better understanding of design suggestions needed for portable homeless shelters.

A culture of care: How Lotus House Women's Shelter heals program participants through genuineness, space, high expectations, dignity, individualized attention, and community

“…When I got to the Lotus House and they handed me the covers and they're like, oh you, this is yours, this is yours, this is yours and you don't have to worry about it. ("Trish") At other shelters, involvement in religious events, following strict rules limiting independence, or quick fulltime employment, are required of participants to access services (Dickinson et al, 2017). For example, faith-based programs, which constitute a substantial portion of the services system for people experiencing homelessness (Heslin et al, 2003b), can be controlling and demanding, requiring members to profess a particular faith and/or attend religious events to qualify for services (Mulder, 2004).…”

Design for Homeless (DfH): A capstone experience

“…Students concurred that cool colors seemed appropriate. The blue of the accent wall conveys tranquility and is perceived as receding [8]. The green of the walls contributes to relaxation and symbolizes nature [13], [14].…”

“…In addition, studies rarely explore the impact, during and at completion of a project, on students who designed and built a temporary shelter prototype for chronically homeless people. In a study from 2017 [8], interior design students at a university designed and tested a prototyped portable homeless shelter with six homeless men in order to gain a better understanding of the design needs for portable homeless shelters. The project had a different focus compared to the study presented in this paper, as it did not involve collaboration with other disciplines, nor did it assess the impact of the project on the students.…”