Week 3: The Various Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness

Yo yo everyone! 

This week, I worked on adjusting my project after receiving feedback from fellow readers and advisors. At the end of last week, I began losing grasp of what I wanted my final result to look like, as I became heavily dependent on interviews that perhaps weren’t attainable as I had hoped. This is why I’ve decided to stick with and dive deeper into the title of my project, “The Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness.” Before, I was directing my project too much towards creating change in the next three months, which was not practical, though it will always remain a goal of mine. 

I’ve mentioned previously that I want to talk to social workers, and understand why their hard work isn’t creating the impact we need, but I’ve realized that they are the professionals and my work would be more impactful if I were to focus on spreading awareness to create change. The only way to reduce houselesnnesss is if more people are knowledgeable about the houseless population, and we have a greater number of people trying to solve it- strength in numbers! 

My project is now divided up into three different sections of overcoming houselesness: the social, bureaucratic, and physical barriers. 

Social barriers will be examined through speaking to students at school and throughout Fremont, understanding the stigmas that exist towards houseless people.

Physical barriers will be examined through articles already published, as well as houseless people themselves on what they physically believe is stopping them from being rehoused.

Bureaucratic barriers will be examined through speaking to those with experience and power, such as social workers and mayors, understanding why legislation and law makes it increasingly difficult to be rehoused. 

Tune in next week to learn more about the social and physical barriers to becoming rehoused in the Bay Area. See you next week!