Day 2

Today we generated a Homelessness Matrix, in which we condensed our observations, primary & secondary resources, and assumptions.

Some strong themes we deduced:

Primary: lack of employable skills for homeless veterans, choose to come to LA to be homeless, mental illness, PTSD, substance abuse, felons face barriers, need for hygiene kits, need reusable water bottles

Secondary: Some want to be homeless, some causes leading to homelessness: loss of blue collar jobs, drug use, rise of urban underclass, return of Vietnam vets, deinstitutionalization of mentally ill

Assumptions: Individuals more open dependent upon area, lack of hygiene, need food, drug addicts, don’t want to be employed

Observations: need reusable collection water bottles, need hygiene kits

After generating this matrix, we started to tackle the ‘problem’ by generating problem statements, two of which are:

The Problem is homeless want familiarity of environment which leads to undocumented homeless communities. This is a problem for homeless individuals because it leads to community hostility.

The problem is the lifestyle and habits of a felon interferes with employment which leads to staying on the street. This is a problem for themselves because its an unbreakable cycle.