There is a moment of spatial ambiguity in the face of homelessness and the city. Under the assumption that most cities have a network of citizens (or non-citizens) without permanent shelter or adequate means to purchase basic living resources, this community associated with homelessness can be considered largely transient and under represented. Census counting asks who, what, when, where questions about this community, but only at a precise moment in time; their act of counting the sans par makes its first big mistake by attributing ideals of permanence and spatial stability to a uniquely unstable and impermanent community.
We question not who are the homeless, where are they, and/or how can we help them?*...but rather, what are the urban resources (official and unofficial) and spatial hot spots/corridors that facilitate the mobility of this general community. Working primarily through identification of spatial and temporal aspects of food resources and shelter features, our project maps each feature in order to find places and programs for intervention. Our TINs represent the relationships between specific locations, time and frequency, and proximity over multiple scales. Stay tuned to learn more...
*how can we help them? a somewhat banal and irresponsible question. How do we know that help is actually needed beyond the resources already provided? We need to identify this community first not through the lens of homelessness = person who needs a home, but instead, homelessness = person who migrates, plugs into various resources and spaces, and/or a different kind of urban user.
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