Student Presenter(s): Elise Park
Faculty Mentor: Andreas Tjeldflaat
Department: Architecture and Design
School/College: School of Architecture and Design, Long Island

In New York City, nearly 1 in 106 people are homeless. 61,000 people find themselves without shelter each day, and lack basic and fundamental human needs. The stigma around people who find themselves without homes has been perpetuated in an extremely dangerous way, and is something that necessitates a deep communal shift. By viewing housing as a mere financial asset instead of considering it a deeply rooted primitive human right creates a damaging narrative about the right to shelter.

The "Did You Know?" project strives to begin constructing a new and more optimistic narrative about homelessness. It aims to map out businesses that want to help, including bakeries, grocery stores, nonprofit organizations, law firms and more, to create a resource for the homeless to utilize, and for the community to be better aware and more understanding of the epidemic at large. This will create and foster meaningful relationships between local businesses and those that need help. The preliminary focus of this project will be in the neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn, which experiences some of the highest rates of homelessness in New York City. Architecture and design cannot "fix" the problem of homelessness without the full awareness, understanding and help of the communities it attempts to alleviate. By striking up a conversation between neighborhoods and their homeless neighbors, we can begin to construct a positive narrative and show that we are not, in fact, so different after all.