Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, March , 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-87)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration and the School of Education. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2006. / "A dissertation in public affairs and administration and urban leadership and policy studies in education." Advisor: Robert D. Herman. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed Jan. 29, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-107). Online version of the print edition.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, March , 2005. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-87)

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary, 1987. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [120]-129).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-200).

Tent cities date back to the 1930s; however, the past decade has seen a rise in formalized camps, many attempting to function as democratic communities. Here, democratic communities refer to temporary spaces in which people without homes (PWH) live together with the goal of governing their own affairs (horizontal rather than top-down). Findings of the first “village” for the homeless indicate mixed results with self-governance among PWH in terms of the autonomy of individuals or as a method to mitigate homelessness. Given decline of social welfare budgets, as well as criticisms that shelterization and criminalization try to control the poor, government-sanctioned camps have provided safe, legal, dignified spaces for PWH. Studies of tent cities are growing, yet few follow their attempt to implement self-governance within the first few years of existence. This ethnography of a transitional “village” in the Pacific Northwest fills a gap by uncovering socio-cultural and organizational processes that facilitate and impede self-organization. The village is collaborative; a nonprofit provides oversight to residents dwelling in tiny houses. The village is neither run exclusively by the homeless nor directly managed by housed “outsiders.” Using participant-observation, interviews, and documents, I study the development of the village’s vision, rooted in Occupy yet influenced by neoliberal principles. Some view this village as a safe, stable place in which to secure future housing while providing dignity and autonomy; residents themselves were divided in how they experienced autonomy. For some, living there can be difficult since they have the authority to enforce community rule violations on fellow residents but often do not out feeling threatened or uneasy about putting a fellow resident in check. Some residents perceive a lack of power in regulating others. The authority of the nonprofit board is inadvertently reproduced even as it seeks to relinquish that authority. My work also has implications for research on relations between “housed” and “homeless”, and for decoupling processes that focus on divergence between stated organizational policies and actual practices. Materials related to this work (Appendices A-E) are included as supplemental files with this dissertation.

Background Shelter employees of the Victoria Cool Aid Society (VCAS) work with clients living with or at risk of contracting, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). The purpose of this thesis is to assess whether the VCAS shelter staff need further HIV/AIDS and HCV education to support shelter clients. Methods A two-part (A and B) survey consisting of 70 questions asked 38 Emergency Support Workers to: A) rate their ability (expertise) to answer HIV/AIDS and HCV related questions, and B) identify which questions contain important knowledge to know for their work. Staff were recruited via Posters on bulletin boards around shelters sites as well as an email, and two follow up emails, informing staff about the survey. The survey explored the following subjects: 1) HIV/AIDS (12 questions), 2) Hep C (11 questions), 3) Health and Substance Use (3 questions), 4) Protocol (3 questions), and 5) Community Agencies (6 questions). From this format, it was possible to assess where staff felt their knowledge levels could use improvement (low and medium knowledge levels) and what topics they felt important to know for their work (high importance to know). These two parts of the survey, together, were then used to determine questions to include in a future training course i.e. questions were staff reported low or medium knowledge levels and high importance to know. Results Results for each of the five sections showing both lower levels of knowledge (expertise) and higher knowledge importance, were as follows: 1) HIV/AIDS: 8 out of 12 questions, 2) HCV: 10 out of 11 questions, 3) Health and Substance Use: 1 out of 3 questions, 4) Protocol: 3 out of 3 questions, and 5) Community Agencies: 3 out of 6 questions. Survey results were delivered via Power Point presentation to management of the Victoria Cool Aid Society using simple graphs and charts to describe easily the findings to stakeholders. The presentation emphasised that staff overall are in need of specific HIV/AIDS and HCV education. Conclusion Emergency shelter workers are in need of HIV/AIDS and HCV education. The results can inform a HIV/AIDS and HCV educational course for VCAS shelter staff. / Graduate

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Anne E. Beamish / One of the most important aspects of a public space is its accessibility and inclusivity for all people. In urban parks, this often means that a wide variety of users must be considered during the design process. Denver Civic Center Park is a historic urban park in the heart of Denver’s downtown. The park caters to a variety of people ranging from tourist, who briefly visit the park, to people who are experiencing homelessness, and call the park home. Ensuring that the needs of people varying in age, culture, and economic background is key to any urban park’s success. Semi-structured interviews, site observations, site inventory and analysis, and critical mapping helped assess Denver’s Civic Center Park’s inclusivity and accessibility. Through a combination of improved infrastructure and additional amenities, a thoughtful redesign of the historic park addressed today’s challenges with homelessness and created a more inclusive environment. Because of the historic nature of the park only specific modifications to the southern ares were made. There are two reasons to create inclusive public spaces. The first is the social mixing that comes from people of different backgrounds and cultures sharing a safe environment. Social mixing connects groups of people through passive and active interactions that are built on seeing someone or overhearing their conversations. Social interactions, that take place in a safe environment, can trigger empathy within the community and start to build relationships between people of different socioeconomic groups. The second reason focuses on the ethics of designing public space. The infrastructure and policy of a public space should not be exclusive to a “desirable” demographic, but should include all existing users and the surrounding community. Because a large portion of users in Denver’s Civic Center Park are people experiencing homelessness, the design and programmatic amenities should consider their needs and desires. Landscape architects can influence the public’s views and the way people interact with each other by designing safe and active urban public spaces. In this project I asked, what design policies and strategies could be implemented to make Denver’s Civic Center Park more inclusive and secure for all park users, including those experiencing homelessness?

Mental health, homelessness, addiction, and criminalization are the usual suspects of exclusion. The connection between these factors are often taken for granted, with positivistic accounts of causality making up the bulk of the literature. Using an institutional ethnography framework, this study draws attention to how individuals make sense of their exclusion. In particular, in this research I examine how homeless men and women ‘do’ their mental health status. Exploring themes of responsibilization, exclusion, identity, performativity, hope, and resistance, this research highlights the ways in which homeless individuals use the mental health system and the mental illness identity to contextualize their circumstances and to demonstrate their redeemability. Stemming from thirty-eight interviews with homeless men and women, participant observation, as well as a focus group with professionals and para-professionals I consider how mental illness identities are negotiated and performed among homeless men and women. Specifically, I am interested in how homeless individuals engage with mental health managerialism, given their vulnerable status. I contend that while some individuals resist mental illness discourses to varying degrees, a number of homeless individuals adopt the role of mental health consumer so as to align with the broader consumer society. In so doing, many homeless men and women seek to position themselves as included among the excluded and thus privy to the sense of hope, empowerment, and privileges that follow.

Social support is best understood from a gendered perspective. Women place more emphasis on their social relationships than men, relying on them to cope with stressful situations. Women’s social relationships become crucial during experiences of homelessness as they rely on their relationships to address basic needs. This paper explored how social support and social networks are experienced within homelessness and housing vulnerability. Two studies examined social support and social networks in homeless and vulnerably-housed women. Study One used a quantitative approach to examine group differences on social support and social network characteristics. Forty-nine homeless and forty-three vulnerably-housed women completed three measures to assess their social networks, social support networks, and global social support. Results showed similar social networks and global social support scores between groups. However, vulnerably-housed women reported fewer social support network members than homeless women, suggesting they have fewer supportive individuals in their lives. Study two used a qualitative approach to understand how homeless and vulnerably-housed women experience social support. Ten homeless and ten vulnerably-housed women discussed their social networks and social support through semi-structured interviews. Responses were used to develop a model of social support interactions and highlighted new aspects of the experience. Participants described how they used strategies to offer and elicit support with their networks, as well as how their contexts shaped their interactions. The positive and negative outcomes from these interactions also became part of the contexts that influenced future interactions. These findings offer new considerations for social support theory and suggestions for service provision.