The work seeks to understand the nature of architecture where House and Institution coexist. Specific architectural constructs support the archetype of house in order to provide an instant notion of Home. The constructs range from the visual to the experiential; where reality and imagination find common ground. Even though the House in this context is meant to be inhabited for a short period of time only, the architecture seeks to provide an immediate sense of home in the moment of transition for a mother and child, who are coming out of a domestic violence scenario. In this context, the relationship between House and Institution is regarded as symbiotic. The Institution suggests a public identity, providing places for therapy, consultation, and other types of assistance to the adults. For the children, the architecture includes places for the presence of books with an invitation to read. The architecture of House is based on individuality, a kind of receptacle for idea of Home. For the mothers, the space between this duality will offer places for gathering, sharing and learning; for the children, the architecture aims to be magical. / Master of Architecture

No description available.

No description available.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Larry L. Lawhon / Homelessness is an issue facing numerous communities. Additionally, the increasing number of homeless youth is growing at an alarming rate. One potential solution to combating homelessness is transitional housing programs, and specifically programs aimed at assisting youth. The youth transitional housing program addressed in this research is the Crossroads program located in Lansing, Michigan, serving a tri-county area. This research study evaluates the Crossroads program’s success at preparing youth for independent living. The research questions posed for this study were: 1) What is the Crossroads program doing well to assist youth in transitioning into safe and stable housing? and 2) What does Crossroad’s need to improve upon in order to better help youth prepare for independent living? To answer these questions, data was collected through three one-on-one personal interviews with previous and current Crossroads clients to gather their perspective on the success of the program. Interview participants stated that Crossroads staff is the primary positive aspect of the program. Additionally, interview participants felt the program was good overall and had a positive impact on them, but gave a few suggestions for improvements. Interview responses are summarized and a series of conclusions and recommendations drawn to assist Crossroads in increasing their level of service to future program participants. Recommendations range from beginning the job search earlier, to increasing group activities among clients. Conclusions and recommendations are specifically for the Crossroads program and should not be inferred to be applicable to all youth transitional housing programs.

The United States has a serious epidemic of mass incarceration and high recidivism rates. The U. S. must act on these high recidivism rates by implementing social services programs that help the formerly incarcerated stop committing crimes. The formerly incarcerated are being oppressed by a historic process that has continued to incarcerate and control them, even after they had served their time for their crimes. This project attempts to assist in reducing the high recidivism rates by creating an education-based transitional housing facility with a plethora of supportive services that will be open to formerly incarcerated individuals. This project sheds light on some of the problems that continue to plague this demographic group of people, while providing a possible solution to help reduce recidivism. The outcome of this project is a business plan that explains a procedure to help create a non-profit transitional housing facility that will be located in Palm Springs, CA. The steps of building this non-profit business are detailed in an implementation plan following this manuscript.

This research explores culture-led regeneration; specifically, how and why small, community-based culture-led regeneration projects potentially affect their respective communities. Methodology is founded on an in-depth case study of The Edge Artist Village in Winnipeg, supported by a literature review, quantitative research examining property values, and archival research. The practicum shows that The Edge Artist Village has had a tremendous impact on the community of North Main Street. While various stakeholders interpreted The Edge‘s impact in different ways, perceptions of safety in the community have improved, and long vacant buildings in the neighbourhood are finding new tenants. This study makes recommendations as to how planners can potentially play a role in encouraging culture-led regeneration projects such as The Edge Artist Village, and suggests ways in which private developers and municipal government can collaborate more effectively to support their communities.

This research explores culture-led regeneration; specifically, how and why small, community-based culture-led regeneration projects potentially affect their respective communities. Methodology is founded on an in-depth case study of The Edge Artist Village in Winnipeg, supported by a literature review, quantitative research examining property values, and archival research. The practicum shows that The Edge Artist Village has had a tremendous impact on the community of North Main Street. While various stakeholders interpreted The Edge‘s impact in different ways, perceptions of safety in the community have improved, and long vacant buildings in the neighbourhood are finding new tenants. This study makes recommendations as to how planners can potentially play a role in encouraging culture-led regeneration projects such as The Edge Artist Village, and suggests ways in which private developers and municipal government can collaborate more effectively to support their communities.

No description available.

No description available.

Research on how homeless individuals perceive shelters, housing programs, and their agents has been limited, especially in relation to the reasons for engaging in or avoiding programs. This phenomenological study explored the perspectives of chronically homeless individuals in Wake County, North Carolina, regarding shelters and housing programs, examining their reasons for using or not using shelters or public housing. Using Glidden's structuration theory as the framework, the research questions for this study were based on exploring the perceptions of homeless individuals use of public resources related to housing and shelters to better understand why some use, and perhaps more importantly, why some choose to not use these resources. Purposeful sampling was used to identify 12 chronically homeless men and women and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Data were both deductively and inductively coded and analyzed using a thematic analysis procedure. This study found that the persistence of homelessness is a result of a combination of homeless individuals' perceptions of housing programs' structural failures including long waiting periods for access to housing, unnecessary bureaucratic entanglements, and what they perceived as inaction or apathy on the part of program staff in response to requests for assistance. These findings are consistent with structuration theory. The implications for positive social change include recommendations to policy makers to consider the views and perceptions of homeless people in designing programs, including ways to improve access to public resources that may ultimately lead to permanent housing for homeless individuals.