Project: Mapping of Key Contributors to Housing Security (Collaboration with Wellspan)
Student Researchers: Zachary Clayton, Kat Jara-Siza, and Clay Markey
Introduction & Background
“For many Americans, housing insecurity has become an issue. In the midst of a global pandemic housing insecurity has increased and the need to track and find solutions to the problem is a very prominent issue. One way of finding housing insecurities is to look at a couple of different factors that are key contributors to the situation. The word housing insecurity can mean many different things for many different situations. For this project, we are looking at housing insecurity in the scope of the people who still have a house but are barely getting by. Another group we are looking at is people on the verge of losing their house. For our study, we did not look at people who have already lost their house or are without any housing accommodations. Housing insecurity can come in many different ways so this project looks at two of the possible ways. Looking into the hot spots, we can classify the different groups of housing insecurity and what their needs are, and how they are affected. We are looking at where the hardest-hit areas are and creating data. This way, plans can be developed and programs can be implemented to improve and cut down on the number of people suffering from housing insecurity.”
Problem/Issue Statement
“Many people have great difficulty finding homes that are available for purchase and that they can afford. Whether it is due to a lack of homes in the market or the housing market being too expensive in a particular area, housing insecurity plagues a significant number of individuals and com m unities. With the cost of purchasing a home being vastly larger than the incomes of some people, many are forced to either rent, live with family/friends, or receive government-provided housing. The result is a significant decrease in that individual’s independence, quality of life, and freedom. However, these negative effects will not only be felt by those who personally suffer from housing insecurity but will also have an insidious impact on society at large. When people are placed in a situation that strips them of their independence, they then lose the ability to contribute to their communities and take part in the problem -solving process. This is because when individuals have no practical opportunities to uphold their free agency and integrity by purchasing a home, they then may resign themselves to a state of dependency. Such a state not only affects them but all people who are now experiencing a quality of life that is lesser than it would have been if that individual was able to achieve independence and confidence by buying their own home.”
Conclusions
“After analyzing the data, we then created maps to demonstrate our findings as they related to our initial questions that we had at the beginning of the process. Although we had most of our initial questions answered in a way that matched what we had hypothesized we found ourselves in a peculiar position. This was because our project had managed to point out key differences between York City and the county that caused the issue of housing insecurity, however that is all we did. Now we just have this big problem that we are sitting on without any clear solution in sight. Perhaps the most important lesson that we learned throughout this process is that research is not always the path to clear and satisfying understandings of the world. On the contrary, sometimes it leaves you with more questions than answers as you try to wrap your head around the new and more complex perspective of the world that you have just obtained.”
Click here to view the Project Poster
