IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

This presentation explores the power of data to fight urban homelessness by highlighting Open Source Homelessness Initiative (OSHI), an online platform that collects information in order to drive acceleration in the design of homelessness solutions. Key facts and questions are critical to challenge homelessness: Today, over 600,000 Americans are homeless, disgraceful for the world’s richest country. Why, when the US has the money to house every American? What is endemic to our culture, government, and economy that has brought us here? The overwhelming number of unsheltered homeless filling our cities counters our democracy. While housing in the US should be a human right, we have failed to make it so. This is party because historical passivity on the part of our elected officials, trickled down to the public, has disabled large-scale change. And while many work tirelessly to eradicate homelessness, their efforts are siloed and collective action is ill-informed. Again, why? What critical toolset are we missing? Our analysis shows that, while grassroots data on individuals has helped reduce homelessness to “functional zero” in some communities, open-sourced data, which has accelerated innovations including the recent production of COVID-19 vaccines, has not been used against homelessness. This is key. OSHI’s open-sourced data can drive innovation through education that advances informed project delivery, so that housing, support facilities, city initiatives, and pop-up programs can be quickly and meaningfully realized. OSHI’s potential is to then overlay data to form “data maps” that reveal patterns formed by construction cost, user demographics, construction types, and funding distribution. The first such set of “data maps” will form the nucleus of this talk. Finally, with the belief in the power of creative expression, OSHI hosts the artistic output of our unhoused and those working on their behalf, to elevate individual identity and human dignity.