The NYC Connection Initiative: A Resource Guide for the NYC Homeless
The NYC Connection Initiative is an organization that consolidates all of the resources that are available in New York City for the homeless, homeless struggling with mental illness, or for those that are housing unstable. First-year students Baoqi Ding, Virginia Gordon, and Yiming Xu spent 15 weeks researching the complex issue of homelessness in NYC. They designed a handbook, a smartphone app, and an awareness campaign for disseminating essential resources.
“80% of homeless individuals in NYC have a smartphone,
and it acts as their lifeline.”
Through their intensive research, the NYC Connection Initiative team discovered a statistic that might come as a surprise: "80% of homeless individuals in New York City have a smartphone, and it acts as their lifeline." This fact opened up new possibilities for designing a service for this population's specific needs. They also shared that, "although there are many holes in the shelter system, NYC offers some of the best services available in the country. However, it is incredibly difficult to maneuver the system as it is complicated and vast. Our goal is to create an easy to digest and comprehensive resource for homeless individuals to understand their options."
The goal is to create an easy to digest and comprehensive resource for homeless individuals to understand their options.
The team designed a comprehensive guide of resources—available as a smartphone app as well as a physical handbook for individuals without a phone. Both the digital and physical guide include sections about where to find meals, shelter, medical services, emergency services, and more. The organization also offers a smartphone matching service that connects homeless individuals to a smartphone. These phones will have the NYC Connection Initiative app already downloaded, filled with all of the resources around New York City. The app also tracks prescriptions and appointments to help the homeless generate consistency—necessary for seeking permanent housing, jobs, and medical services.
The NYC Connection Initiative team found that it is often difficult for homeless individuals to navigate the resources available. As one person shared, "You enter a shelter, and they give you information around the services they have, but it's hard to understand what else is out there." Through their extensive research, they found that "homeless individuals are often deterred from entering the shelter system due to the lack of privacy and unsafe conditions within a large New York City shelter.”
"You enter a shelter, and they give you information around the services
they have, but it's hard to understand what else is out there."
—an individual on the street
Those who struggle with mental illness (greater than 40% of homeless individuals) are even more likely to be deterred from finding shelter. As a result, they end up sleeping on the street when they have the right to shelter (Callahan v. Carey), get sent to prison, or become stuck in the system without a permanent place to live." From the issue of shelter alone, the NYC Connection Initiative team saw the importance of disseminating resources in a feasible and tangible method that would reach more individuals needing assistance.
To raise awareness about NYC Connection Initiative, the student team proposes to run an MTA and NYC kiosk campaign. Each month there will be a new resource facet featured on the MTA (food, shelter, medical services, etc.) always combined with the smartphone exchange information. The NYC kiosks will also be used for the same purpose as well as advocating the benefits of using 311.
