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Mapping Homelessness: Challenges and Strategies

A Senior Project submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Geography,
University of Minnesota, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Bachelor of Science
Vanessa C Borotz
13 May 2011
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Abstract

Innovations in web mapping and social media are increasingly challenging the conventional
dissemination of information. This proposal draws from multiple sources to contemplate issues related to
participatory GIS and neogeography in the context of mapping homelessness. Recognizing the need for
improving the accessibility of information to the homeless, I discuss concepts of data as a service (DaaS)
and collaborative mapping and propose a methodology for mapping homelessness such that the homeless
have the means to represent themselves. I review various ways of mapping homelessness and suggest a
methodology that will inform the homeless of services and the public of the realities of homelessness.
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Introduction

Improvements in data collection methods have greatly enhanced knowledge about the geography of

homelessness (National Alliance to End Homelessness 2009). Until recent innovations in web mapping,

virtually all efforts to map homelessness have been thematic representations of homeless counts and other

descriptive statistics aggregated to city, county, state, regional, and national scales. The growth in

knowledge about the geography of homelessness in recent years has occurred due to the funding and

information exchange between service providers and the US Department of Housing and Urban

Development (HUD). Through service providers’ systematic collection and reporting of data about local

homeless populations to HUD, the insight into the scope and gravity of the homeless problem has evolved

as a result of changes in evaluation methods. Points of assessment include estimating how many people

are homeless, main factors that contribute to homelessness, the changing demographics of the homeless

population over time, and evaluation of use and success of funded social programs (National Alliance to

End Homelessness 2009). Increasingly, homeless maps produced by the National Alliance to End

Homelessness have begun to link spatial media such as national trends in homeless counts, homeless

veteran’s counts, 2011-2012 budget cuts, Continuum of Care Funding, and other homeless-related

information to a base map.

It is important to consider that the geography of homelessness is polarized between (1) a

quantitative gathering and reporting of data about homelessness (National Alliance to End Homelessness,

the US Department of Housing and Urban Development), and (2) social theory of the spatial complexities

of the condition of being homeless (Smith 1993, Snow and Mulcahy 2001). In both cases the homeless

have been studied, but rarely have they had the opportunity to contribute their knowledge and experience

directly to discourse on the dilemma of homelessness. The map holds potential for mediating these

extremes through the participatory contributions of the homeless to the map of homeless, which would

add qualitative data. Informed by an understanding of the interaction between material, conceptual, and

virtual geographies in an increasingly interconnected information age (Sheppard et al 1999), this proposal
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focuses on the conception of “alternative” geographies (Mugerauer 2000). This proposal to map

homelessness acknowledges the purpose of research and data collection on the geography of

homelessness in absolute terms of space and scale, but considers relative conceptions of space an

important, under-investigated component of the geographies of the homeless (Smith 1993). Despite the

recent growth in knowledge about the geography of homelessness, there is still much less known about

the geographies of the homeless, which is important, especially at the local level, for truly understanding

the complex issues associated with the problem of homelessness.

An interactive Web 2.0 environment has meaningful implications for marginalized groups such as

the homeless (Crampton 2009, Haklay et al 2008 ). Social media, data sharing, web-mapping, and open

source programs characteristic of Web 2.0 diminish the influence of mainstream media while providing

the opportunity for individuals to create a new narrative of homelessness (Hodgetts et al. 2008, Sui 2008).

Twin Cities White Collar Homeless Man Walking (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN), Homeless Guy

(Nashville, TN), Homeless Family (Jacksonville, Florida), and Girl’s Guide to Homelessness (Orange

County, CA), are just a handful of the blogs, vlogs, and alternative narratives of homelessness that draw

attention to the fact that most of what we know about homelessness rarely comes from people who are

homeless. New and interesting ways of visualizing data often represent homelessness without the direct

participation of people who are homeless. An abundance of spatial media, available open source GIS,

and other web-based mapping platforms have created neogeography: “a new geography without

geographers” (Sui 2008) bringing map making capabilities to broader segments of society and inviting

the opportunity to explore alternative ways of mapping homelessness (Haklay et al 2008).

Need

The reality that geographic knowledge is mainly acquired through life experience that constructs

an elaborate mental map of the areas we interact with forms the basis of this proposal’s conceptualization

of mapping homelessness (Bell 2009, Mugerauer 2000). Two needs that his proposal identifies include 1)
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the need for an improved accessibility of information to the homeless, as well as 2) a public better

informed of the realities of homelessness.

Data as a Service

“It took me a while to learn how to be homeless. What do you do?

There’s a lot of stuff you’ve got to learn. Where the bathrooms are when you’ve got to go to the

bathroom, where the showers are. It takes you about a month to figure out what’s going on.”

–Bill, featured in Land of 10,000 Homeless (2005)

In a Web 2.0 environment Data as a Service (DaaS) commonly refers to the removal of

information barriers between data providers and users (Loukides 2010). Conceptually, this idea of data as

a service resonates with the fundamental need to make information more accessible to those who need it

most. When someone becomes homeless it can take a long time to locate necessary resources.

Community members at the Peace House in Minneapolis talk about the“follow the backpacks strategy”

and the importance of social networking when you first become homeless. People that have experienced

homelessness tend to agree that the people you talk to first can have a big impact on what resources you

find. Once local emergency shelters, food shelves, and other basic amenities are located, information gaps

about local ordinances, availability of services, and the particularities of places add extra layers of burden

to the condition of being homeless.

This program started with the goal of mapping services. Initially I went to social service

providers to find out information about services offered throughout the city, but I became quickly

overwhelmed the complex characteristics of mapping such information in a comprehensive way. I noted

that there would be a great need to organize this information to make it more suitable to a persons age or

gender. I also realized that the information that service providers could provide was not complete; that

there were things about being homeless, survival skills and strategies that the service providers didn’t

know, and there needed to be a way of communicating this expert knowledge. The project now intends to
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fulfill the same goal of mapping services, but with an empowering mission that draws from local

knowledge about place and intends to serve as a knowledge base that not only locates important resources

relevant to the geographies of the homeless, but also contributes a valuable source of knowledge that is

largely missing from discourse on the subject of homelessness.

In a community discussion about accessibility of information to the homeless at the Peace House

in Minneapolis, social networking was brought up as a survival skill for the homeless because the help

received is determined by those that help. Social networking becomes a survival skill for the homeless

because so much of how you’re helped depends on who you talk to. A few people even expressed a desire

to map social networks that one should avoid when the go on the streets. Reference maps of homeless

services are one way to better connect people to the resources they need. The Minneapolis and St. Paul

Handbook for the Streets produced by St. Stephen’s Alliance for the Streets has included a reference map

on the back page of the resource. Handbook of the Streets is an excellent comprehensive resource for the

homeless that fits in your pocket. The challenge of the reference map on the last page of the handbook is

having to selectively choose which services to represent without overly cluttering the map. This proposal

recognizes a need for the organization of complex information, utilizing new concepts of collaborative

mapping and participatory GIS.

The Ohio Department of Development found an interesting way of mapping homeless contacts on

their interactive web-based Homeless Assistance Map of the entire state. This map functions similar to an

online directory that links the user to a phone number for the homeless contact in that county rather than

any location specific service information. This way of organizing information is much more helpful than

an online search that returns a number of results that are not organized in any particular way.

The Homeless Services Coordinating Council of San Luis Obispo County, California provides a

online maps of homeless services in all of the major municipalities within the county. The web-page has

instructions of how to use the map that can be printed off. The map and runs into a similar problem of the

Handbook of the Streets in the difficulty to read layers of information at once. Such small maps are hard

to read and can become quickly outdated. The Urban Survival Guide in Regina, Saskatchewan, created
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by Marc Spooner, a professor at the University of Regina, takes the most participatory approach to

including the homeless in mapping services, although there was not sufficient evidence to suggest that he

was within the tradition of Participatory GIS. The entities included in the legend were food, emergency

shelter, clothing, community care, needle exchange, hospital, public library, park and railway. This

information, though helpful to the homeless, again is not the easiest to read and is non-comprehensive due

to the fact that not every service will fit on the map. The most important aspect of this map is knowing

that it was created in collaboration with people that are homeless, and recognizes their expertise in

matters about homelessness. The goal was to not only raise awareness of services being offered, but to

incorporate the expertise of the homeless to inform understanding of service gaps (Spooner et al. 2007).

A key action noted in Regina’s Community Plan for homeless service providers and at risk population is

to continue to explore ways of spreading awareness about homelessness that include video-podcasts and

web site developments which in turn would have the potential to raise public support for services

(Spooner et al. 2007).

Growth of the homeless population since the 1980s increases their visibility and contact with

housed citizens. The geographies of the homeless refers to social constructs of place in the world, whether

real or imagined, that have an influence on interactions with the outside environment. The media has

traditionally played an important role in constructing universal narratives of homelessness (Hodgetts et al.

2008) that illicit fear and discomfort from the general public; stories about crime and deviant behavior

result in fears that limit interactions with citizens and homeless people on the streets (Mantsios 1998,

Smith 1993). David Harvey’s theory of the use of images and discourses to reproduce social order give

reason to explore the map as as a visual representation of the social constructions of place and resonates

Goodchild and Sui’s call to consider GIS a media for communication (Sui and Goodchild 2003). This

calls for a need to need to re-articulate new narratives of homelessness in the local context that confront

universal representations of the homeless (Hodgetts et al 2008).

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Missing Layers

What is missing from most discourse as well as cartographic representation of homelessness is

the perspective and experiences of the homeless. Human geographers began calling for wider

representation of marginalized groups in Geographic Information Systems in the early 1990s (Abbot et al

1998). Critical evaluations of the growing GIS industry questioned its dominant use by government

agencies and academic institutions (Abbot et al. 1998). Particpatory GIS and Bottom-Up GIS emeged as

a research subdiscipline (Elwood 2009, Talen 2000) from these initial discussions, along with other area

of thought including radical GIS, GIS and society, critical GIS, participatory action research, and counter

mapping (Nyerges 2009, Pete 2009, Schuurman 2009, Rundstrom 2009). This presents particular

challenges with place-based conflicts that have the potential to either exacerbate current constestations of

space, or transcend the space/ place conflict by creating a presence of mutual understanding of values, a

new narrative of homelessness, scripted onto familiar territory (Del Casino and Jocoy 2008)

Systemic Issues

The capacity of Geographic Information Systems to layer issue-related information and perform

various analyses to assist in decision-making raises questions of equal representation of the various

stakeholders (Abbott et al 1998). A study conducted at the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State

used both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and GIS to ascertain whether or not a

proposed shelter site in a neighborhood in Baltimore would increase crime rates in the surrounding

neighborhood (Loubert 2010). The concluding statement that this study helps stakeholders “better

understand the needs of the homeless population” raises the question of representation when the homeless

persons that did speak up at a community forum requested a private room transitional housing type of a

program rather than group living as the proposed shelter would be (Loubert 2010).
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Although the proposed site was a low populated area underneath an interstate overpass, it was

near a more densely populated neighborhood that also had a significant number of businesses in close

enough proximity to cause disagreement. Stakeholders in the study included business owners, service

providers, neighborhood residents and homeless people. Focus groups gathered stakeholders and

community mapping was used by the city, businesses, and neighbors while information was collected

from the homeless using GPS technology (Loubert 2010). Though the study does not mention exactly to

what degree this GPS technology was used to monitor the behavior of homeless individuals, the unequal

power relationship between stakeholders was evident in the participatory qualitative data gathered from

businesses and neighbors through community mapping verses the GPS technology used to describe the

behavior of the homeless. Emergency calls and crime data before and after the opening of a soup kitchen

within close proximity of the proposed shelter site was used to determine the likelihood of an increase in

crime rates following the opening of the shelter. Esri Business found area businesses while demographic

and crime data were geocoded to census blocks. The standard deviations of the 2004 to 2008 found that

the shelter would not increase the crime rate (Loubert 2010).

The report does bring up the concern that even with well intentioned projects, there is a tendency

to use technology to prescribe solutions and temporary support to the homeless population, without

considering valuable input from the homeless about their needs. Statistically disproving the perception

that homelessness increases crime will not resolve lingering “not-in-my-backyard” (NIMBY) sentiment

that it is undesirable to have homeless people nearby. The problem remains that homeless people are

excluded and are not treated as belonging to the communities in which they reside (Law 2001). This is

where participatory approach to mapping homelessness could be used as a medium of communication of

the needs of the homeless population.

In 2007 Los Angeles-based custom cartographic agency, Cartifact, partnered with the LA Police

Department to map the downtown homeless population. A surface trend analysis of bi-weekly counts of

individuals perceived to be homeless collected by the LAPD was superimposed on a base map of

downtown Los Angeles. The resulting animated maps visually depicted the month-to-month shifting
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density of the homeless population in Los Angeles. The initial version explored mapping the count of

each homeless person as a specific point in the city, and another version aggregated the counts into a

proportional symbol map to show the more heavily homeless populated areas (Richardson, 2007). A heat

map which displays the data as a colorful haze was selected in the final version to best represent the fuzzy

mobility of the homeless population in Downtown Los Angeles (Richardson, 2007). Erich Richardson,

the lead developer of the Downtown Homeless Map, used open-source software Surfit to generate the

surface and VTBuilder to georeference the data before pulling the data back into ArcGIS for more

statistical work to better represent the situation on the streets (Richardson, 2007).

According to Richardson, LAPD’s data confirmed that homeless people respond to temperature

and policing in their environment, although no data displayed on the online version of the map could

confirm Richardson’s conclusion. Richardson expressed that the map’s main objective was to “tell the

story” of the homeless situation in Los Angeles. Based on the results of this collaborative project,

whereas the data itself communicates the idea that “this is where homeless people are,” it seems accurate

to theorize that a projection of various, layered information might serve as a more effective tool for

contextualizing the shifting homeless population in downtown Los Angeles.

Neogeography and Participatory GIS

The current paradigms of participation and interactivity require attention that echo criticism of

GIS by human geographers in the early 1990s. Assumptions of participation, interactivity, collaboration,

and equal access to geographic information also need to be addressed in light of the digital divide. New

concepts of data as a service (DaaS) and volunteered geographic information (VGI) call for research in

participatory GIS (Sui 2008). Neogeography has been championed as the “democratization of spatial

information.” (Fischer 2008). Instead of geospatial activities resting in the hands of GIS experts,

activists, social service advocates, nonprofits and citizens increasingly have access to free GIS software

(Crampton 2009).
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Sheppard et al suggest that new GIS that are more user-friendly to all of society would need to

combine the difficulty of the current system, the knowledge base of programmers, graphic artists,

communication specialist, and individuals that study GIS and society. Such a collaboration would

formulate an invitation for the homeless to step forward, giving them an incentive to become engaged in

this activity. Resource maps have been developed by various persons to help the homeless gain better

access to needed resources.

Objectives

Consider the map as a metaphor for the dynamic interaction between people and multiple

geographies at once. The idea of a geography is founded on the ways of knowing the world, mainly

through spatial experiences (Mugerauer 2000). I recognize a practical need for a comprehensive reference

list of services. I also recognize the inherent potential for capacity building and empowerment in a more

participatory approach to mapping those services. My objectives are to (1) present multiple, new

possibilities and the means for mapping homelessness, and (2) to propose ways in which to foster a

foundation into which to integrate a sustained mapping program. I propose that combining Participatory

GIS with new forms of collaborative neogeographic mapping would greatly enhance capacity for

developing a map which communicates the knowledge and expertise of the homeless.

The homeless have a labyrinthine experience of the socioeconomic structures in the urban

landscape; however, the public has a restricted experience of the homeless. Hodgets et al show the

media’s traditional role in creating universal narratives about homelessness that produce exclusionary

policies towards the homeless. Neil Smith and Hodgets et al show the media’s use as a vehicle for social

control that frames the problems of homelessness in such a way that permits exclusionary policies

deliberately designed to remove the homeless from public spaces (Smith 1993). This view is strongly

constituted by specific social constructions of space and, as such, suggests the importance of place and

scale in the geographies of homelessness (Snow and Mulcahy 2001). For example, Snow and Mulcahy
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consider the organizational, political and moral constraint on the activities of the homeless, due to city

ordinances attempting to privatize sidewalks and nightlife in particular districts to keep out the homeless

(Snow and Mulcahy 2001). The exclusionary policy, in this case, governs the movement of homeless

persons away from specific locations of social significance, guiding them away from interaction with the

public and thereby contributing to the confined margins of their narrative.

Similar case studies in other cities demonstrate a theme of questioning the right of the homeless

to public spaces in the American city (Snow and Mulcahy 2001, Hodgetts et al 2008 ). The clearing of

slums and homeless camps seem to be common themes in many such discourses that are heavy in spatial

theory, but are not mapped. The homeless voice has been largely obsolete during political struggles that

question the rights of homeless people to public spaces such as city parks and the library (Hodgets et al,

Smith). The closing of Tompkins Square Park in New York 1991 after movements to clear homeless

camps and widespread gentrification in the late 80s is one of the most famous examples of such

contestations over urban space. The unfolding of events involved in the campaign to “take back the park”

came to symbolize the social, economic, and political failure of the city to deal with its homeless problem

(Smith 1993).

Snow discusses strategies of containment, displacement, and exclusion undertaken by local social control

agents to mitigate the homeless problem and issues surrounding the local population. Conceptualization

of the urban city brings attention to the fact that the exchange value used to differentiate land use by city

officials are set on a different set of values than the homeless. Homelessness presents an interesting case

that Mitchell relays from an essay he read by Walden, whereby “the condition of being homeless in the

capitalist city is simply the condition of having no place to call one’s own” (Mitchell 2003).

The Safer Streets initiative in Los Angeles, for instance, is one of many police crackdowns on the

homeless exhibited across the United States. Returning to the Downtown Homeless Population map, the

map itself emphasizes the highly interactive spatial dynamics of homelessness, but not in any context.
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What is notable about the visualization of the homeless counts is the fuzzy other-world visualization of

homeless people occupying non-defined spaces within the city, a sort of translucent existence that

captures qualities of the experience being homeless.

As is, the story of the homeless situation in Los Angeles is glossed over. The examples of

counting and displaying information about the location of the homeless present an interesting angle from

which one can question not only where people are, but why. Efforts to count or comprehend the homeless

in specific locations fails to draw out the necessary qualitative data to understand the significance of what

they are mapping. Mapping the homeless in specific zones and watching them shuffle around from

month to month is an insignificant contribution to the information base on homeless geographies. Skid

rows were a part of the urban landscape of American cities until their widespread clearance during Urban

Renewal which gentrified poor communities and displaced poor people. This clearance of skid row was

assumed to have dispersed a once contained homeless population throughout urban cities (Lee et al 2003).

This displacement is theorized to have given birth to an environment of hostility and suspicion among law

enforcement, city council members, neighborhoods, and the homeless. With the clearance of skid rows,

there is no where for the homeless to be but within public space.

To describe the hierarchical ordering of spatial representations David Harvey writes, “Our

understanding of place gets organized through the elaboration of some kind of mental map of the world

which can be invested in with all manner of personal or collective hopes and fears” (Harvey 1993, 22).

The insertion of personal and local narratives and other perceptual qualitative information over the

standard GIS spatial layout would present a set of alternative geographies and alternative ways of

visualizing those spaces and places inhabited and experienced by diverse groups. I propose that such a

mapping program would create the potential for a more clear understanding and communication of the

geographies of the homeless. For example, many applications of the Participatory GIS methodology have

involved land rights, the reclamation of place and identity within a larger imposing structure of

oppression (Abbott et al 1998). It would seem that a more formal inclusion of the homeless population

would not only better suit the practical needs of the homeless population, but would also foster more
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interaction between housed citizens of Baltimore and the local homeless population to create the

possibility for new narratives of homeless to occur.

The extensive amount of work it takes to map anything, especially less traditional cartographic

representations such as of homelessness, create problems in that the map quickly becomes out-of-date if

any changes in material space occur. This issue presents the case for a dynamic map of homelessness that

can be easily updated over time, such as is the case with collaborative mapping (Fisher 2008). Ushahidi,

an open source crowd mapping platform is currently the best fit for the map. Several instances of

Ushahidi have demonstrated this method’s capacity for storing location-specific qualitative data.

Cartwright considers the map as a communicator of experience, an opportunity to understand

another person’s geography. Seeing a map of homelessness would not only communicate facts and

statistics about homelessness; it would also communicate a sensibility of values and experiences. The

map would be a landscape enlivened with the emotional and experiential background information, making

use of multimedia, both audio and visual to communicate certain sensibilities (Cartwright 2010).

The concept of applying qualitative data to geography is especially fascinating when we

reconsider the

Computer Aided Qualitative GIS considers unrecognized potential for the inclusion of qualitative data

storage and analysis wit in GIS. This considers the possibility of engaging in a Quantitative GIS without

needing a new software altogether. Using the components of GIS, but operating in a parallel coding

environment without the need to engage in application programming, is a very specific skill set outside

the realm of knowledge held by the majority of GIS practitioners.

I suggest that a more qualitative research that explores the geographies of the homeless will not

only create a new knowledge about the condition of being homeless, but will also redesign the social

paradigm of homelessness in such a way that contextualizes the realities and re-informs the public

narrative. The goal would be to present options and tools, and to teach the skills necessary to explore

ideas and ways of mapping homelessness. Unfortunately, the objective has a great deal of risk involved.

We cannot ignore the reality of the intentions of exclusionary efforts directed at the homeless who lack
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any defined rights to public space (Mitchell 2003). Their undesired presence is reinforced by the

misconceived narrative of homelessness, an act of falsifying worlds by making them invisible (Mantsios

1998).

Methods

Almost by default in many participatory GIS projects, the researcher emerges as a translator of

groups or individual conceptualizations of place into GIS. In the methodologies of Bottom Up GIS and

Participatory GIS, traditional methodologies are described which involve a long process of describing

one’s knowledge about their world. A GIS expert facilitates the translation of this local knowledge into a

database that can be inputted into GIS (Talen 2000, Jung and Elwood 2010). The first step towards

developing a map of homelessness involves presenting the ideas, generated through the collection of

knowledge and experience from the homeless, to communities, and developing a general sense of whether

or not the proposed project sparks any interest or not. As an example, the responses received at St.

Stephens in Minneapolis and the Peace House in Minneapolis thus far, there appears to be many

interested individuals.

Participatory GIS and Bottom up GIS communicate local knowledge about place that

encompasses perceptions as well as values of place. The map becomes both the tool for finding resources

as well as the medium of expression, communicating perceptions rather than relying on facts of

geographies of the homeless. This communication of perceptions integrates the ideas of cognitive

mapping into a GIS context (Talen 2000, Jung and Elwood 2010). Consider the following excerpt by

Jung and Elwood:

These efforts to grapple with ‘the qualitative’ in GIScience... share a common concern with

mediating between humans’ conceptualizations and articulations of space, spatial attributes,

spatial objects and relationships; and feasible mechanisms for representing these

conceptualizations in the computational models of digital spatial technologies. At heart, they

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grapple with the complex and shifting meanings that are created and modified through human

perception, in language, and in ‘data’, however we define it” (Jung and Elwood 2010).

The traditional methods of Participatory GIS involve an extensive process of learning how to

describe ones knowledge about their world and then translate that knowledge into GIS (Talen 2000, Jung

and Elwood 2010). The map becomes both the tool for finding resources as well as the medium of

expression for geographies of the homeless. This communication of perceptions integrates the ideas of

cognitive mapping into a local social, economic, and political context (Talen 2000, Ghose and Elwood

2003). Methods that Talen presented included both individual modes of expression of perceptions about

place as well as consensus based group expression (Talen 2000). At the onset of the project, various

modes of sketch mapping and the aggregation of points of interest which to map will help establish which

resources or services are the most significant. One limitation to sketch mapping is the fact that it depends

somewhat on artistic ability to render one’s mental map of a place (Bell 2009). The limitation of this

technique makes the case for including other types of documentation and representation including oral,

written, or visual documentations of place that can be georeferenced to that particular location.

Hyperlinking qualitative data is one technique that Jung and Elwood describe that involves

associating multimedia qualitative data such as image, digital image, sound file or video clip to spatial

objects in GIS is explored as a component of Computer-Aided Qualitative GIS (Jung and Elwood 2010).

Qualtitative data are stored separately from the spatial data, and are considered as digital files because of

the fact that they do not contain exact location information. However geocoding exact locations of

qualitative data would have the potential to allow GIS data to pull both geographic objects and qualitative

GIS in any spatial query which would enable research to consider both conventional GIS data and

qualitative data (Jung and Elwood 2010). The imagined grid layer is a way that has the potential to

incorporate conventional GIS data and qualitative data.

Participation and collaboration are words often used to describe fundamental components of

neogeography (Fischer 2008). Whereas the the tradition of PGIS usually involved a GIS expert working

with data, the age of neogeography is almost perceived to eliminate the need for that role. However, with
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the context of this proposal it is not so much a GIS expert that is needed to facilitate the continuation of

this project, but I propose that the project needs to be embedded within a social service agency that works

in solidarity with the homeless to end homelessness. This serves the intention of the project to see a the

successful outcome of a sustained program for mapping homelessness. Such a social justice oriented

agency would have the potential to sustain and nourish a project, making it a truly collaborative effort of

involvement.

Ghose and Elwood (2003) point out that the methods of delivery and construction of the process

will be highly dependent on the local social, economic, and political contextual environment of the

proposed project. The first step will be presenting the idea and formulating the appeal of the project,

which translates as a very practical need to establish a local knowledge base of homeless resources. The

next step involves establishing regular meeting times, discussing the project in further detail, and in the

initial meetings the most interested individuals will demonstrate their commitment to the project. The

beginning of this process would involve the exploration ideas that work for people, and also what doesn’t.

Questions to be addressed will be, “Who is the map for? What is the argument of the map? What are the

ways with which you represent the map?”

Innovations in web-mapping increasingly bypass the need for expensive GIS software. Since the

map becomes both a tool and a medium of expression, the software used to map homelessness depends on

what one means to communicate. We have seen examples where Community Walk was used to make a

map that could be embedded into a website and updated. Criticisms of the digital divide and

inaccessibility to new forms of technology must not inhibit ideas from taking root that have the potential

to transcend the digital divide. Libraries are an excellent resource for the homeless, and incorporating a

web-based collaborative mapping approach may help bridge the divide (Winkelstein and Cortez 2010).

The advantage of the open source platform Ushahidi is that it involves setting up a data base and

a repository that is managed under a single location but can be added to or changed by multiple parties

across space and time. The concept of a collaborative, dynamic, map of homeless services is appealing

because of the shifting transience of the homeless experience and the number of people that can
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contribute to the map and have access to the information it provides. However, jumping into a web

programming world of Php and MySQL, even with help documents and a community of users, such

trouble shooting of problems is difficult to do without prior background knowledge of these issues. At

the same time, the digital divide must be challenged and Ushahidi has been created to democratize

information, increase transparency and create a new narrative by allowing collaborative mapping, and is

usually deployed during times of crisis (Ushahidi).

The difficulty of jumping into a web programming world of Php and MySQL, even with help

documents and a community of users, such troubleshooting of problems is difficult to do without prior

background knowledge of these issues. However, that cannot be a limiting factor. The digital divide may

exist, but it should not inhibit ideas from taking root that have the potential to transcend the digital divide.

Libraries are an excellent resource for the homeless, and the participation in such an effort will

necessarily require learning, but the idea is that such a program would need to be embedded within a

social service agency that has a mission to work in solidarity with clients. Such a social justice oriented

agency would have the potential to sustain and nourish a project, making it a truly collaborative effort of

involvement.

Evaluations

It is of course easy for a geographical imagination fascinated with the spatial complexities of the

condition of being homeless to run wild with the possibility of maps rich in information. It is easy to see

that privacy concerns and basic protections mandate a certain level of censorship of experiences. One

might ask questions about what that means when, drawing on Cartwright’s application of the theater

metaphor to cartography which would include multiple forms of spatial representation from multi-media

mediums that would aim to transfer more than just spatial visualization of the geographies of the

homeless but a map that would communicate the experience of being homeless (Cartwright 2009). It is

important to take into consideration the socially constructed knowledge of homelessness must not
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predetermine the expected outcomes of a map of homelessness. Critical GIS requires reflection on the

means, motives, and methods of any GIS representation, which evaluates the outcomes of the

endeavor.The evaluation of empowerment requires careful consideration because of the fact of how easy

it is to misrepresent the homeless. Even well-intended homeless information can be put into the wrong

hands. One person, especially someone who has never been homeless before, is not likely to know

anything about these entities that are significant to the experience of being homeless.

What I imagine as a final product for this proposal is highly dependent on a group consensus of

the best way to represent knowledge about place. This may or may not include a reference map. Take,

for example, the case of the homeless advocacy group in New York City, Picture the Homeless, currently

working on a map of vacant buildings in five boroughs. They have just recently executed an instance of

Ushahidi where they are crowd mapping vacant properties in New York City. The survey is noted as the

first of its kind initiated by a homeless rights group (Picture the Homeless) and is currently the way that

this group finds best suited to represent their world: by visualizing the injustice of homelessness in direct

comparison to the number of vacant houses in New York. This very straightforward reference map of

vacant houses and property lots communicates something about being homeless that cannot be easily

represented through a reference map. The point of this proposal is to present ideas and new ways of

spatially expressing ones environment, and those expressions will emerge in a way that best suits the

purpose of the local context of that community.

 20
Appendix I

“Homeless Counts.” National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2009

http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2797

“2011 Counts Media Map.” National Alliance to End Homelessness, 25 February 2011
http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/3759
 21

“Highest Continuum of Care Homeless Population and Rates.” National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011
http://www.endhomelessness.org/section/data/interactivemaps/homelessratesbycoc

“Mapping Urban Inequality.” Linda Loubert, 2010

http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring10articles/mapping-urban.html
 22

“Homeless Population Map.” Cartifact, 2008 http://cartifact.com/webmaps/homeless/

“Homeless Population Map.” Cartifact, 2006. Found in Gridskipper Blog by Joshua Stein
http://gridskipper.com/archives/entries/59111/59111.php
 23

24
“Homeless Resource Interactive Map.” Landryc, 2011. http://www.communitywalk.com/col_homeless#0004G0ZI

“Urban Survival Guide.” Marc Spooner, 2009. http://www.homelesshub.ca/ResourceFiles/kjeiq05j.pdf

 24

“Manhattan Vacant Properties Map.” created by On New York Turf Lab in partner with
Picture the Homeless, 2011 http://www.onnyturf.com/lab/vacantproperty/

“Vacant NYC.” Picture the Homeless. August 2010. http://vacantnyc.crowdmap.com/

 1

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