Category Archives: Housing

Final Research Paper, Housing, Uncategorized

Hannah Rafkin
The Digital Image of the City
Professor Jen Jack Gieseking
12/17/14

BoostPortland: Grappling with Homelessness in the Smart City

Research Area

In the United States, national homelessness declined by over 9% from 2007 to 2013. In the state of Maine, homelessness increased by 17% from 2009 to 2013. In the same timespan, homelessness has increased by 70% in the city of Portland, growing at four times the rate of the state. [1] The city is well known for its extensive support infrastructure, particularly Preble Street Resource Center. Preble Street has been extensively hailed for its “housing first” model, in which people are given housing regardless of substance abuse or mental health problems. Despite the excellence of Portland’s resources for the homeless, these centers are overwhelmed. Shelters often have spillover, leaving many people curling up on chairs or on the floor, oftentimes in other facilities. One cold night in 2013, only 272 shelter sleeping spots were available for double the number of people who sought them out. [1]

The Task Force to Develop a Strategic Plan to Prevent & End Homelessness in Portland reported on the demographics of Portland homelessness as of 2012. The average age of a shelter-goer was 40. Nearly 60% faced mental illness, and nearly 38% grappled with drug addiction – 70% reported a combination of the two. At Florence House, Preble Street’s housing unit for chronically homeless women, 66% were victims of abuse, 54% victims of domestic abuse specifically. Seventy one percent of homeless people had been homeless for a month or less. [2] According to a Bangor Daily News article, a third of homeless people in Portland’s shelters are from the city, another third are from other Maine towns, and another third are from out of state. [3]

Policy Controversies

The City Council of Portland discussed extensive plans to address these issues in the same 2012 report. Their goals included “Retooling the Emergency Shelter System, Rapid Rehousing, Increased Case Management, and Report Monitoring.” Specifically this meant creating a centralized and streamlined intake and assessment process, developing additional housing units, increasing rental opportunities, working with landlords to make housing more accessible, adopting and enhancing an ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) case management system, and increasing work and educational opportunities for homeless youth, families, and veterans. [2]

The Portland Chamber of Commerce responded negatively to the task force and the presence of the homeless population more generally, wondering if the city of Portland was “too attractive to the homeless.” [3] The president of the Downtown District said the homeless were “intimidating,” and “hurt [Portland’s] ability to be a tourist destination and also our business.” [4] The Chamber expressed concern that the city was becoming “a disgusting filthy mess.” [3] Mark Swann, director of Preble Street Resource Center, was “deeply saddened and disappointed by…the misguided and mean-spirited comments…Dehumanizing our neighbors struggling with poverty, homelessness and hunger is deplorable.” He advised the Chamber to talk with Preble Street’s councilors to get a better sense of the “attractiveness” of homeless life in Portland. [4]

These contrasting attitudes represent a growing tension in Portland between wealthy gentrification and impoverished homelessness. As homelessness has skyrocketed in recent years, the city has become increasingly trendy – ‘hipster’ cafes, pricey shops, and condos-with-a-view have sprung up incessantly. Swann’s suggestion for conversation between the Chamber and the Resource Center is wise – these seemingly opposing forces could benefit from dialogue instead of distant and impassioned resentment.

I observed this conflict of interests in action during my transect walk through Portland, noticing the strained simultaneity of homelessness and gentrification. I was particularly struck by a juxtaposition I observed at the busy intersection of Franklin Street and Marginal Way. A homeless man stood leaning against a road sign, holding up a flimsy piece of cardboard. Yards away was a store called Planet Dog, catering exclusively to the bedding, food, toys, and accessories of Portland’s canines. An astronomically expensive antique shop and a home entertainment center sat down the road from Preble Street Resource Center.

Later on, another juxtaposition presented itself. I was walking through Congress Square Park taking photographs and surveying the scene. Some people sat on the steps, one man grilled burgers, another played guitar. My taking pictures clearly upset a woman sitting on a bench, who got up and followed me for several blocks, slurring and staggering, yelling “Fuck the white house, bitch” and other obscenities. Nonsensical as the specific expression of her outrage may have been, this encounter was representative of a larger urban tension. I am a white girl from New Jersey, doing coursework for a course at an elite college, wielding an imposing SLR camera in the attempt of ‘capturing the city,’ only visiting for a brief and comfortable afternoon of exploration. In that instance, I was encroaching on her space – she does not have the option to ‘explore’ the city lightheartedly.

congress sq
Layers of Congress Square Park

Boost Portland – Smart City Solution

A man I interviewed outside of Preble Street said that complications of daily life and a lack of affordable housing make it “impossible for people to get on their feet” in Portland. I propose a combined application, website, and texting service called BoostPortland, aimed to get Portland’s at-risk population on their feet – and to keep them on their feet – by meeting everyday, individualized needs beyond sleep and food. BoostPortland will draw on the city’s own residents, businesses, and organizations to to support the city’s neediest citizens, creating a pervasive network dedicated to bettering their community. BoostPortland will provide a platform for the struggling citizens of Portland to receive help in confronting the myriad challenges of daily life.

Users would create posts, either offering or seeking out assistance. An individual could post offering help with resumes at the public library, advertising an odd job like shoveling a driveway, or giving away clothing items. Somebody could post requesting a ride to a job interview, asking for a winter jacket, or seeking help with English. Businesses could post offering free food, wireless Internet, a space to organize, or perhaps just some time to warm up.

This format allows for direct and impactful volunteerism on the terms of both the giver and the receiver. Specific, attainable needs will be met at a convenient time and a convenient place for both parties, while creating connections between Portlanders of varied backgrounds. Additionally, involving a diverse group of businesses – from Salvation Army to Portland Architechtural Salvage – might help to ground them in the often-grim realities in the city. This might give them a better understanding of the challenges facing the homeless population, and allow for increased awareness of the role of commerce in making Portland an increasingly expensive place to live. Ideally, businesses will then reconsider the sentiments expressed by the Chamber of Commerce in response to the task force.

Approach to the Common Good for the City

Urban centers are hotbeds of diversity. Socioeconomic, racial, cultural, sexual, and lifestyle differences guarantee exposure to fresh perspectives. In a city with a focus on the common good, all perspectives are given a voice, and there exists a platform for productive and engaging “encounter and exchange.” [5] In a city with a focus on the common good, all citizens have access to basic human rights – water, food, and shelter are attainable for everyone. In a city with a focus on the common good, there is a network of organized care and action around issues of social justice impacting the city.

The homelessness task force is on the right track to meeting this definition (though its website’s most recent agenda item is dated October 11, 2012) but the Chamber of Commerce’s focus on business and tourism poses roadblocks in attaining the common good in Portland.

Approach to the Smart City

The ambitious and futuristic proposals to re-envision the technological functioning of the modern day city in “Leveraging Social Media and IoT to Bootstrap Smart Environments” are exciting. [6] But the idea of “everything [becoming] a sensor” is perhaps overzealous, and has major potential to verge into Big Brother territory. [6] The focus on using technology to better conserve energy is very appealing, however.

A truly smart city integrates technologies that are “situated in a specific locale and human context,” as described by Adam Greenfield. [7] South Korea’s city of Songdo exemplifies the pervasiveness of technology described in Crowley, Curry, and Breslin’s article, but lacks contextual concern for the interests, behaviors, and problems facing its citizens. Songdo was built before those interests, behaviors, and problems could even manifest, before city planners could consider how their innovations would function within the specific flow and feel of the city. In the smart city, citizens define the technology; the technology does not define the citizens.

As technologies tend to be expensive, they come with concerns of accessibility. The smart city does not limit its innovations to “those who can afford it and conform to middle-class rules of appearance and conduct.” [8] This notion is particularly pertinent to my research area.

Literature Review

“To Go Again to Hyde Park” by Don Mitchell emphasizes each citizen’s “right to the city,” though those rights are not always made equal in practice. [5] As “some members of society are not covered by any property right,” they must “find a way to inhabit the city…as with squatting, and with the collective movements of the landless, to undermine the power of property and its state sanction, or otherwise appropriate and inhabit the city.” [5] Mitchell advocates for the marginalized populations’ participation – forcefully, if need be – in the dialogue of urban life. In “Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and Politics of Space,” Dolores Hayden also stresses the importance of undervalued voices in urban conversation. She discusses the development of the urban landscape, describing the role of every inhabitant of a city, the marginalized included, in shaping its look, feel, and experience: “Indigenous residents as well as colonizers, ditchdiggers as well as architects, migrant workers as well as mayors, housewives as well as housing inspectors, are all active shaping the urban landscape.” [9]

Technology continues to reform the way citizens interact with each other and share ideas, even within disenfranchised populations. The homeless community’s usage of cell phones has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2009, advocates from Washington D.C. estimated that 30%-45% of the homeless population they worked with owned cell phones. [10] In a 2010 study of homeless cell phone use in Philadelphia, 44% of a 100-person sample size owned cell phones. [11] A 2013 study found that 70.7% of Connecticut homeless emergency room patients owned cell phones. [12] No such study exists for Portland, but similar patterns likely apply. As the homeless population becomes increasingly technologically active, a solution like BoostPortland gains potential to foster discussion and exchange between the haves and have-nots of the city, drawing on the broader community to improve the lives of Portland’s neediest citizens.

Integrating technology into such projects must be done thoughtfully, however. At a 2012 technology conference in Austin, Texas, a marketing agency proposed that homeless people be utilized as mobile wireless Internet transmitters. For $20 a day, homeless people walked around wearing shirts that said “I’m _____, A 4G Hotspot.” Instead of creating inclusive dialogue, this “charitable experiment” denied the personhood of the participants, defining individuals only by their potential for beneficial functionality. One blogger aptly described the project as “something out of a darkly satirical science-fiction dystopia.” [13]

The Hack to End Homelessness meet up in Seattle provides a better model for conscientious use of technology – developers, designers, and “do-gooders” got together to brainstorm solutions for homelessness. The event produced exciting data, maps, applications, and other programs with a focus on dialogue between groups with different staked interests – the event organizer foregrounded the importance of “[reducing] tension between the housing community and tech workers.” [14]

Methods

Representing the homeless through maps was a difficult undertaking – without an address, homeless citizens do not get represented in government census data. Data about issues surrounding homelessness exists (housing, income, neighborhoods). Social Explorer median income census data and the ‘PlanNeighborhoods’ Portland Shapefile were particularly helpful in establishing a backdrop for new data about homelessness directly.

I created new data sets on Portland’s homeless encampments, resource centers, and affordable housing. I began by geocoding the addresses of all of the homeless encampments mentioned in the Portland Press Herald in the past three years to get a sense of where the homeless are congregating. Then, I placed these data points on top of median income data to juxtapose the temporary homes of the homeless with the financial context of their temporary surroundings. This layer provides a means of accounting for transient homes of those that the census does not count – an attempt to bring the homeless onto the city map. I also geocoded all of Portland’s resource centers, shelters, and soup kitchens, and placed them on the same map as the encampments to see where help is concentrated in the city and where it is lacking. As the dearth of affordable housing has made living a stable life in Portland increasingly difficult, I was curious about the prevalence and whereabouts of existing affordable housing in the city, so I mapped housing units deemed affordable by the Maine State Housing Authority. [15]

Findings

HomelessEncampments

As the above map demonstrates, the homeless are inclined to camp near the water and in wooded areas. They camp mostly in low- to middle-income regions, though not exclusively. The city’s resource centers are mostly concentrated in a small pocket in Bayside, a low-income region of Portland. The encampments and resource centers do not show significant overlap in location.

PortlandAffordableHousing
The above map shows that housing deemed affordable by the Maine State Housing Authority is centralized in the Downtown, Bayside, and East End regions of Portland. It is interesting and concerning to consider the consequences of sectioning off low-income populations, reminiscent of tenement-style urban layouts that Hayden discusses in “Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and Politics of Space.” [9]

Reflections: Technological Concerns

BoostPortland will have three technological components to support the expected range of socioeconomic backgrounds: a smartphone application, a website, and an SMS texting service. The smartphone application will likely appeal to a more economically stable faction of users, as they are more likely to own them. It will have a simple and clean interface. There will be four tabs: Get Help, a list of the day’s offers, Give Help, a list of the days requests, Map, a map version of both lists, and Post, an interface for users to offer or request assistance. Users can click on an offer or a request for more details, linking to contact information of the poster. The website will be structured identically. The SMS service will allow those with basic cell phones to request or give assistance on the move. Users can text in requests or offers, to be added to the daily lists. Users can also subscribe to a daily text containing one or both lists, and can text in a reply to be put in contact with the giver or receiver of help.

This technology-driven idea of a combined application, website, and texting service – aimed to assist Portland’s most disenfranchised population – comes with obvious challenges. Without such basic amenities as consistent shelter or food, the homeless and impoverished are much less likely than the average Portlander to have access to such technologies. However, homeless people nation-wide are becoming increasingly technologically connected, as shown by the aforementioned studies on homeless cell phone use in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Connecticut. With these changes, homeless people will have increasing accessibility to solutions in the form of apps and websites, and especially basic SMS texting. This is particularly true of homeless youth and the recently homeless, as noted by Mark Swann, director of Preble Street. Additionally, Preble Street and the Portland Public Library have free computers where users could access the website component of BoostPortland.

Policy Recommendation

Portland’s homelessness task force has laid out some very important goals. I suggest that the City Council involves the Chamber of Commerce in achieving them to augment the city’s response to homelessness. Getting businesses involved in the issue will give them a broader understanding of what is happening to the marginalized populations in the city. This approach will also give the Council more power and leverage in addressing their goals, while creating productive dialogue between seemingly antagonistic forces, as Hack to End Homelessness sought to do. In light of the Chamber of Commerce’s commentary on the task force and, most likely, reticence to help, the City Council might create an incentive program to draw the Chamber to the Portland’s social justice issues.

Conclusion

BoostPortland foregrounds the voices of those in need by creating a communal network of Portlanders determined to face the growing problem of homelessness. By including local businesses and addressing gentrification head on, it has the potential to bridge the gap between monetary interests and humanitarian interests. I believe that this solution can make Portland a smarter, more connected, and more engaged city.

 

 

Works Cited

[1] Billings, Randy. “Homelessness Hits Record High in Portland.” Portland Press Herald. October 27, 2013. http://www.pressherald.com/2013/10/27/homelessness_hits_record_high_in_portland_/.

[2] “Report of the Task Force to Develop a Strategic Plan to Prevent & End Homelessness in Portland.” Portland City Council. November 16, 2012. https://me-portland.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/132?fileID=695.

[3] Koenig, Seth. “Is Portland ‘too attractive’ to homeless people?” Bangor Daily News. December 21, 2012. http://bangordailynews.com/2012/12/21/news/portland/are-cities-like-portland-too-attractive-to-homeless-people/.

[4] Murphy, Edward. “Preble Street Head Decries Chamber Remarks on Homelessness.” Portland Press Herald. November 16, 2012. http://www.pressherald.com/2012/11/16/preble-street-head-decries-chamber-remarks-on-homelessness/.

[5] Mitchell, Don. [2003]. “To Go Again to Hyde Park: Public Space, Rights and Social Justice.” In The People, Place and Space Reader, edited by Jen Jack Gieseking, et al. New York: Routledge, 2014)

[6] Crowley, David N., Edward Curry, and John G. Breslin. 2014. “Leveraging Social Media and IoT to Bootstrap Smart Environments.” In Big Data and Internet of Things: A Roadmap for Smart Environments, edited by Nik Bessis and Ciprian Dobre, 379–99. Springer.

[7] Greenfield, Adam. 2013. Against the Smart City. 1.3 edition.

[8] Low, Setha M. 2002. “Spaces of Reflection, Recovery, and Resistance: Reimagining the Postindustrial Plaza.” In After the World Trade Center: Rethinking New York City, edited by Micheal Sorkin and Sharon Zukin, 163-72. New York: Routledge, 2014

[9] Hayden, Dolores. 1997. “Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and Politics of Space.” In The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History, 14-43. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

[10] Dvorak, Petula. “D.C. Homeless People Use Cellphones, Blogs, and E-Mail to Stay on Top of Things.” The Washington Post. March 23, 2009. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/22/AR2009032201835.html.

[11] Eyrich-Garg, Karin. “Mobile Phone Technology: A New Paradigm for the Prevention, Treatment, and Research of the Non-sheltered “Street” Homeless?” US National Library of Medicine. April 16, 2010. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2871091/.

[12] Eysenbach, Gunther. “New Media Use by Patients Who Are Homeless: The Potential of MHealth to Build Connectivity.” US National Library of Medicine. September 30, 2013. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3786002/.

[13] Wortham, Jenna. “Use of Homeless as Internet Hot Spots Backfires on Marketer.” The New York Times. March 12, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/technology/homeless-as-wi-fi-transmitters-creates-a-stir-in-austin.html?_r=0.

[14] Soper, Taylor. “Hack to End Homelessness: Maps, Social Networks and Other Ideas to Help Seattle’s Homeless – GeekWire.” GeekWire. May 5, 2014. http://www.geekwire.com/2014/hack-end-homelessness-recap-maps-social-networks-startup-ideas/.

[15] “Cumberland County Affordable Housing Options.” Maine State Housing Authority. December, 2014. http://www.mainehousing.org/docs/default-source/housing-facts—subsidized/cumberlandsubsidizedhousing.pdf?sfvrsn=5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Research Paper, Housing

Mapping the Intersection of Race, Poverty and Crime: Systemic Neglect and the Physical

[gview file=”https://courses.bowdoin.edu/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2014/12/First-Half-of-DIOTC-Final-Paper-Race-and-Crime.pdf”][gview file=”https://courses.bowdoin.edu/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2014/12/Second-Half-of-DIOTC-Final-Paper-Race-and-Crime.pdf”]

Housing

Mapping Patterns in Crime

Anger in response to the lack of indictment of two white police officers responsible for killing two unarmed black men should not be over-particularized. Without diminishing their lives, these men are symptomatic of larger trends in this country: minority populations are severely overrepresented in our country’s prisons. It is our obligation to society to examine why this is, to look at unpleasant truths, and ultimately, to begin to reconcile our past with the future.

I propose to map and critically analyze crime statistics in Portland, Maine. With any luck, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, I will be able to sort and geocode a dataset of all the crimes committed in the past year, along with detailed breakdowns of the type of crime and the identity of the accused. I will map this against the background of recent Portland census data on racial and economic makeup of areas where crimes occur and, if possible, the areas from which the accused criminals hail.*

The empirical will be accompanied by a theoretical consideration of factors that effect crime. Discussions of how, in the days following Michael Brown’s killing, authorities tried to slander his character offer a jumping-off point. To what extent must we pin crimes on the perpetrators as competent moral agents? How much (and how) should we weigh socioeconomic background in the equation? Ultimately, though, the questions that matter most to the everyday lives of Portlanders involve how we can better police the streets, and, further, how to redress the root causes of inequity, even injustice. Specifically, I will engage with the work of Dolores Hayden to dissect the complex and subtle ways in which power is exerted in space in a formative manner. I would like to read Sue Ruddick’s “Constructing Differences in Public Spaces: Race, Class and Gender as Interlocking Systems.”

The model for my mapping will be the Million Dollar Block Project produced by Columbia’s Spatial Information Design Lab (SIDL). The project’s fundamental thesis shifts focus on crime from the location of the events. Such focus leads to heavier policing of “hotspots” but this framework for crime prevention has not done enough to halt crime and has instead resulted in an astronomical incarceration rate. Instead, SIDL seeks to map residencies of criminals in an effort to reveal how we as a society have failed to provide the proper infrastructure to impoverished communities—infrastructure that keeps them out of prisons.[1]

An analysis of crime, race, and socioeconomics in this country can never be free from controversy—we have too long and too ugly a history with the words to produce anything else. Critical mapping and data visualization offers a sophisticated way to consider such data, one that is both digestible and informative. Policymakers and Portland residents alike would benefit from better data about crime, and hopefully it could inspire difficult discussions about the common good.

 

 

*Because of the sensitive nature of the data and the potential home location information, I am not certain that this data should be made publically available (at least not in full).

[1] Cadora, Eric and Kurgan, Laura, “Million Dollar Block Project,” Spatial Information Design Lab, Columbia University. http://www.spatialinformationdesignlab.org/sites/default/files/publication_pdfs/PDF_04.pdf

 

Housing, Uncategorized

Resource Map Application

According to the 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, national homelessness has declined by over 9% since 2007. [1] This is not the case in Portland, Maine, where the homeless population grew by 70.3% from 2009 to 2013. [2] A man I interviewed outside Preble Street Resource Center commented that other cities are sending their homeless to Portland for its strong outreach programs. Despite the renown of these programs – the Preble Street ‘housing first’ model, in particular – these facilities are overwhelmed. In particularly busy months, only 272 sleeping spots were available for nearly double the people [2].

A Resource Map application would draw on Portland’s own residents, organizations, and businesses to augment the work of the resource centers in helping this population to its feet. The map would include all of the city’s shelters, pantries, resource centers, and libraries, but its primary focus would be interaction between Portlanders in need and those who are able and willing to help. Users would create their own posts on the map, both offering and seeking out assistance. An individual could create a listing at the public library offering help with crafting a resume, English tutoring, or teaching basic computer skills. An individual could post an odd job like shoveling a driveway. People could post on the map listing items they are giving away. Businesses could place themselves on the map, perhaps offering up free wifi, free food, or other resources.

Accessibility is a key concern with any tech-related urban project – as noted by Setha Low, this app cannot function if it “limits participation to those who can afford it.” [3] A large percentage of the targeted population will not have dependable access to smartphones or the Internet, so it is essential to ensure their ability to use the app. Portland’s homeless do have computer access at Preble Street and the Portland Public Library, and are likely to have basic cell phones. Thus, the app would include an SMS texting function. A user would text in a request – asking for a ride to a job interview, for example – and other users could respond to that person with a time and a place to meet up. Users of the app could also subscribe to a daily text containing an updated list of available services, as well as a list of that day’s requests for assistance.

This project relies heavily on the generosity of the people of Portland, thus creating a sense of communal care and organization around the problem of homelessness. This rising issue in the city has coincided with an influx of tourism and gentrification. Involving a varied group of Portland businesses and citizens in this issue – ranging from stores like Salvation Army to stores like Portland Architectural Salvage – might help to ground them in the often grim realities of the city. Additionally, the app would give the city’s skyrocketing new establishments – condos-with-a-view, trendy coffee shops, and pricey antique stores – the opportunity to make a positive change for the at-risk population of the city. In any urban center, as Don Mitchell wisely points out, “different people with different projects must necessarily struggle with one another.” [4] Ideally, the Resource Map application would allow for more engaging, productive, and enlightening “encounter and exchange” between the haves and have-nots of Portland. [4]

 

 

[1] “The 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress.” HUD Exchange. 2013.

[2] Billings, Randy. “Homelessness Hits Record High in Portland.” Portland Press Herald. http://www.pressherald.com/2013/10/27/homelessness_hits_record_high_in_portland_/

[3] Low, Setha M. 2002. “Spaces of Reflection, Recovery, and Resistance: Reimagining the Postindustrial Plaza.” In After the World Trade Center: Rethinking New York City, edited by Micheal Sorkin and Sharon Zukin, 163-72. New York: Routledge, 2014

[4] Mitchell, Don. 2014 [2003]. “To Go Again to Hyde Park: Public Space, Rights and Social Justice.” In The People, Place and Space Reader, edited by Jen Jack Gieseking, et al. New York: Routledge, 2014)

 

 

 

Housing

Bayside Affordable Housing Proposal

Exploring Portland’s Bayside neighborhood to investigate housing conditions was eye-opening in several ways. Noticeable divisions between older, dilapidated homes and modern housing units brought a particular reality to my attention; Bayside, and the greater City of Portland, is experiencing financialisation and gentrification similar to many formerly “undesirable” areas of New York City. As shown by Neil Smith, fallout occurs when neighborhoods like Loisaida begin to change hands, most notably in the displacement of lower income populations to make way for development.[1] In terms of zoning, Fields and Uffer clearly illustrate direct conversions of subsidized housing into market-rate condominiums.[2] This is happening right now in Portland, and the city’s ongoing struggles with homelessness, elder care, refugee integration, and housing capacity will only become exacerbated by this trend if smart solutions are not implemented.[3]

Various bureaus of both the state and city housing authorities are already very open with affordable housing data (vacancies, prices, locations) available online.[4],[5] Unfortunately, this data is neither centralized, nor is it user-friendly. To serve the common good by aiding at-risk citizens of Portland in the search for homes, affordable housing data should be centralized, visualized, and updated regularly on a user-friendly map interface. Additionally, this interface would support filters for a user’s specific needs like handicap accessibility, family occupancy, or individual occupancy.

This smart solution would allow families to stabilize their living situation more rapidly and reliably, largely avoiding the burden of countless phone calls or time-consuming trips to the Portland Housing Authority office (not centrally located). In tackling this issue, there is no deficit of available resources for Portland citizens in search of housing, but a better system for utilizing those housing resources is necessary to support Portland’s low-income citizens. This solution would ideally be available as a smartphone app, online, and on designated iPads at resource centers. Having encountered large crowds at Preble Street, Avesta Housing, Oxford Street Resource Center, and Salvation Army on my transect walk, I believe these specific centers would benefit from providing this technology to clients, and thereby making the process of finding a home as personal it should truly be for everyone.

[1] Smith, Neil. “Class Struggle on Avenue B: The Lower East Side as Wild Wild West.” In The People, Place, and Space Reader, edited by Jen Jack Gieseking, et al, New York: Routledge, 2014. 314-319.

[2] Fields, Desiree, and Sabina Uffer. “The financialisation of rental housing: A comparative analysis of New York City and Berlin.” Urban Studies July (2014): 1-17.

[3] Miller, Kevin. “Developer Wants to Build Market-rate Apartments, Commercial Space in East Bayside.” Portland Press-Herald, July 2, 2014. Accessed October 6, 2014. http://www.pressherald.com/2014/07/02/developer-wants-to-build-market-rate-apartments-commercial-space-on-east-bayside-lot/.

[4] Maine State Housing Authority. “Subsidized Housing.” Subsidized Housing. Maine State Housing Authority, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014

[5] Portland Housing Authority. “Public Housing.” Portland Housing Authority. Portland Housing Authority, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.

Housing

HOUSEportland

HOUSEportland: Smart distribution of shelter and employment information for Portland’s homeless

           Homelessness is a problem on the rise in Portland, Maine. According to federal data cited by the Portland Press Herald, the number of homeless people in Maine rose 14.6% from 2010 to 2014, despite a 10% drop in homelessness nation wide.1 In Portland, that means an ever-increasing number of adults, youths and families staying in homeless shelters or out on the streets without a place to sleep. While about 500 individuals were identified as homeless in the 2014 annual point-in-time count,2 only about 460 individuals were residing in a homeless shelter in Portland each night in the month of September 2014.3 Though holistic policy reform is clearly needed to ensure sufficient space at homeless shelters and the availability of low-income affordable housing, in the mean time, we can use smart solutions to assist individuals without a home in getting back on their feet.

A method to efficiently deliver real-time information about homeless shelters and temporary employment would be dramatically useful to Portland’s homeless population. Research has shown that homeless individuals are sleep deprived and that lack of sleep is inextricably tied to poor health and depression.4 The goal of this project is to newly empower homeless people by delivering critical information allowing them to: (a) better plan where they will stay each night, thereby increasing sleep hours and reducing stress, (b) avoid wasting time and energy making trips to shelters that are already full, (c) take advantage of temporary employment opportunities, and (d) to have more awareness of the options available to them. I propose a three-pronged smart solution: the creation of “HOUSEportland,” a system comprised of a linked webpage, smartphone app, and automated text-messaging program.

The webpage and smartphone app would show the real-time number of bed openings in each homeless shelter in Portland. This would require all shelters to link their registration database with the webpage in order to keep information in real-time. Users would have the option of creating a username and password to which they could link a cell phone number. A “Favorites” option on the webpage and smartphone app would allow users to receive push notifications and text messages when shelters put in the Favorites category are nearing capacity. The webpage and smartphone app would include embedded maps with personalized directions to the shelters with open beds nearest to the user. (Proximity to the user could be optionally determined by inputting address or by allowing the application to access the GPS location of the computer or smartphone.) An option for temporary employment notifications would allow users to receive push notifications and/or text messages with critical information about temporary employment opportunities in Portland (e.g. “CONSTRUCTION LABOR NEEDED: Tmr, Wed Nov 12; be @ Oxford & Elm @ 7AM”). Employers would be able to register on the website and send alerts about their labor needs without having direct access to user information and phone numbers.

The HOUSEportland webpage, smartphone and text-messaging system should increase the accessibility of information regarding shelter and temporary employment that is available to individuals without a home. As a result, I hope it increases their sleeping hours, reduces stress, speeds re-employment and/or re-housing, and ameliorates some part of the pain involved in homelessness.

 

Work Cited

1 Miller, Kevin. “Count of Maine homeless dropped this year, but rises over long term.” Portland Press Herald, October 30 2014, accessed November 10, 2014, http://www.pressherald.com/2014/10/30/count-of-maine-homeless-dropped-this-year-but-rises-over-long-term-survey-finds/.

2 Maine State Housing Authority. Annual Point in Time Survey (Portland, ME: January 2014), accessed November 10, 2014, http://www.portlandmaine.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/5035.

3 Social Services Division, City of Portland Health & Human Services Department.
Portland Homeless Shelters (Portland, ME: September 2014), accessed November 10, 2014, http://www.portlandmaine.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/7006.

4 Chang, Hui-Ling, Felicia D. Fisher, Lorraine R. Reitzel, Darla E. Kendzor, Minh Anh H. Nguyen, and Michael S. Businelle. “Subjective Sleep Inadequacy and Self-rated Health among Homeless Adults.” American journal of health behavior 39, no. 1 (2015): 14-21.

Housing

Final Project Proposal

I will be focusing on gentrification in Munjoy Hill and the adoption of Maine iconography, such as lobster buoys and Adirondack chairs, as an indicator of gentrification. In my mapping, I will be layering locations of such motifs on a specific path of Munjoy Hill with data provided from the city (http://click.portlandmaine.gov/gisportal/ and http://www.socialexplorer.com/) on median incomes, education levels, and median age. I will also compile data from Zillow on property value and rent. I hope to provide these layers of data over a twenty year span to show the process of gentrification since the ‘90s and to predict future trends of gentrification in the neighborhood.

My research will focus on cultural capital in Portland and the adoption of the working class lifestyle as a representation of elitism and gentrification. I will analyze property values on Zillow and compare properties in Munjoy Hill to those in other parts of the city and state to prove that “coastal property values and taxes have risen considerably (Gray 2005) and remain relatively high…. In 2004 median shorefront properties were $650,000 per unit (Colgan 2004), whereas Maine’s median residential home price was $174,000 (Maine Association of Realtors 2009).” 1 I will focus on literature by authors including, but not limited to, Loretta Lees, David Foster Wallace, and Pierre Bourdieu, as well as various class readings focused on gentrification.

Using data and personal accounts collected from my transect walk, ethnography, and mental maps, I will cite and analyze identifiers of gentrification and cultural capital in Munjoy Hill. I will reference the mental mapper who self-identified as a gentrifier to illustrate that “the boundaries of social and spatial exclusion are clearly visible to longtime residents, even if newcomers are sometimes oblivious of the geography of inequality that divides their neighborhood.” 2 I will contrast this woman’s map with the map of a blue collar worker that I also interviewed in order to provide an account of the varying socioeconomic diversity of Portland. I also hope to incorporate research about the lobster industry and the living standards of lobstermen and women, possibly through communication with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute or the Maine Lobsterman’s Association.

For my technological component, I will propose an app that marks and maps gentrification indicators, such as lobster iconography or Adirondack chairs, throughout the city. This app would rely on crowd sourcing and input by citizens, similar to data collection studies implemented in Seattle and New York. This app could also be combined with other class focuses, such as graffiti or public art, to indicate areas with or without wealth.

From my research, I will propose a form of rent stabilization in Portland based on rent regulation models in New York City. This proposal will help prevent rapid neighborhood turnover, enabling residents to stay in Munjoy Hill for a longer period of time. Ultimately, this will create a more socioeconomically diverse population that is more invested in their neighborhood. Rent stabilization could provide renters with more capital that could then be invested in the city in other ways, such as infrastructure or public space improvements. To capitalize on this capital, a higher tax could be added to benefit neighborhood improvements. By stabilizing rents and then increasing taxes, renters would not feel an economic burden, and their taxes could be invested in public improvements within their neighborhoods.

1 R.S. Steneck et al., “Creation of a Gilded Trap by the High Economic Value of the Maine Lobster Fishery” in Conservation Biology 25, no. 5 (Society for Conservation Biology, 2011): 908.

2 Catlin Cahill, “‘At Risk’? The Fed Up Honeys Re-present the Gentrification of the Lower East Side” in WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 34, no. 1 & 2 (Catlin Cahill, 2006): 343.

Housing, Post #7: Individual Analysis of Transect Walk, Uncategorized

Portland’s Lifestyle Juxtapositions

4 Comments

In my walk through Portland, I was most struck by stark juxtapositions within the city in regards to standards of living. I noticed the construction of condos and apartments near blocks and blocks of identical low-income housing. I noticed the existence of a Planet Dog – a store exclusively for the accessories, beds, toys, and food receptacles of Portland’s canines – next to homeless people begging with signs on the street. I noticed the irony of an upscale antique store and a home entertainment store just down the road from the Preble Street Resource Center and Salvation Army.

These observations highlighted what I believe to be Portland’s (and many other cities’) central tension between the rise of the city as a popular, ‘hip’ tourist destination and the prevailing difficulty of life for the city’s lower class, ‘at-risk’ population. This tension manifested itself toward the end of my transect walk in Congress Square Park. With an interest sparked by our guided tour and conversation with Caitlin Cameron, I took a brief walk around the park and took a couple pictures. I walked up the steps to leave and was followed by a woman for several blocks, slurring and screaming obscenities at me such as “Fuck the White House, bitch.” Upon reflection, this exchange was representative of this central tension – an ostensibly well-to-do white girl wielding a large SLR camera, entering a space of day-to-day struggle for local citizens, which for me is just a space of temporary and lighthearted exploration. Going forward, I will continue to reflect upon and consider these juxtapositions and tensions.

Transect Walk

      Congress Street

-Development of 118 on Munjoy Hill, “new boutique condo” deemed controversial by the Bangor Daily News. The developers are recording the construction process and advertising time-lapse videos on the web:  http://118onmunjoyhill.com/time-lapse/
(43.66594, -70.247428)

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Kellogg Street

-Homogeneous housing…potentially public housing? Public ordinance sign: “No drinking of alcoholic beverages”

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Washington Avenue

-More racial and linguistic diversity than I’ve seen yet, compared to Congress Street in particular
-Prominent police presence

Montgomery Street

-Two adult black males, staggering and slurring their words, bounce a basketball with a boy approximately 10 years old, while firemen break into a home a few houses down

Anderson Street

-Cars on the street significantly nicer than the houses
-Racial diversity
-Same homogenous housing from Kellogg Street

Franklin Street

-Homeless people hold up signs at a busy intersection, adjacent to Planet Dog
Intersection: (43.665364, -70.260148) Planet Dog: (43.664990, -70.260019)

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Back Cove Park

-Environmental concerns with rising sea level
-Development of apartments: (43.6630577, -70.2639535)

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Google Images

Preble Street

-Skillful Home Recreation: (43.660955, -70.263761) & Portland Architectural Salvage (antique store): (43.660684, -70.263517) on the same street as Preble Street Resource Center: (43.6587404, -70.2618871) and Salvation Army: (43.659377, -70.2625879) – ironic juxtaposition

Congress Square Park

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-Interaction with the lady who followed me: (43.6542343, -70.2632788)

Housing, Post #7: Individual Analysis of Transect Walk, Uncategorized

Transect Walk: Varied Low-income Lifestyles in East Bayside

4 Comments

Ever since our class group visited the soup kitchen at Preble Street, I have been curious about poverty, homelessness, and refugee life in Portland. My initial surprise upon discovering the locus of Portland’s poverty problem was twofold: proximity and invisibility. More specifically, I was shocked to hear that Portland’s poorest neighborhood was only two blocks away from the shops and restaurants of Congress Street, and confused by the relative lack of dilapidation and other obvious poverty signifiers in Bayside.

For my transect walk, I focused on housing as a means of investigating living conditions in East Bayside. There were, of course, limitations to judging housing conditions entirely by the homes’ exteriors. Nevertheless, my transect walk through East Bayside was eye-opening in that it showed the many forms and signifiers that low-income living can assume.

On East Oxford Street, for example, housing seemed to alternate between run-down (well built) multi-family homes, renovated houses with back yards, and shiny new condominiums.

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Down Mayo Street, however, stood a low-income development that I could only describe as “Maine-style projects.” These apartments were all one story in a row, and reminded me a lot of some off campus dormitory housing at Bowdoin. The only difference is that these homes are supposed to fit whole families. There are a lot of different living situations that fall under the category of “low-income housing.”

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My walk eventually took me past Whole Foods on Franklin Avenue, a sight which accentuated the undercurrent of gentrification that I felt upon seeing certain renovated exteriors in East Bayside. Ultimately, I walked the western portion of Oxford Street. Though not technically a part of East Bayside, this street is home to several homeless shelters and resource centers. I encountered more human activity, including sporadic gatherings of refugee families and shelter clients each block, and ultimately ended up at Preble Street. There I noted that the location of low-income resources is not residentially as underprivileged as East Bayside.

Colorful new affordable units buildings by Avesta Housing line Oxford Street. This, in my opinion, is the kind of the development needed in East Bayside. There are already proposals to displace low-income residents in order to build market-rate housing in East Bayside. Hopefully, financial interests will not trump the need for new housing I saw in parts of East Bayside.

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Map of Transect Walk:

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Housing, Post #6: Individual Analysis of Ethnography & Mental Maps

Hilltop Coffe Cafe Ethnography and Maps

4 Comments
Female, age 24. 2 years a resident. Recommendation: Fix the potholes in the roads!
Female, age 24. 2 years a resident. Recommendation: Fix the potholes in the roads!
Male, 60 years old, 7 year resident of Portland. Recommendations: More reasonable housing rates, and better AT&T Service on the Hill.
Male, 60 years old, 7 year resident of Portland. Recommendations: More reasonable housing rates, and better AT&T Service on the Hill.
Male, 60 years old, 7 year resident of Portland. Recommendations: More reasonable housing rates, and better AT&T Service on the Hill.
Male, 60 years old, 7 year resident of Portland. Recommendations: More reasonable housing rates, and better AT&T Service on the Hill.

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Two things are particularly worth note: that the coffee shop was, on the whole, pretty busy all morning, and two, that it was busy with a rather specific population. I don’t know the demographics of Portland, but if this coffee shop had been taken as representative, it would be a city of under 30 year olds, all white and relatively well off. Perhaps this is the kind of crowd a coffee shop draws. But it is a curious thing to witness anyway. Where is everyone else? I think, to the extent that I can extrapolate, my mental maps confirmed this trend. Though they varied in age and gender, the mappers most frequently identified local eating establishments and upscale shops. Few people identified landmarks or museums or libraries—public or free spaces. It confirms my interest in a more inviting and economically mixed Portland.

10:00—Sitting facing the window, I notice that the streets are super busy. Lots of young, hip looking people in flannels and men with beards.

10:10—It’s pretty full in here, roughly 25 people. A few empty seats. People are encouraged to sit together, as there are lots of twotops.

10:20—Emptier now. Still, I’m noticing that it is very loud! The espresso machine or whatever is constantly buzzing, milk is being frothed. Nice indie rock drones. Conversation is quiet and minimal, a couple is sitting doing the crossword in one seat. Cute.

10:30—(I drew a map of the coffee shop, showing a variety of smaller seating around the perimeter—which, by the way, was a pretty small rectangle, roughly 20 by 25 feet—and a big long table for 8 or so in the middle of the place.)

10:40—Not very busy now. 2 conversations or so, I can hear the music pretty clearly. A man with a cowboy hat enters. 10 people total inside. 5 people at least are 25 or under, one is maybe over 60, all are white.

10:50—The guy sitting across from me is youngish, with a huge beard and tattoo sleeve, skinny. Another older man, maybe 60 walks in, but he is well in the minority.

11:00—A bus drove by with a big U.S. Cellular ad—is it a public bus? Someone enters with a stroller, maybe the first one I’ve seen? Also, just a note on the space, it’s pretty dimly lit, and as said before, pretty minimalist as a space. Small, cozy, not very much in the way of decoration except for some pumpkins. Big windows on the two street-facing sides. They don’t have much of a menu it seems.

11:10—Down to 6 people. 3 were here when I arrived. A biker has entered. I’ve seen lots of bikers ride by. Cars at this point seem pretty infrequent for a main thoroughfare (Congress). So are people on the street.

11:20—Ok, it’s gotten busier again. An elderly lady with a pushcart and a cool headscarf has struck up a seemingly spontaneous conversation with a younger woman.

11:30—Worth describing the general appearance of people—if I can take that liberty. First off, just about everybody is rather put together (cafes are great places to show off). Lots of boots, a few of which are bean boots. Still lots of facial hair amongst males. Patagonia and Northface abound.

11:40—Hats, lots of baseball caps! They are never fitted caps—that’s not how Mainers do it, it seems. They are faded, roughed up, blues and beiges. As if to say, “I don’t care too much…” It is very in line with the yuppie look.

11:50—Two guys walk in who seem to be in construction. They have on dark blue jeans with paint and grass and dirt stains. They have matching sweatshirts with a company’s name on it. They are the first people who seem to be working, and manual labor at that.

12:00—Lots of people are entering and taking coffee or food to go. People who sit down are here for the long haul. One is reading Frankenstein, another is reading The Odyssey. One does sudokus. Someone has the Wall Street Journal out—what?? 5 men, 6 women.

12:10—There is now one Asian person here—and he happens to be a former Bowdoin student.

12:20—I notice the bus again, and see that it is indeed a municipal bus. I can’t see if it’s crowded or not, but I would guess that it isn’t…

12:30—A trolley cruises by. Has to be tourists. The café is still pretty quiet. People on their Macs are still chugging away.