Improving the Well-Being of Those Without Adequate Housing

This project aims to improve the well-being of unhoused individuals. It is estimated that over 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness every year. Rising housing prices and increasing costs of living are making it harder for people to afford a space for themselves, forcing some to live on the street. Building regulations make creating new housing difficult, especially in dense urban centres where there is not much space to begin with. With a lack of wealth and resources comes a lack of hygiene and personal care. Unhoused individuals, especially those not involved in shelter systems, often rely on public bathrooms to fulfill their basic sanitary needs which may not get cleaned often enough. Interviews and surveys have been conducted to identify the immediate needs of the unhoused. Current solutions and services have been benchmarked to establish their benefits and features, and user pain points of those solutions and services analyzed. These insights will be used to inform the layout and usage of the final solution, taking the user’s needs and preferences into consideration.