Week 2 summary

After two weeks of research, I feel like doing a summary on all the stuff that I've found, everything that I've learnt, and start to try and organize or establish a hierarchy in between all this research, to allow me to research more in-depth into the areas of my subject that I'm interested the most, as well as start to carry out some visual tests.

1. What is homelessness?

During my research, I found out that homelessness is much more than just rough sleeping. Yes, rough sleeping is part of the homeless issue and is in fact it's most visible aspect. But the problem of homelessness is not just having people sleeping in the streets, homelessness implies lots of other problems and has lots of different aspects to look at.

Homelessness is a much bigger problem than we actually think, and much more people are homeless than the ones we see sleeping in the streets. That's what we call hidden homelessness. People that sleep in their cars, sofa surfing, in motel rooms, etc... and who, even if not seen as homeless, are actually homeless.

2. What causes homelessness?

As I said during the whole of my research, homelessness is something really broad, with lots of different people being homeless, each with a different background, and so,there isn't a single answer or explanation for homelessness. "There isn't a single answer because there isn't a single reason why someone is living in the street.

The main causes of homelessness are: unnafordable housing, job loss, domestic violence and sexual abuse, lack of family or friends to support you, lack of education and problems related to drugs and alcohol. We can also add that being a refugee or having been incarcerated are factors that also make the risk of becoming homeless higher.

Inside those categories, there's obviously different reasons for why people are homeless and thousands of different personal stories and experiences, which to me is one of the most interesting aspects to look at when talking about homelessness.

3. Personal side of homelessness

As I just said I think a very impotent aspect of homelessness is the personal side, the stories that form homelessness. Listening to different stories, to different people's situation, watching documentaries on how they made to "survive", how life as a homeless person is has been what has interested me the most during my research, and I also feel that it is a good thing to use when communicating on the homeless issue and raising awareness of it, as it would make the issue be closer to society.

4. Society's look on homelessness

Having done a volunteering in Madrid with homeless people last year, that really changed my mind on how I saw homeless people, and I find it important that people get to know the issue of homelessness more closely, that they get to understand what being homeless means and how we are all closer to homelessness than we think. With my project, I aim to tell people more about homelessness, make them look at homelessness in a different way than the way they might be looking at it now. I want to show how homelessness is not an option and how it is a problem we all need to tackle together as a society, that we can't continue do as if we weren't aware of it.

5. What to do next?

During next week, I want to start producing some visual tests, start exploring how homelessness could sit into graphic design and more precisely into typography or photography. Doing so will allow me to know what I'm more excited about in between all my research, but also what maybe is missing in my research, what I should go and look more in depth.