Project Overview

The prevalence of homelessness has risen in recent years due to many contributing factors such as the Covid pandemic, the mental health crisis, and unaffordable housing. This has resulted in an annual cost of $53,144 per person for shelter support in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Moncton, excluding medication expenses.

The Problem

Current shelter management resources are outdated and slow to integrate new technology. Many shelters still operate manually, relying on paper filing systems and manual communication with other shelters/services. This results in wasted time, money, and resources.

The Design Challenge

How might we create a more efficient and effective network of homelessness resources that utilizes technology and automation to better support and empower homeless individuals in Toronto?

The Scope

There are three groups of people with different needs:

• Government of Canada/ NPO's (Client and User) needs to save on shelter costs in the long term and provides grants to shelter services. They want to see shelter data to improve resource allocation.
  
• Shelter workers (Client and User) need support in managing tasks and communication. They aspire to assist more individuals while maintaining efficiency and avoiding burnout.
  
• Unhoused individuals (User) needs support on finding shelters and services. They want resources to aid them in establishing a place to stay.

The Solution

LinkAssist is a digital platform that tackles the homelessness system from all 3 levels. For shelter staff it streamlines resource allocation and client data, allowing for a more efficient and cost-effective response to homelessness in the city of Toronto. For the government of Canada it provides statistics while maintaining privacy, and for unhoused individuals it provides information on shelters/services.

Research

Objective: To gain a better understanding of how unhoused people and shelter management navigate the Ontario homeless care system, we conducted user interviews with 4 participants.

Participant Criteria: The participants included individuals who worked with homeless youth, shelter management, and a researcher/senior advisor.

Methods: User interviews, secondary research.

Insights

1. Information sharing with organizations

Organizations supporting homeless shelters need accurate data to enhance service assistance.

2. Updated shelter information

Shelter staff and unhoused individuals need updated information to better manage and find resources.

3. Connectivity with resources

Shelters need to connect with resources to ensure long-term help for unhoused individuals.

4. Secure information access

Shelter staff and the government need secure data storage and access to build trust with unhoused individuals.

5. Automation of shelter staff tasks

Shelter staff need better tools to intake and allocate resources for unhoused individuals.

Competitive Analysis

Assessing current solutions on the market for shelter management and finding shelters/services.

Customer Journey

One customer journey map was developed from the user interviews. Rachel is a 32 year old shelter worker.

Final Pitch Deck

Next Steps / Takeaways

This marked my first pitch-focused competition, requiring active consideration of feasible business ideas. Despite the initial intimidation of being the only team of designers at the event, we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone and gained valuable insights into the startup creation process. While the project didn't fully take off as a startup, I take pride in our team for winning the Special Award at the BEST Startup Experience at York University. Special thanks to Alicia, Camie, and Shaheer.