11.421 | Spring 2005 | Graduate

Housing and Human Services

Course Description

This class focuses on how the housing and human service systems interact: how networks and social capital can build between elements of the two systems. It explores ways in which the differing world views, professional perspectives, and institutional needs of the two systems play out operationally. Part I establishes …
This class focuses on how the housing and human service systems interact: how networks and social capital can build between elements of the two systems. It explores ways in which the differing world views, professional perspectives, and institutional needs of the two systems play out operationally. Part I establishes the nature of the action frames of these two systems. Part II applies these insights to particular vulnerable groups: “at risk” households in transitional housing, the chronically mentally ill, and the frail elderly.
A photo of a mother and her child.
Homeless in America, photograph by Tipper Gore. (Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)