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Sana Rizwan
Sana Rizwan
Understanding Housing
Understanding Housing
Project Summary
My project operates from the position that housing is a necessity and therefore a right that should be granted and guaranteed to all. The way housing currently functions in Los Angeles is complicated and scattered, and a fundamental step in solving any problem is understanding what the problem is exactly. This is what I aimed to do - understand the problem.
In order to reach a conceptual framework that coherently displays the operations of housing, it is necessary to identify the exact components of the subject in question.
There are many institutions, agencies, and stakeholders involved with housing in the United States and then in Los Angeles specifically. Their roles and desires overlap, and the forest is sometimes lost amongst the trees. To understand both the forest and the trees, I created an interactive platform to demonstrate how a person who is housing burdened experiences the current system in place. For specific context, I look at South Central LA.
The cost of living has been rising exponentially and the number of people who qualify as rent burdened has increased drastically - around 20 million+ in the US are cost burdened. The metrics for calculating who counts as burdened is still largely those who pay over 30% of their income for housing, and severely cost burdened are those who pay over 50% of their income for housing. When observed closer, there is more to understand about this current scenario.
While the burden of housing has been increasing, it clearly affects some so much more than others and this inequality is embedded in race, ability, and gender. That leads to the implicit assumption that people from different backgrounds may experience housing differently. Do they systems in place cater to these differences with consideration and empathy? What are the obstacles they may face that is unique to their situation? How are these differences and added difficulties accounted for, if at all?
There are clearly more factors at play that define how one experiences housing at all, and then how they access housing as determined or affected by their circumstance.
Moreover, while shelter in the larger form is of course understood as a necessity generally, in the American culture it is also the realisation of a fundamental American dream. Owning property, which includes a single family home with a standard picket fence and a private vehicle, is more than a simple means of shelter and transport. If one was to Google the "American Dream," every image will contain the essence of exactly this picture. It is part of the moral fibre of a society.
For that reason itself, housing almost presents itself as a spiritual necessity for dignity and the fulfilment of "the pursuit of happiness" as outlined in the foundations of American society. If it is so important, it must be guaranteed. This inherent right is therefore where my thesis operates from.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS A NECESSITY
AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS A NECESSITY
Therefore, social housing should be a fundamental right guaranteed to all.
Social and Public Housing in Comparison Across
LA - CDMX - PHX
Housing Across Cultures
Housing Across Cultures
In LA, public housing is essentially for those most on the fringes to be able to assimilate into society. In CDMX, social housing is catered to families burdened by housing so that they can rise within society for a higher quality of life. There is therefore a value system embedded in the housing process beyond monetary terms, one to analyse in order to holistically understand what the housing process is designed to cater to.
Housing in Practice
Housing in Practice
In Phoenix, public housing is similar to Los Angeles and while there are official systems in place to support those experiencing housing burden or those who are unhoused, the essence of the process is very much centred around policing and removal from sight. With costs rising similarly in Phoenix, an LA housing crisis is not too distant a reality. I have personally worked with and connected constituents in Phoenix to their needs regarding housing and received an insight into how complicated and inaccessible services can be for different constituents.
New Plans - Old Problems
How to Stop "Failing Forward?"
How to Stop "Failing Forward?"
Soederberg mentions in "Universal Access to Affordable Housing? Interrogating an Elusive Development Goal" that because structural inequalities are not addressed, our plans fail by default. Neoliberal systems “consistently de-politicise and de-historicise reality” and enable situations where most attempts for equality “fail forward.”
For example, when housing is presented as a unit deficit problem. This is an incomplete and therefore incorrect assessment.
Government systems and policies that do not acknowledge these inherent inequalities in their attempts will fail forward, and the barriers of race and class will entrench further.
Housing as a right will have extreme difficulty being implemented when it is firstly not believed to be a right for all, and when the intention is dominated by an economic system that cannot allow a motive where the end goal is not for profit and wealth maximization.
New plans to revitalize neighbourhoods or develop community that do not address the historicity of a place may "fail forward." To aim for more than failure by default, housing must therefore be understood as a process, one with context and history that has defined the problem and how one approaches the solution.
The murder of Rodney King and the resulting riots were a direct result of the clean up and reputation upgrading that LA wanted in light of the olympics it was about to host. There was massive investment in the police that considered South Central LA, a primarily black neighbourhood (also the result of redlining), a place to persecute. The next olympics have been scheduled, and economic development is planned for similarly. However, there appears to be little acknowledgement for the crimes of the past and their effects in the present - therefore it will be interesting to see the aftereffects of such a repetition. What have we learned from the effects of redlining in such neighbourhoods, the direct and indirect affects of such policies on housing and the original inhabitants of such a community? How can we understand how housing operates in LA in a larger, more holistic way? We must make efforts to identify, remember, acknowledge. And it is the first step of identification that this project deals with.
Central Thesis
Housing beyond a means to assimilate. Housing as a foundation to grow. To thrive.
Expanding the social and structural elements of conceptualising social housing could help social housing succeed beyond the housing/unit question.
Can social housing be planned to succeed in a holistic and meaningful way to elevate the human condition? If yes, how?
Housing has to be understood as beyond a problem of simply adding more units. To analyse housing as an active process and journey that is embedded in so much more can be a vital way to do this and not "fail forward by default." A deeper de-layering can yield better results.
Once each step is identified - which is the first, biggest step - it must be witnessed in its historical continuity, where it overlaps with housing requirements (such as mental health), and who it serves while also being served by different institutions.
Interactive Experience
I wanted to map a journey that was a little more involved in logistics to understand how to move towards a more holistic conceptualisation. How do people with different needs receive access to housing, how does their background influence their access or opportunity, and how do different stakeholders approach housing?
The following is therefore a mapping of a process, with an embedded history and context of each specific user. It holds within it the different kinds of policies that can apply to an individual seeking housing, a developer seeking incentive, and a more localised experience of South Central LA within its larger context and spirit.
Below is a beta version of the immersive interaction interplay*:
*If there are issues with the html code (especially with images loading), please feel free to reach out to me for a different version/file.
Contact
Please don't hesitate to reach out!
Email: srizwan@asu.edu // rizwan.sana@gmail.com
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanargondal/
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