The people tasked with solving the world’s problems are restricted by bureaucracy, rules and limitations that can be as challenging to navigate as the problems themselves.
But participants of Saturday’s Social Innovation Hackathon were asked to imagine a world without barriers while brainstorming policies, projects and processes to help people who have lost or are at risk of losing their homes.
For those who’ve never heard of a hackathon, they aim to foster collaboration and innovation, but usually focus on IT.
Tucson’s first-ever Social Innovation Hackathon was co-hosted by the Community Investment Corporation, Startup Tucson and Tucson Young Professionals.
The hope is that by bringing different expertise and ideas into the mix, participants would think of comprehensive and holistic solutions that take into account different viewpoints, experiences and limitations.
The nearly 50 participants included representatives from nonprofits, businesses, community groups, local government, and even journalists, since Caitlin and our Tucson Agenda intern, Liv Leonard, were along for the ride.
The event kicked off with a short presentation about homelessness in Pima County, with Primavera Foundation CEO Tisha Tallman encouraging attendees to dig deep and consider factors such as humanity, dignity and equity when thinking about potential solutions.
Tallman said that Primavera has seen an increase in unsheltered individuals overall, but especially for the aging population. One in five people experiencing homelessness in Pima County is over the age of 55, and women 55 and older represent 80% of the population at Primavera’s Casa Paloma shelter.
She also pointed out that most of the county’s shelters are located in the lowest-opportunity and most vulnerable parts of town, with limited public transportation and access to services.
But it isn’t an accident that we’re in this situation, said Interim Deputy Director of the City of Tucson’s Housing and Community Development Department Jason Thorpe.
“This is the result of social design,” he said. “The system is doing exactly what it was designed to do.”
Participants were split into small groups to discuss the causes of homelessness and contributing factors. Together, we wrote questions about how we might address these problems before being broken up into new teams.
These teams were given a new set of “How might we” questions and tasked with picking one to flesh out.
Caitlin’s team chose to think about how we might use vacant malls, stores and office buildings to create more affordable housing options and Liv’s group took on the challenge of using education to combat the stigma associated with homelessness.
Using a method called SCAMPER (Substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, reverse) we brainstormed our ideas, thinking about how to maximize their uses and results. We were told limitations didn’t exist and not to worry about funding, buy-in or any other logistics.
Caitlin’s group, team NeighborHub, came up with the idea of using these large, vacant spaces as multi-purpose facilities, with social services and local businesses on the first floor, emergency and transitional housing on the second floor and affordable housing units on the third floor.
By bringing services and job options to residents, this eliminates the need (and a common complaint) of having to travel to multiple places to get the help and support they need. This also addresses barriers to transportation.
Liv’s team, I Heart Housing, pitched the creation of a non-profit tenant advocacy program. Feeling as if there was no fair way for tenants to defend themselves against landlord policies, the team agreed that in many cases, eviction wasn’t a fair solution to many landlords’ problems with tenants.
The advocates would provide current tenants with resources to find new housing in hopes of reducing eviction costs and preventing people from losing their homes.
Other ideas included creating a group to manage and coordinate the multiple housing projects underway in the county; applying disaster relief strategies to an interagency homelessness response; developing a safe adult program in schools to help children avoid unnecessary trauma; and launching volunteer programs in schools to help educate kids about homelessness and lessen the stigma.
The hackathon’s organizers are compiling the group’s findings and will meet at the end of the month to talk about next steps.
What struck us about this event at the end of a long day that seemed to fly by was that this problem that often feels insurmountable isn’t completely hopeless. People laughed, listened and learned about some creative and plausible solutions and both Caitlin and Liv left feeling inspired.
And while participants had different ideas about the best way to solve this problem, we all agreed that housing is a basic right that everyone deserves.
“The solution to homelessness is always housing and people should not have to earn that right,” said the city’s Thorpe.
No takers: Arizona Democrats can’t find anybody to run against state Sen. Justine Wadsack, a first-term Republican running for re-election in Legislative District 17, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. Voters in the district, which wraps around the north side of Tucson from Marana to Vail, chose Democratic candidates in statewide elections in 2022. That makes it tantalizing to Democrats as a district they could win and shift the balance of power in the state Legislature. They haven’t found a candidate for the district’s senate seat, but Kevin Volk is running as a Democrat for one of the district’s House seats.
Man behaving badly: Oro Valley Council member Timothy Bohen is in hot water for “threatening and verbally aggressive” behavior, KOLD’s Emilee Miranda reports. His fellow council members are considering whether to bar Bohen from entering town property without a police escort and require him to attend council meetings virtually. It’s gotten so bad over the past few years that people are afraid to speak out against Bohen, Council member Steve Solomon said. One point of contention is the town’s plans for the Pusch Ridge Golf Course. During a visit, Bohen grew angry and accused people of lying and stealing, which led to complaints to police.
RIP Tikiti Maji: A young zebra at the Reid Park Zoo died Tuesday after a gust of wind spooked the foal’s mother and the foal ran into a fence, causing a fatal neck injury, AZPM’s Steve Jess reports. The foal was born on Christmas Day and was named “Tikiti Maji” after a public naming competition.
SB 1070 redux: A legislative committee advanced an immigration bill that would allow state police to arrest people for being in the country illegally, as well as let judges deport them, Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie reports. All the Republicans on the committee supported it and all the Democrats opposed it. The Department of Justice already sued Texas for passing a similar law last year, citing a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down most of SB 1070, Arizona’s “show me your papers” law from 2010.
"There are not any portions of (SB1070) in this bill, because this bill's not about immigration and that bill was,'' Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise, said. "This is just saying you can’t come into our state unless you come through a lawful port of entry.'’
Voting centers in peril: The state House passed a bill sponsored by LD 17 Republican Rep. Rachel Jones that would eliminate voting centers and require voters to cast their ballots at their local precinct polling place, Arizona Public Media’s Hannah Cree reports. Pima County started using voting centers in 2022, joining 11 other Arizona counties. Republicans said HB 2547 would make voting more convenient. Democrats said it would be difficult to find enough poll workers for the 625 precincts that would be required in Pima County.
Stable market: The Tucson-area commercial housing market appears to have weathered the effects of the COVID pandemic without the high rates of vacancies that plagued other cities, Jimmy Magahern reports for Tucson Local Media. Industry experts are wondering why that is, with one possible reason being the fact that very few office buildings have been built lately, which kept supply down.
300%: The increase in the number of unsheltered people in Pima County between 2018 and 2023.
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C'mon Democrats...step up and whack-the-Sadsack. This creature defines beatable.