Date of Award

Spring 2019

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2019

Department

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering

First Advisor

Tonya Nilsson

Abstract

Homelessness is without question one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the Bay Area. Regardless of whether people think ending homelessness is feasible, the bottom line is that every human deserves the right to have a place they call home. Despite the simplicity of this right, achieving it in today’s society is difficult because of the economic, social and political complexities which make homelessness appear to be a problem with no solution. Unfortunately, belief in the hopelessness of efforts to end homelessness dissuades many from taking action.

This project is not guided by the belief that ending homelessness is hopeless. The goal of this project was to provide organizations that counteract homelessness with more housing options because the project team valued their mission to provide the marginalized and forgotten with the rights they deserve. This project investigated, analyzed, and developed alternative tiny home uses for the City of San José’s Bridge Housing Community (BHC) program. To accomplish this, a fully engineered, modular version of the existing BHC cabin was designed for if the BHC program is expanded, and appropriate retrofit modifications to the current cabin design were determined for if the program is discontinued.

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