Humble Design

Introduction:

As our homelessness crisis persists and worsens, the highest aim of service providers, city and county agencies, and the broader public is to quickly and stably rehouse people who are experiencing homelessness. While securing housing is the primary goal and a great challenge in and of itself, once secured, “just” having a place to dwell ignores the physical, psychological, and social aspects of housing. Once housed, many San Diegans who have recently experienced homelessness must use up all their time, energy, and money to achieve their basic needs. Little is left over to begin to turn housing into a home through the purchasing of furniture and décor: tangible elements that foster a sense of security, permanence, normalcy, control, and belonging. While research demonstrates the health benefits of access to literal shelter, it is also important to understand how home-design interventions support the holistic health and housing stability of individuals and families experiencing “furniture poverty.”

Project Summary:

Between October 2023 and June 2024, researchers at the Homelessness Hub at UC San Diego and staff at Humble Design San Diego engaged in a collaborative effort to analyze Humble Design’s human-centered home design intervention, which involves providing free custom design and furnishing services to individuals and families transitioning out of homelessness. The objective of this intervention is to turn newly acquired housing into a home. Delivered with care, dignity, and respect, the Humble Design intervention was evaluated in terms of client satisfaction and impacts on health, wellbeing, and housing outcomes. While much has been written about housing as a social determinant of health, the health effects of the internal environment of one’s dwelling beyond the physical conditions, including furnishings and interior design, remain underexplored. This is an important gap as many individuals and families transitioning out of homelessness do so with very few possessions. Since the concept of “home” encompasses a sense of control, privacy, security, and permanence, it is important to understand how factors like furniture, decor, and design impact one’s sense of autonomy, safety, and stability and whether or not these feelings support housing retention.

To answer these questions, Homelessness Hub researchers surveyed 169 Humble clients and
conducted 30 follow-up interviews. When clients were comfortable doing so, pictures of their
new home environments were taken, either by themselves or by Homelessness Hub researchers.

Key Findings:

1) Humble clients have significantly higher rates of housing retention compared to others who have recently exited homelessness

Humble clients experience high housing retention rates. Nearly all (97.7%) of survey participants reported that they are still in their housing. Only 2.3% of Humble clients surveyed reported returning to homelessness, a rate ten times lower than the 25% of San Diegans placed into housing who returned to homelessness within the same timeframe.

2) Humble’s human-centered approach to home design has demonstrable positive effects
on clients’ holistic health and wellbeing

Humble clients experience holistic improvements to their health and wellbeing. Humble clients surveyed and interviewed reported improvements to their physical, mental, social, and financial health following their Humble experience. The majority (79.6%) of clients surveyed expressed that they now feel more in control of their lives after their Humble experience and 86.1% reported that they have a greater sense of self-worth: two important markers of mental health and wellbeing. Along similar lines, 74% of clients surveyed feel a greater sense of belonging. There were practical benefits for many as well, as 45.4% reported that their income had increased since their Humble SD experience. These improvements to health and wellbeing can be attributed to both the physical changes to the clients’ interior environment but also to the process itself: the positive interactions clients had with Humble SD staff and volunteers.

3) Children experience significant benefits from Humble’s home design services

Although only parents (and other adults) were surveyed and interviewed for this study, their responses make it clear that children consistently experienced significant benefits from Humble’s home design intervention. A large majority (88.4%) of parents surveyed reported that their children had a greater sense of security after their Humble experience. Nearly three quarters (73.6%) reported that their children are hosting more friends at their home. Not only do children reap the health and wellbeing benefits of having a sense of “home” as described by their parents, but children also benefit from their parents’ improved sense of holistic health and wellbeing. Parents reported that because their own mental health improved, they now feel that they have become more present and meaningfully engaged in their children’s lives. Improvements to parental health and child health can help to break patterns of intergenerational homelessness.

Project Documents

Humble Design Report

The Health Effects of Home Design - California State Library Brief

In the News

 Findings and recommendations to emerge from the Humble Design evaluation were featured by
several news stations. These included:

KPBS

Times of San Diego

Community Engagement Event

Project Team:

• Mirle Rabinowitz-Bussell
• Leslie Lewis
• Stacey Livingstone