Homelessness Due To Unemployment Essay

As stated in the wicked problem identification portion of the paper, homelessness due to unemployment and underemployment is not caused by the inability to find a job but the difficulty of sustaining one (“Shelter House Interview”) . Alex Stanton, Sustaining employment is triggered by a multitude of things; however, low wages and minimal hours seem to have the greatest effect. Because of lower wages and not enough hours, clients often need to get two jobs. This increases their dependence on public transportation to get from one job to another. As everybody knows, public transportation can often be an inconvenience; no bus stops close to job sites, unreliable pick up times, and low night time availability. Taxi services and private transportation companies such as Uber or Lift are available, but the homeless often don’t have the budget to pay for one. Moreover, if somebody cannot consistently get to work on time

Our plan is to develop a van service in Iowa City to address the transportation issues that are associated with unemployment and underemployment due to homelessness. In order to determine whether or not this will be a successful idea, we have used the criteria for a successful design thinking guidelines (feasibility, desirability, and viability) to confirm that we have covered every possible aspect of the solution.

Desirability: When focusing on desirability, we are simply asking, “who will want to use our service?” (Entrepreneurship pg. 148). Our intended consumers are homeless persons who currently hold a job. They will want to use this service because it will provide them not only an additional option for transportation to work, but a superior option