For this last project of the semester, I created a micro-website for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and their Inform America project. I chose the subject of homelessness. I used the gradient on each landing page to help highlight the tab at the top. The font I chose was Josefin Sans. This first picture, and all of the pictures were chosen to humanize the homeless. They aren't statistics, they are people we know.
This is the homepage:
In doing the research for this, it was surprising to me just how many people actually knew someone who had been homeless. This goes to show what a real issue homelessness is. Other surprising facts were that we could fill a whole state with the homeless, and that half of the homeless live in California.
Page two explains who the homeless are:
Some of the surprises on this page include the statistics that more men are homeless than women, and that more single people are homeless than families. Another surprise is that almost half of the homeless are under 30 years old.
Page three shares reasons why people become homeless:
Most people I talked to believed that substance abuse and mental illness were the main reasons a person became homeless. While it isn't a main cause in homelessness, in my research I discovered that those who didn't suffer from mental illness developed mental illness issues after being homeless for a length of time.
A history of homelessness:
My main curiosity from learning the history of homelessness is that if the FTS program was such a success, why doesn't the government start it up again. It seems logical, but then I don't know the whole issue.
Page five talks about a few of their health issues:
Poor or non-existent footwear can cause myriad of other problems, but it was the lack of sleep and all of the issues that causes that surprised me.
Page six details a few things that you can do to help:
I created this street art for my project. We all need hope in our lives and that is more especially true for the homeless.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about homelessness and what you can do to help.
