Trauma Resilient Housing
Affordable housing where residents and staff feel safe, secure, and in control
You probably don’t need a research study to understand the connection between poverty and trauma. Trauma is both a consequence and a driver of poverty. Yet trauma was rarely considered in the design and delivery of affordable rental housing.
Meanwhile, housing organizations struggled to handle resident turnover and staff burnout — POAH wondered what they could do differently.
Design teams consisted of residents and housing staff. They interviewed the people who lived and worked at POAH’s housing properties about how trauma affected their experiences in rental housing.
The teams were based in four cities: Boston, Cape Cod, Cincinnati, and Kansas City.
The work led to new or improved policies, services, and property management procedures.
As the Project Manager and Research Lead. I designed the participatory research plan with residents and staff, conducted interviews, synthesized data, and supported teams through the prototype phase as a design coach.
The Results
Read our insights, findings, and lessons in this nationally distributed toolkit for housing practitioners. The project was also featured in the National Building Museum in DC.
Client:
Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH)
Project Team:
Sarah Corlett
Caitlin Behle
Dominique Brown, PhD
Jess Obayan