A presentation on utilizing mental map methods to evaluate a housing project.

1. Mapping Upward Mobility for Residents of a
Mixed-Income Housing Project in Salishan,
WA
Natasha Boyde, Master’s Program
Dr. Deborah Thien (Chair), Geography Dept.
April 24, 2015

3. ~800 households
-Market rate + low income + apartments
-75% of population under 18 years old
-Median Household income
<14,000 annually
-WorkSource office, health clinic,
Housing Authority office
STUDY SITE: SALISHAN

4. -Negative effects of typical income-based
housing design;
“stuck in place” (Sharkey 2013)
-Shift toward Income Integration design
Little evaluation of results
(Brophy and Smith 1997; Schwartz and Tajbaksh 1997)
-Measuring housing satisfaction:
-access to essentials
-sense of community
-acceptance of neighbors; ”people here are like me”
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Cabrini Green, Chicago,
Ill.

5. 1) Do Salishan residents feel they have access to
the resources they need to move up and out of
poverty?
a) Is development of social network(s) an important
resource to enhancing mobility?
2) Can ethnographic and mental map methods
reveal one’s personal geography and map of
resources?
RESEARCH QUESTIONS

6. 1) Despite theorized benefits of Mixed-Income
housing,
the experience of residents say otherwise.
2) Qualitative methods capture that experience, and
help to evaluate housing policy design.
Goal: to demonstrate that participatory mapping
methods can get at new kinds of data on
identity, socio-spatial, and socio-political
contexts within a city.
ARGUMENT AND PURPOSE

7. Mixed Income: housing policies that integrate units
affordable to multiple income levels within a
development site
(Schwartz 2010)
Mental maps: hand-drawn maps that represent
how a place is perceived and lived by an individual
or collective group
(Dictionary of Human Geography 2009)
Ethnographic Interviews: interviews + immersion
into culture
(Briggs 2011)
KEY TERMS/CONCEPTS

8. 1 hour Mental Map Interview
Recruit homeowners and renters
Audio-record interviews
Transcribe and code interviews
METHOD: THE MENTAL MAP
INTERVIEW
Den Besten (2010)

9. The Analytics (Gieseking 2013)
-Resources identified/knowledge of
-Social network and identity
-Upward Mobility
-Program Experience
-Feelings ‘empowered’ or ‘downtrodden’
Mapping + interview = substantial data that
inform policy
Project is not working, but explanations are not
simple
ANALYZING RESULTS

10. PARTICIPATORY METHODS
PPM - Dennis
2009
Youth PGIS - Dennis
2006
Youth den Besten
(2010)

12. Less visual, more analytic
Little social interaction between housing and
homeowners
Vast differences among just 6 participants
-nomenclature
-knowledge of resources
-family/financial history
Experience in the project
Impressions, perceptions of the Housing Authority
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

13. “The resources here in Salishan might give people what they
need to live a good life, but no one’s probably ever heard of
them” (Nicole).
“Aside from those three resources I don’t really know of any
programs for residents in general. I think they did used to
have some, but if there are or there were most people don’t
know where the locations are. There might be more
resources around here but people just don’t know how to
get to them. […] they don’t advertise enough. They do have
newsletters sometimes that come in the mail. I read through
it but it’s nothing helpful. There’s nothing that’s going to
apply to me or anything.” (Breanna)
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

14. “I see it as this: some people feel torn, some people feel
that if they got a good job they would go someplace else,
but then if they live somewhere else they’ll have to pay
more in rent and everything else. In the end they’ll probably
just stay here because it’s easier to make payments. Once
you move out it’s not just rent that goes up, everything is
more expensive. It’s a lot! A car, transit…especially if you
don’t have a lot of bills now and then you move out there
are just tons more bills. Maybe a mortgage. There’s just
more bills. I think a lot of them feel obligated to stay here
because you can get kind of trapped.” (Breanna)
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

15. “I help the neighbors keep track of their kids. When you have
nothing better to do like work then you tend to get to know your
neighborhood more and what your kids are experiencing every
day. In the neighborhood I’m another community member that a
lot of the kids and parents come to, because I have useful
resources and I am connected to a lot.” (Nicole)
“When one does get a job and the other doesn’t it’s easy to
blame. Instead of taking personal responsibility and doing the
work to get a job, they just say things like ‘oh well she didn’t
deserve that’. It’s just a defense thing. If you’re in a position
where you don’t feel safe or good enough you build a tough shell
that keeps you safe and keeps you feeling like you’re good
enough – sadly at the expense of other people
sometimes…there’s a lot of resentment and it’s a barrier to
building the community. You know, we can’t focus, we just have
to love those people regardless and not try to get caught up in all
of that.” (Becca)
“Because we’re not all that comfortable here we’re striving for
better. Even if it’s just wanting to get out of this neighborhood,
there’s something inside people here that they want things and
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

16. KEY REFERENCES
Axhausen, K.W. “Social Networks, Mobility Biographies, and Travel: Survey
Challenges.” Environment and Planning B, Planning and Design, Vol. 35
(2008): 981-996.
Briggs, Daniel. “Emotions, Ethnography and Crack Cocaine Users.”
Emotions, Space and Society, (2011)
Brophy, Paul C. and Rhonda N. Smith. “Mixed-Income Housing: Factors for
Success.” Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, Vol. 3
No. 2 (1997): 3-31.
Gieseking, Jack Jen. “Where We Go From Here: The Mental Sketch Mapping
Method and Its Analytic Components.” Qualitative Inquiry, 19(9) (2013):
712-724.
Gillespie, Carol Ann. “How Culture Constructs Our Sense of Neighborhood:
Mental Maps and Children’s Perceptions of Place.” Journal of Geography,
109 (2010): 18-29.
Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1960.
Schwartz, Alex F. Housing Policy in the United States. New York: Routledge,
2010.
TOP REFERENCES