When a group of Urban Economics students at the BIU were tasked with designing affordable housing, they wanted it to be more than a place to live. They envisioned a community that would assist victims of domestic violence, providing them with resources like transportation, employment, wellness and mental health services, and access to local school districts and childcare for their children, all designed with their clients in mind.
“A lack of housing poses a major obstacle to [victims] leaving their situations,” says team member Hannah Ripkey, a BIU undergraduate student.
The five-member student team presented their project, Orchard Pointe Village based in the city of Fitchburg just outside Madison, in front of community leaders and real estate developers during the second annual “Big Event on Housing Affordability and Homelessness in Madison.”
Originally created by Luque, an assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics, the evening forum provides a space for students and members of the Madison community to share ideas and to brainstorm solutions on closing the affordable housing gap in Dane County. With nearly 3,000 homeless individuals in Madison, approximately one-third of whom are children, the need is serious, Luque says.