Inspiration
The homeless are obviously an underserved population, but they are more connected than most people think. With mobile phone penetration at >50% overall and weekly internet usage at >80% in youth populations, we thought it was a great opportunity to make a difference in the world with our traditionally "first world facing" skillset. There is also a paucity of data on how the homeless interact with information technology and the effects it has on their lives. We set out to find a web based solution to both problems.
What it does
HomeAway is a map-based web app to help homeless people find events and services near them. Features include filters for gender restrictions and services offered (e.g. showers, food, beds, support for domestic abuse victims.) Our stack was built to maximize data collection and minimizing payload size for those who have limited data plan resources
How we built it
Fueled by RAMEN(React, Alt, Mongo, Express, Node) and Google Maps
Challenges we ran into
The Twilio service we wanted to integrate into our app (SMS query of our database for those who don't have readily available internet access) was not free. As a result, we couldn't fully implement it, but we intend to do so in in the future.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Great backend, solid UI/UX once we finish frontend. But above all, we think that our project can have a real impact for both the homeless and those who analyze data on their behalf
What we learned
We should have allocated more time for front end development. Our backend is ready to go, but the react interface is not complete (yet.) We also learned a lot about homelessness and its effect on society.
What's next for HomeAway
The future is probably what we're most excited about: we really think we can do something with this project. Any prize money or gift cards will go to customer development in the form of launch event(s) where guests will enjoy a nutritious meal and offer us advice as to their needs and those of their peers. This information will be used to guide future development with the needs of our customers in mind. We envision a product that helps the homeless find resources while simultaneously providing data for the government and researchers.
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