Housing and Human Services
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this Urban Studies and Planning course on how housing and human service systems intersect. Part I lays out the differing professional cultures, institutional logics, and action frames that shape each system and how networks and social capital can form across them. Part II applies that framework to specific vulnerable populations: households in transitional housing, people with chronic mental illness, and the frail elderly, examining how operational mismatches between the two systems play out for these groups in practice. Course materials include the syllabus, readings, and assignments as posted by MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access online. The course is aimed at students studying urban planning, social policy, or social work who want to understand the practical friction between housing providers and human service agencies rather than treating them as a single coordinated system.