Urban Challenges: Homeslessness in San Diego

USP 142A&B is an innovative two-quarter practicum course series focused on homelessness in San Diego. It will run through the winter and spring quarters of the 2025-2026 academic year. The first quarter's course will provide an overview of the problem (locally, statewide, nationally and to a lesser extent, internationally), insight into its complex (structural, historical, psychosocial, cultural) roots, and an exploration of models and methods for addressing the challenge. Through panels, tours, and informal conversations, students will be introduced to both staff on the front lines, and unhoused San Diegans who are in the midst of this ongoing personal and societal crisis. The winter course will prepare students for the spring quarter's deep dive into hands-on research. Students will be trained in, and will undertake and analyze, surveys, focus groups and oral history interviews. The aim will be to better understand the human stories and trajectories of homelessness, as well as to help identify what interventions help, both in the midst of a housing loss crisis, and further "upstream" before people fall into such dire straits.

Space in the classes is limited. We welcome students from all disciplines (this enriches the cohort and research), though a proportion of spots in the course are reserved for USP and RED students. Selected students will enroll in USP 142A (Urban Challenges: Homelessness in San Diego) during Winter Quarter 2026. Enrollment in the second (Spring Quarter 2026) course is contingent upon satisfactory contributions in the winter course and approval of the professors.

The winter course is 4 units and the spring (more field-based) course is 6 units. Both courses must be taken for a letter grade. The winter class will meet on T/Th (precise time slot TBD) and has two Saturday commitments: one, a retreat on Saturday, January 10th (8:30am-2:30pm), and the second, a homelessness services ecosystem tour on Saturday, January 24th (8:30am-3:30pm). The spring course will meet once a week on Wednesday evening (5-7:50pm), in order to accommodate the lives and schedules of people in the local shelters and safe parking lots. That spring course will also have non-class day outings (one Saturday outing and one Thursday afternoon, dates TBA). 

The program is co-designed and taught by Dr. Mirle Rabinowitz Bussell and Dr. Leslie R Lewis, faculty members in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The course series will satisfy the USP research methods requirement and will offer an excellent potential research topic for senior capstones. 

To apply for the course series, please complete all of the questions on the application. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until we reach the enrollment limit (25).  The final deadline is October 24th, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.