Seeking Shelter (Updated!)

What factors affect homelessness in a city?

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Seeking Shelter (Updated!)

What factors affect homelessness in a city?

Login to add lessons to your favorites

2023-2024 Versions

In the fall of 2024, Citizen Math released updated versions of every lesson in our library, plus a few new ones! We know you may have already prepped an earlier version or planned a repeat of last year, so we're continuing to make these earlier versions available through Thursday December 5, 2024.

You can find the new lessons through the regular search, and we hope you love them as much as we do. You can read more about these updates in Our Community.

What factors influence homelessness in a city? Local leaders want to recruit high-paying jobs and to ensure their communities remain affordable to the people living there, and these goals can present a challenge.

In this lesson, students interpret linear equations and trend lines to describe how median income, average rent, and rates of homelessness have changed in the past two decades in various U.S. cities and discuss what they can do to aid people experiencing homelessness in their communities.

REAL WORLD TAKEAWAYS

  • In cities like New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington, DC, the median annual household income increased from 2010-2019.
  • During this same time, the median rent also increased, but by less.
  • As rents rise, some people are no longer able to afford their homes and become homeless.
  • Local leaders face a challenge in recruiting high-paying jobs while ensuring their areas remain affordable to the less well-off.

MATH OBJECTIVES

  • Describe a line-of-best fit as a line which is drawn through data points to show a long-term trend
  • Interpret a linear equation in a real-world context
  • Analyze real-world data and use it develop policy recommendations

Appropriate most times as students are developing conceptual understanding.
Grade 8
Writing Linear Equations
Grade 8
Writing Linear Equations
Content Standards 8.F.4 Construct a function to model a linear relationship between two quantities. Determine the rate of change and initial value of the function from a description of a relationship or from two (x, y) values, including reading these from a table or from a graph. Interpret the rate of change and initial value of a linear function in terms of the situation it models, and in terms of its graph or a table of values. 8.F.5 Describe qualitatively the functional relationship between two quantities by analyzing a graph (e.g., where the function is increasing or decreasing, linear or nonlinear). Sketch a graph that exhibits the qualitative features of a function that has been described verbally.
Mathematical Practices MP.2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively. MP.3 Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. MP.7 Look for and make use of structure.

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