Case study · Design Frontiers
MC HoneyHive — safer, more dignified shelter rooms for women
Dignify San Diego women's shelters with a sleek, innovative shelter room design that ensures comfort, privacy and — most importantly — safety.
- My role
- Designer, Interaction & Researcher
- Timeline
- May 9 – 10 · 2-day design-a-thon
- Tools
- Figma, FigJam, Spline
My contributions
- Led the concept for the hive pod shelter design
- Built the 3D models of the pods and accessible rooms
- Researched San Diego women's shelters and residents' experiences
Problem statement
How might we redesign the homeless shelter experience in San Diego so women from diverse circumstances feel safe in a space that communicates dignity and provides access to necessary resources?
Goals
- Increase safety
- Ensure those with disabilities have equal access
- Improve morale and dignity
Current situation
Most homeless shelters in San Diego offer little to no privacy and low safety, and can only house a limited number of residents. Women seeking refuge have often already escaped harrowing situations, such as domestic abuse and sexual violence.
Overcrowded sleeping areas, limited supervision and the mixing of people with very different backgrounds and struggles can lead to theft, violence, harassment, or exposure to drug use and mental health crises. Residents often have little control over who they're placed near, and some shelters lack the staff or resources to respond to conflicts or emergencies.
Storage is another frequently reported issue: most shelters have a one-to-two bag limit. When losing a home is already devastating, having to give up belongings adds further distress.
Competitive analysis
Looking through multiple women-centered shelters in the San Diego area, we found pros and cons for each.
Rachel's Promise Center for Women and Children
A women-only, family-centered shelter operated by Catholic Charities of San Diego, with about 50 beds for adult women (109 for single women and 101 for families overall). It operates 24/7 and offers trauma-informed care, case management, therapy and life-skills workshops, aiming to transition women into permanent housing.
Father Joe's Bishop Maher Center
Houses single adult women (18+, no families). With about 28 beds, space is more limited, but Father Joe's Village adds valuable resources like childcare, job training and meals to help residents secure income and housing.
Haven Interim Housing
More limited: housing requires a referral with no guarantee through the application. Up to 72 beds across its apartments, prioritizing short-term transitional housing for single women and families.
User research
Time constraints shaped our research, as this was a weekend design-a-thon and the shelter we hoped to call was unavailable. Instead, we read reviews left by real visitors and residents of the shelters.
Pain points
Residents struggled most with:
- Disability and accessibility features
- Lack of transparency and trust
- Staff treatment and dignity
- Cleanliness and basic working living conditions
Wishes and desires
Residents wanted to see:
- Support in case management
- Safer and cleaner environments
- A greater sense of dignity in their living environment
- More storage options
- Better accommodations for people with disabilities
Low-fidelity sketch
Information architecture
Moodboard
Solution
A hive pod rooming system. Its unique shape lets pods stack to increase bed capacity with safety in mind, while each small room has a semi-see-through frosted folding acrylic door that balances privacy with safety. Each one-bed room also allows secure storage. For residents with disabilities, the first-floor rooms are designed specifically for accessibility.
Our two-tier layout was chosen for structural efficiency: stacking pods doubles resident capacity without doubling floor space, adjacent pods share walls to reduce material needs, and the uniform design enables offsite batch construction, lowering labor costs and build time.
Final 3D model
Budget feasibility
According to the San Diego Housing Commission's 2024 presentation, Rachel's Promise Center operates at roughly $5,034,981 a year for 210 beds — about $24,000 per bed per year, or around $2,000 per bed each month. Yet resident reviews and public records point to persistent issues with safety, discrimination and limited housing placement.
Trauma-informed, dignity-centered design increases service engagement and housing placement, making every dollar spent on case management more effective. The question isn't whether we can afford to build this — it's whether we can afford to keep spending $5 million a year on spaces that aren't working.