Emergent models of wellness: a case study of management practices in single resident occupant hotels of Vancouver CA

Emergence is the phenomenon of collective intelligence exhibited by a population of independent agents (the swarm). The theory of emergence has become a useful framework for exploring salient features of dynamical systems. This framework provides insight into hitherto intractable problems in sociology and economics. One such problem is the definition of a mathematical model of homelessness that enables policy evaluation with respect to the holistic wellness of the impacted individuals. Swarm simulations provide numerical and visual results to the researcher allowing both quantitative and intuitive hypothesis testing. This paper defines a basic swarm model of homelessness, details some initial experiments and provides justification for a dynamical systems model. A description of a survey taken in an area of Vancouver with high rates of homelessness is also provided.