To me, the most relevant criteria to decide impact is an ethical one: things are more impactful if they save more lives. If one solution has the potential to save one more life than an alternative, I would support that instead of the alternative.

How do the other options fare in your evaluation? What is lacking in them?

First, the Engineering group has the potential to save some lives as we saw on Mr. Triple's class an article by McGrew et.al that access to quality shelters is connected to better health and a longer life, but that connection is too far away for me, and I would not even be sure that people would use my invention. Therefore, I am not sure that many lives could be directly saved by my idea.

I could see how the Mental Health for the Homeless group could be appealing to people who have different priorities, as it helps people's wellbeing. However, I saw no evidence at Eve's class that wellbeing interventions could directly save a life, so I am not sure it fits my criteria best.

For the criteria you chose, why is your first choice the most impactful?

The most impactful problem area to me is definitely the Safety for the Homeless. We saw the policy research by Wu and Gu in Mr. Yifan's class that found that homeless people are 10 times more likely to be murdered than regular people. Ensuring their safety, even if it is really hard because it involves policy, could have a massive payoff in a place where the homeless population could hit the thousands. Engaging with this group could generate the most impact in saving lives.