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Abstract
This thesis examines the nexus between landscape architecture, urban agriculture and permaculture to improve the health, safety, and welfare of low-income residents who lack access to fresh, locally grown food in affordable housing developments. Low-income residents of urban environments lack equal access to fresh locally grown food. The research question posits how landscape architects can integrate an edible landscape into an affordable housing development which provides the residents with access to edibles while adapting that design to the specific opportunities and constraints of the residents and the site. Research strategies include secondary description that reviews permaculture principles, precedent studies of urban landscapes that incorporate urban agriculture and permaculture into affordable housing and other landscapes. Finally, projected design illustrates and critiques the potential application of permaculture, as a form of urban agriculture, in an affordable housing site in Athens, GA.