Multi-service facility location models

The multi-service facility (MSF) concept proposes the co-location of a range of human services under a single roof. Thus, for example, services for preschoolers, teens, and seniors might be co-located within a joint facility. MSFs are a response to economies of scale; co-location reduces the monetary costs of providing a variety of services. Yet, the spatial distributions of different societal groups are different within a city - an MSF system will not provide optimum geographical accessibility to individual groups. We introduce two p-median based location-allocation models that trade off the fixed costs of providing services and opening facilities with the travel costs of three societal groups. We observe that some mixes of single- and multi-service facilities can provide efficient service systems without unduly compromising the accessibility needs of individual groups.