A local architects' organization yesterday kicked off a competition for graduate architecture students to design a public housing complex that may never be built.

The competition, sponsored by the Boston Society of Architects, asks students to design a 12-family apartment complex with several common areas and a playground which would fit a real site in Roxbury. The contest is part of "The Search for Shelter," a nationwide project sponsored by the American Institute of Architects. Twenty to 30 similar competitions are being held simultaneously in cities nationwide.

Contestants must design an apartment complex for single-parent families, according to Brigid C. Williams '75, a member of the BSA committee running the competition.

In a panel discussion at the Went-worth Institute of Technology, the Boston Society of Architects, social workers and architects told an audience of 40 last night that the competition was meant to show that permanent homes could help Boston's homeless people more than the creation of new temporary shelters. The panel said that efforts to produce shelters often sap cities' ability to build new homes for people.

Panelist Donna Townsend, who runs a YMCA shelter for both homeless individuals and families, said that at least a third of the area's homeless are not "housing-ready"--that is, they cannot find housing, maintain an apartment or raise children on their own. Another third, she said, "needs some guidance" in order to live independently. She said the hypothetical housing project should provide for free classes on housekeeping, reading and child care.

The vacant lot is owned by Women, Inc., a women's treatment and counseling center which operates out of an adjacent house. The group plans to give the land to Family Services of Greater Boston to build and run a transitional shelter and education programs. This group may use a design from the competition for the actual shelter, although members said the group might not be able to afford any project on the site.

If sponsors can find the money for such a project, she said, residents will rent their apartments, using partial government subsidies. Eventually, they will move in permanently and run the complex as a cooperative.

A group of architects and social workers will judge entries next Thursday at the Graduate School of Design. Competitors will include students from Harvard, MIT, the Boston Architectural Center, and Wentworth. The winning designs from each school will be displayed at the American Institute of Architecture Students Forum in Boston later this year.