America could solve homelessness if it wants to
“Tonight, more than half a million Americans will sleep in public places because they lack private spaces. They will huddle in crowded New York City shelters, or pitch tents under highways in Washington, D.C., or curl up in the doorways of San Francisco office towers, or dig holes in the high desert of northern Los Angeles County.
“They are homeless, and their lives are falling apart. They struggle to stay healthy, to hold jobs, to preserve personal relationships, to maintain a sense of hope.
“They are victims of America’s wealth — and its indifference.
“Homelessness in the United States is the most extreme manifestation of a broader housing crisis.
“The federal government could render homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring. The cure for homelessness is housing, and, as it happens, the money is available: Congress could shift billions in annual federal subsidies from rich homeowners to people who don’t have homes.
“Instead, Americans have taken to treating homelessness as a sad fact of life, as if it were perfectly normal that many thousands of adults and children in the wealthiest nation on earth cannot afford a place to live.
“Rather than provide housing for the homeless, cities offer showers, day care centers and bag checks.
“Collectively, we are choosing to avert our eyes from the people who sleep where we walk. We have decided to live with the fact that some of our fellow Americans will die on the streets.
“…homelessness is poised to increase. More than 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the last two months; almost 40 percent of workers in households making less than $40,000 a year have lost work. Women in Need NYC, which runs shelters, warned this week that New York faces a “mass increase” in homelessness.
“In the decades after World War II, some experts predicted that prosperity would eliminate homelessness in America. Instead, in recent decades, wealth and homelessness have both increased — a stark illustration of the inequalities that pervade American life.
“The rise of homelessness is often portrayed as a collection of personal tragedies, the result of bad choices or bad luck. But the first law of real estate applies to homelessness, too: Location, location, location. The nation’s homeless population is concentrated in New York, the cities of coastal California and a few other islands of prosperity. Well-educated, well-paid professionals have flocked to those places, driving up housing prices. And crucially, those cities and their suburbs have made it virtually impossible to build enough housing to keep up.
“…Whatever problems they face, however, they are much more likely to become homeless in places without enough affordable housing. According to one analysis, a $100 increase in the average monthly rent in a large metro area is associated with a 15 percent increase in homelessness.
“Consider a simple comparison: In 2018, eight out of every 10,000 Michigan residents were homeless. In California, it was 33 per 10,000. In New York, it was 46 per 10,000.
“Countries confronting homelessness with greater success than the United States, including Finland and Japan, begin by treating housing as a human right.
“…Let’s end homelessness instead of subsidizing mansions.”
What HOME means to the homeless
Homelessness could have been solved in LA, SF, CA all over the USA already but for people who don’t want it to end.
Including mayors (Garcetti IN LA), politicians, nonprofit agencies and others profiting off of people dying and suffering on the streets, in cars, 50% who are seniors.
In California, 68 percent of homeless people are unsheltered, compared to just 5 percent in New York due to extreme shortage of affordable housing.
Dr. Thomas Huggett squared his shoulders and waded into a crowd of homeless people at a dimly lighted shelter on this city’s West Side. Most were elderly or suffered from a variety of ailments that made them particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. His only protection was a thin surgical mask as he delivered an unusual pitch he has been making almost daily at different shelters.
Dr. Thomas Huggett helped Chicago convert a hotel to house elderly or otherwise at-risk people amid pandemic; he also lives there.
He knows as other ER doctors know homelessness is devastating to health.
Homelessness is always heartbreaking. But now it’s so much worse. People aren’t sleeping. It’s traumatic and impossible. eight weeks and it’s all very hard.
As research shows, homeless people in their 50’s and 60’s have similar or worse health problems than people in the general population who are in their 70’s and 80’s.
Being unsheltered is terrifying, humiliating and isolating. People living without shelter lack access to toileting facilities, sinks and showers. They have no way to store or prepare food and no protection from the elements. Hunger is common.
Sleeping in makeshift beds or on the ground, they get little sleep. They must contend with having their possessions stolen, being banned, discriminated against and unsheltered are at high risk of physical and sexual abuse.
Our study suggests that many older homeless adults will require nursing home placement, some of which could have been avoided with housing and home-based services.
Two years into our study, many of our participants have already spent extended time in nursing facilities.
The truth is that while Rachel Maddow talks about seniors dying in nursing homes in 10 states, who is talking in the media about the million+ Americans with NOWHERE SAFE TO BE WHO ARE DYING IN HOMELESS SHELTERS, ON STREETS, IN CARS??? How many people without homes are in nursing homes? I HAVE written numerous articles to educate, raise awareness and inspire people to TAKE ACTION.
American taxpayers are paying three times MORE to not house people due to law enforcement costs, ER hospital visits, and more.
Overall, the homeless population is older and sicker
and his volunteers built dozens of homes. In February 2016 the number was more specifically reported as 37. In September 2016, Elvis said that he had stopped for a while after 38 houses, but was now up to "41 or 42". But Mayor Garcetti had the homes removed and Smokie died (the grandmother who had been sleeping in the dirt who Elvis originally built a tiny home for) and another couple were brutally assaulted. The homes were returned broken and Elvis continued to find lots, build homes and gave out water and more.
“When I built a tiny house for a 61 year old woman who was sleeping in the dirt near my apartment, I just wanted to help her out. I did it because it's the right thing to do. It's what we should do. We have more than enough resources in the world to solve the hunger and homeless crisis, the problem is that people just don't care or don't care enough.
“Well that's not the kind of world I want to live in, so I'm doing something to change it...This is our Planet and we are the people, We NEED to do better! Please Join me!
~Elvis
Each house costs about $1200 to build. They are equipped with:
Wheels on the bottom so they can be more easily moved
According to Elvis, the houses have a footprint of roughly 6 by 8 feet, and are 7 feet tall, and that they are also equipped with:
A steel reinforced door
Two windows, with alarms
An address
Smoke detectors
A cell phone charger, also powered by the solar panels
A new carpet
These homes could have been built for people without homes BEFORE THE VIRUS. And tiny homes can be 3D printed for folks in the USA without homes, especially the most vulnerable, seniors and disabled.
But instead the powers that be have refused to do so. Companies who build tiny homes are too busy making money and others who do 3D homes and send them to other countries. I have contacted some of them and told we dont do that in the USA.
Any one of the billionaires in the USA and CA has the most billionaires could have saved lives but instead what are they doing with their money? Hoarding and trying to make more.
When conventional means continue to fail and loss of life is the result, “Out of the Box” thinking and solutions are required in order to succeed.
Build Tiny House Communities, providing temporary shelters with all necessary amenities for human and societal needs (i.e.: bathrooms, showers, laundry, kitchen, community center, gardens, etc.)
Provide a stable location for outreach teams and case managers to find their clients when needed to continue their services as well as connect residents with new services that require a stable location.
Create a new city employment resource, providing jobs and training for the houseless, self-purpose and engage a work force of ambassadors to relieve pressure from many understaffed city departments and personnel.
Tiny Houses are cheap and effective. They are also simple and easy to build which makes them a no brainer for creating an emergency shelter.
What needs to be Done
Change how we treat human beings. We individually and collectively decide not to let people suffer and die on our streets, but instead to have a place to go to be safe .
To be a lawful dwelling, tiny houses in California must be one of the following:
Recreational Vehicle.
Factory-Built Housing.
Parked Trailer.
Camping Cabin.
Manufactured Home.
Site-Built Dwelling (which conforms to Standard California Building Codes)
Tiny houses on wheels are not subject to the building code (like single family residences are). Instead, in California, THOWs are typically subject to safety standards adopted by the American National Standards Institute ("ANSI").
"The City of Los Angeles has given the green light to Movable Tiny Homes as ADUs! ... The Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance has been APPROVED by the LA City Council. This ordinance permits Movable Tiny Houses as permissible and permanently habitable accessory dwelling units (ADU)
In the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Sacramento, and Sonoma, tiny houses on wheels are allowed as “caregiver dwellings”.
It is life or death, without shelter, people die.
It is that simple.
And people have been dying without shelter for years now all over the USA.
Now, things are even worse than they were before.
Is anyone going to care enough to build homes to save lives?
Homeless shelters, and nursing homes are not not not the answer.
Hotel/motel rooms could be utilized but seems like there is more talk and no action.
Tiny homes like Elvis builds could give people back their dignity, health, freedom, and keep people safe at home.
Tiny homes SAVE LIVES.
Who is going to build tiny homes for $1,200 each to save lives NOW???