World Homeless Day
People sometimes ask why are there homeless people. People without homes in the United States, the richest country in the world, is a travesty, a crisis and tells volumes about our values.
World Homeless Day is Saturday October 10, a day to reflect, learn and change.
Affordable Homes are needed now more than ever.
The COVID-19 crisis has made ending homelessness more urgent than ever. The Time is NOW. Saving Lives is Critical.
Without Shelter People Die
Canada
British Columbia-Vancouver they gave homeless people $7,500 each and SAVED LIVES.
IMAGINE THAT
Participants found housing faster, boosted food security and reduced spending on substances
I am a 70 year old woman, third generation American, born and raised in New York and living in California for most of my adult life, a professional writer, editor and teacher yet I had to sleep in my car for the past 3-5 years. I am now housed in a low income senior apartment for almost a year. Years ago in Las Vegas, I volunteered monthly at a shelter for men and gave talks there.
My article at Vox Media five years ago.
“Nobody ever tells you about the sleep deprivation.
“At around 4:30 am, while the rest of the world is still asleep, I wake up and get moving under cover of darkness. Quiet spots with some degree of tree cover, or the occasional hospital or church parking lot, are typically where I sleep for the night. Still, there’s always the risk that someone will spot me and I’ll wake up with police blaring a flashlight into my eyes.”
Sleep deprivation wrecks havoc with your health and life.
“I worked all my life...until I hurt my knee...Never thought I would wind up in this parking lot.” Thanks to @Kevinchron@sfchronicle for telling this story. @UCSF @ucsfcvp Nearly half of older homeless people fell into trouble after 50.
Elderly homelessness is on the rise and expected to triple. That was BEFORE COVID. It is America’s next crisis says the New York Times.
Little Red Wagon
I watched an inspirational movie, a true story called The Little Red Wagon about a young boy 8 years old who gathered 25 truckloads of donated supplies for people without homes due to Hurricane Charley in Florida in 2004. He went on to create a non-profit The Little Red Wagon Foundation to help homeless children and youth. Zach Bronner, his mother and sister walked from Tampa to Tallahassee to bring media attention to this crisis. Then they walked from Tallahassee to Atlanta and then to Washington, DC and across America.
Zach lived in an 8- by 8- by 8-foot box outside Westfield Brandon mall for a week to raise awareness about youth homelessness. He encouraged others in the community to donate canned food items that he used to line the walls of the box in 2013.
We need MORE people like Zach Bronner in America NOW more than ever.
Options for Affordable Housing
Used campers, RV’s and Tuff Shed homes are not easy to find. They can be cost effective about $3,000 or less but you must have land to put them on for Tuff Shed’s rent to own program. You might be able to put a shed on a trailer but trailers can cost about $1,500-3,000. Sheds technically are not to be lived in via rules and regulations. Container homes? Tiny home communities via churches are few and have a lot of rules. Low income senior housing have huge waiting lists. Sharing a home, roommates and co-housing may work for some but for others, are still expensive and/or even abusive. 50% of women wind up without homes due to domestic violence and abuse.
Profits over people no matter the costs
Here are a few examples and reasons why we have this problem and why it has not been solved.
There are 1,000+ women in the Monterey Bay Area for 5+ years that I know about. Many are older women without homes, seniors. Senior/elderly homeless is on the rise in the USA. Instead of housing these women, various nonprofits who are supposedly helping these women have been profiting off of women who are suffering.
One group spent $3 million on a building that houses NO ONE. Another group supposedly gives funds to women without homes. Neither of these two groups ever offered me one night in a motel and when asked what about Housing Us, they declined to answer, told me that too many women have dogs (in one of the dog friendliness places in the USA where millions of dollars are donated every year to house dogs), and/or they provide food (which is donated to them) so where is all of the money donated to these groups going? Not to house the women that they are pretending to support.
1,000 women x $1,000 = MUCH LESS THAN $3 MILLION.
A few years ago, a group of wealthy women offered to buy, rent or lease land for us women and a company offered jobs as well as temporary housing. When I contacted every single agency to tell them the good news, NO ONE RESPONDED. NONE OF THEM WANT HOUSING FOR THE WOMEN.
NOT HAVING A HOME IS A CONSTANT CRISIS
During the 2020 pandemic, funds have been given to various communities and cities in California to house homeless people in motels. A friend of mine was put into a nearby cheap motel through a nonprofit program. She is 74, stressed out and was sleeping in her car with her dog. The motel does not clean her room and the bed has bed bugs. She has been sick with colds, migraines, canker sores and bites from the bugs in her room. She wants to work but doesn’t know what to do about her dog. Her other dog was taken away from her and she has not been able to visit. The SPCA amputated his leg without her approval and for a few months was charging her $25 PER DAY for him. She needed to keep her belongings in storage and was overdue so I asked a few friends to help by donating $20 each. We raised the money and her items are safe for the time being. But her bank account is now frozen because of an identity thief and she does not know if she will be able to receive her Social Security check (she needs a physical address and a new bank account).
Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, the housing crisis is epic. People die on the streets every day because folks are herded into downtown’s Skid Row where crime, hygiene and assaults happen too often. A dangerous place for human beings and a huge public safety hazard.
Elvis Summers decided a few years ago to help one older woman, Smokie, in his neighborhood. Irene “Smokie” McGee had been living on the streets of Los Angeles for 10 years in 2015. Forced out of her home when she could no longer keep up with the payments after her husband died of lung cancer in 2004, McGee spent a decade without even so much as a makeshift roof over her head. McGee had no shelter at all to protect her from the elements. She was literally sleeping in the dirt. She feared local gang members.
Elvis built her a tiny home she could lock the door and sleep safely inside. Have a roof over her head. $500 and 5 days later, he had assembled the small structure. A temporary solution. His video went viral and dollars poured in to help him building more tiny homes for others. He built about 40 of them. He have meetings with the Mayor and others who promised him the moon but when push came to shove did everything they could to STOP HIM.
The police confiscated all of the homes including Smokie’s. Due to public outcry, they were all returned BROKEN. And Smokie wound up in the ICU and DIED. Another couple who’s temporary home was taken away were violently assaulted.
Elvis Summers continues building tiny homes to this day and is working on obtaining land and lots to put them on. He teaches others how to build these homes that cost approximately $500-1,200 each.
Without Shelter People Die
More information about Elvis Summers Tiny Home Projects
3D printed homes
The first residential house was 3D-printed onsite with a mobile printer. It only took 24 hours and costs $10,134. The company hopes this can provide affordable housing. But meanwhile they want to build homes on Mars and the Moon.
Gaining industry approval for the use of 3D printing technology to build homes has been one of the major barriers to mass availability the company says.
Other companies who have been using 3D printers to create homes send them to other countries. I know because I begged, pleaded and asked many many many times for them to building tiny and/or 3D homes for me and others. Nope.
This 3D printed home can be built for $4,000 but NOT HERE in the USA.
Las Vegas Boxabl modular homes can be built in one or two hours but cost $50,000.