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12 Ways To End ALL Homelessness, Via A Policy Makers And Faith Community Toolbox; Decriminalize Sleeping In Public Places, Legalize Tent Encampments, Tiny Homes Via Emergency Declaration, Suspension Of Building Codes, Environmental Reviews, Normal Agency Approvals

12 Ways To End ALL Homelessness, Via A Policy Makers And Faith Community Toolbox; Decriminalize Sleeping In Public Places, Legalize Tent Encampments, Tiny Homes Via Emergency Declaration, Suspension Of Building Codes, Environmental Reviews, Normal Agency Approvals

INTRODUCTION


This article outlines 12 ways that could be used to house ALL of the homeless both on an interim basis and on a permanent basis in any given community, state or country. Having everyone housed FIRST, as a FIRST priority, ahead of everything else, (especially the 2.5 million homeless US children) is more a matter of will than anything else. The following options can be used as a tool chest, to end all homelessness in any given city, county or state, as well as any nation, in a very short time span. Multiple nations have no homeless issue, so this issue can be solved, because other nations, cities and states have accomplished this goal, so it is just a matter of copying what they did.

HOMELESSNESS IS A GROWING PROBLEM, DUE TO CAPITALISM, BUT IGNORING THE PROBLEM COSTS MORE THAN DEALING WITH IT AND SOLVING IT


Few people understand that the homeless population is growing in the US, despite claims of the opposite happening. The policy of denial, criminalizing the homeless, throwing them into jail due to lack of basic services does not work. Ignoring the issue of homelessness is costing and wasting huge amounts of money.

CORPORATE PROFITS ARE AT A RECORD HIGH, BUT THE NUMBERS OF HOMELESS CONTINUE TO GROW ALL ACROSS AMERICA; 2.5 MILLION HOMELESS CHILDREN, AND NO ACTION




When Bhutan has no homeless people, and it is a tiny poor nation, while America is the richest country on Earth, and the most powerful, but it has 2.5 million homeless children, something is desperately wrong. 

How can the tiny country of Germany house 1 million refugees in just one year, but American cannot manage to house it's own homeless CITIZENS? There is something desperately wrong. 

THE FIRST STEP IS BELIEVING THAT A SOLUTION IS POSSIBLE, BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE HAVE GIVEN UP AND ARE FATALISTIC, IN DENIAL, OR BLAME THE VICTIMS


This article details both the problems, the costs and some sustainable solutions that actually. Success models are pointed at, and can easily be repeated or copied, so solving this problem is not rocket science nor is it difficult to do.
If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it. -  William Arthur Ward
The first and hardest step is to actually imagine and BELIEVE that the WHOLE PROBLEM can actually solved, all at once, in a very quick and fast manner. What is interesting is the result of two very informal surveys done recently. The question was this; Do you believe that the homeless problem can be solved quickly and entirely in the next couple of months?

One survey was done in a group that consisted in large part of homeless individuals. When asked this question, roughly 90 percent answered yes, that the problem could be solved quickly and entirely.

But when this same question was asked in another group dedicated to solving the homeless issue, and this time the audience was made up of people who owned homes, had a regular income stream and were 'normal' members of society, the number of people answering yes went down to around 20 percent. It would be interesting to do a more 'scientific' survey of these two types of populations and see if this answer is the same in larger numbers and groups of these same 'groups.

WHY CAN POOR NATIONS LIKE BHUTAN SOLVE THEIR HOMELESS PROBLEM, BUT THE RICHEST COUNTRY ON THE PLANET CANNOT MANAGE TO EVEN PUT A DENT IN THIS ISSUE? 



America is running far, far behind a tiny, poor nation like Bhutan when it comes to feeding and housing everyone. If a tiny, poor nation like Bhutan can house and feed everyone, why can't the most powerful, richest country on Earth do the same thing? The federal budget calls for an end to all homelessness by the year 2017, so why does it not seem to be happening on a local level?

Bhutan, Utah And Buffalo NY Have Virtually Ended Chronic Homelessness By Providing People With Homes, Federal Budget Calls For Ending Chronic Homelessness By 2017
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2015/10/utah-has-virtually-ended-chronic.html

GERMANY SHELTERED OVER 1 MILLION REFUGEES IN 2015, AND IS SMALLER THAN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, WHICH HAS ONLY 100,000 HOMELESS US CITIZENS; WHY CAN'T CALIFORNIA OR ANY OTHER STATE FIGURE OUT HOW TO HOUSE IT'S OWN CITIZENS?


Germany has housed or sheltered over 1 million refugees, just in 2015. If a tiny country like Germany, (not even as big as California) can do this, why can't America house even it's own citizens? And why can't America accept any Syrian refugees at all, according to many US state governors, especially when is a fact that American bombs are creating many of these same Syrian refugees to be created?

Refugee crisis: Germany has received over 1 million migrants in 2015
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/refugee-crisis-germany-has-received-over-1-million-migrants-2015-1532674

SMALL GERMANY TOWN WITH 39,000 RESIDENTS TAKES IN AND SHELTERS 2,200 REFUGEES IN A MATTER OF DAYS, WHY CAN'T MUCH LARGER US CITIES AND TOWNS DO THAT FOR US CITIZENS?

Freital, which has taken 2,200 new arrivals, is a flashpoint for trouble where locals clash with migrants in the street.  Freital is similar to dozens of other towns around Germany, which has accepted one million refugees already in 2015.It is little surprise: Freital, with a population of 39,000 and home to 2,200 refugees, has become a poster town for the refugee crisis in Germany

Half of the homeless population in the United States was in five states: CA (20% or 113,952 people), NY (14% or 80,590 people), FL (7% or 41,542 people), TX (5% or 28,495 people), and MA (4% or 21,237 people).

GUAM, A US TERRITORY, HAD NO HOMELESS ISSUE TO DEAL WITH UNTIL FAIRLY RECENTLY


Guam is a US territory, meaning it has only US citizens living there, showed that in an official survey, that it had no homeless population before 1990.

"Before the 1990 Census of Guam, Census Bureau personnel discussed whether a separate operation to enumerate homeless persons on Guam would be necessary. In Micronesia persons who are temporarily homeless are soon taken in by others, usually relatives. That is, Pacific Islanders do not leave other Pacific Islanders "on the street." Hence, homelessness should not occur in Micronesia, and no separate operation to enumerate homeless on Guam was needed."
http://www.pacificweb.org/DOCS/guam/pdf/GuamHOMELESS.11.pdf

Why can a puny territory with no real assets or resources mange to house all of it's own US citizens, but huge, rich states with lots of resources and plenty of money cannot figure out how to do the same thing? Of course, since 1990, things got worse in Guam, so they now have a 'small' homeless problem. They seem to be getting infected by the fatalistic cynical attitude in the larger US, where the problem seems to be 'unsolvable', so why even bother trying?

BHUTAN, A COUNTRY LACKING MONEY AND RESOURCES, MANAGES TO HOUSE ALL OF IT'S OWN CITIZENS; WHY CAN'T A VERY RICH AND POWERFUL US DO THAT?

Bhutan is a tiny country with only 700,000 citizens and a very small income per person. But what is exceptional about this country is that it has no homeless citizens. Why can Bhutan do this for it's own citizens, but the US, the richest and most powerful nation on Earth, cannot do this same thing? 

Bhutan: Happiness is a place
https://madurasthoughts.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/bhutan-happiness-is-a-place/

WHAT IF THE HOMELESS ISSUE WERE TREATED AS AN EMERGENCY, INSTEAD OF LOOKING AT HOMELESS US CITIZENS AS OUTCASTS AND CRIMINALS DESERVING OF THEIR FATE?


The homeless issue is an emergency crisis that needs a community, state and/or federal FEMA plus the Army Corp. of Engineers to tackle it. The problem can be solved, quickly and efficiently. America has built the greatest structures on Earth, such as huge stadiums, dams, space ships that went to the moon, bridges, huge passenger liner cruise ships, freeways, dams, canals, a network of pipelines, and airports. 

Billions are spent on one time Olympic sporting events, just in one city. There is no way that the homeless problem can remain unsolved, if the American spirit of ingenuity, problem solving, moral outrage, and basic human compassion plus caring are applied in liberal doses. There are no lack of solutions for this issue, but there is a lack of will, lots of myths, misunderstandings and lack of caring.

“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.” —Cesar E. Chavez
In other words, developers and neighbors infected by NIMBYISM, should not be the only ones deciding on community policy. In any discussion of homeless policy, it should not be up to just a few people to decide, but for the WHOLE COMMUNITY to make a decision about it.

To give one example, in Sonoma County, there is a huge property with many empty buildings that are all paid for and owned by the county, that could house potentially all of the homeless in the county within a month to several months. But this property is not even being considered as part of the solution for housing the homeless, by any politician. Why not? According to the politicians involved, the 'neighbors' object, and the developers have what seems like 'first dibs' on this property, so that the buildings on it can be razed, and new, expensive housing can be built. The money raised from selling this property will be allocated not to housing the homeless, but to new government buildings for the politicians. Does this make sense? Where are the priorities? Where is the caring for fellow US citizens? Where is the basic human compassion and empathy?

In downtown Santa Rosa, 11 million dollars was allocated to create a few parking spaces, which required chopping down some huge redwood trees in the downtown square. That amount of money could have solved the entire homeless problem in Santa Rosa, via emergency declaration and order for many years. What the city is left with is more parking, but also more homeless people camping out in front of business doorsteps at night and wandering the side walks during the day. Does this make sense? Where are the priorities? Where is the caring for fellow US citizens? Where is the basic human compassion and empathy?

Bottom line, there is plenty of money to solve the homeless problem. There are plenty of solutions to solve the entire homeless problem, but the WILL to solve the problem is lacking. In addition, there is a lack of champions who are willing to tackle the ENTIRE problem, and not just nibble around the edges.

THE PROBLEM OF HUNGER AND HOMELESSNESS IS GROWING IN THE US, BUT THE PROBLEM IS MOSTLY BEING IGNORED, DENIED AS THE HOMELESS ARE BEING TOSSED UNDER THE BUS


AL Jazeera; Hunger, homelessness on the rise in major US cities, study finds
"Many of America’s largest cities continue to grapple with rising food insecurity and homelessness, according to a report released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Tuesday. The latest iteration of the non-partisan group’s annual Hunger and Homelessness Survey found that homeless shelters and food pantries across 22 U.S. cities are struggling to keep up with rising demand for their services.

It is in Washington, D.C., Seattle, and Los Angeles where homelessness was found to have increased the most sharply over the past year. The largest increase came in Washington, D.C., where the number of people experiencing homelessness rose by 28 percent and the number of homeless families went up by 60 percent. Meanwhile, requests for emergency food assistance in the city rose by 27 percent during the same period.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/12/22/hunger-homelessness-on-the-rise-in-22-us-cities.html

The homeless problem is found even in the most remote villages and outposts far off in the wilderness of America. 

Homeless in Igloolik: Family of 5 lives in a tent
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/homeless-in-igloolik-family-of-5-lives-in-a-tent-1.3253390

ONE OF THE ROOT CAUSES OF THE HOMELESS PROBLEM IS CRIMINALIZING THE HOMELESS IN ALL KINDS OF WAYS, PUNISHING THEM, AND GIVING THEM NO ROUTE BACK INTO SOCIETY

The concept of having a “SafeGround” is very meaningful and important to homeless campers. The city of Sacramento, through various laws and regulations, essentially makes it a crime to be homeless, resulting in even fewer individuals succeeding in working their way out. The city’s “camping ordinance” makes it illegal for anyone to use or store camping paraphernalia on public property, in effect making it a crime to be homeless.
http://nationalhomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Tent-Cities-Report-FINAL-3-10-10.pdf

The Civil Rights Committee is currently engaged in a campaign against Disorderly Conduct. The police use “Disorderly Conduct” to arrest or ticket homeless people – a key tool in the criminalization, profiling, and harassment of the homeless.

Top Ten Measures Used Against Homeless In The United States
This is another incredibly common law, and most cities still have some sort of anti-loitering ordinance, even after the Supreme Court struck down Chicago’s in 1999 for being impermissibly vague. Though cartoons and movies like to portray these vague “though shall not idle around” laws as ways to prevent young people from causing trouble, anti-loitering legislation is often unevenly enforced against classes of people that the police do not like – especially the homeless.

By Mikeal O’Toole
On August 6, 2015, the office of the civil rights division of The Department of Justice (DOJ), called the anti-camping ordinances of most U.S. cities and counties a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. Given this statement, which follows the principles of the recent decision of the Ninth Appellate Court in Jones v. City of Los Angeles, Sonoma County’s Camp Michela and Homeless Action! are calling on local governments to provide shelter for all who wish to come indoors.

In the Department of Justice statement, attorney Sharon Brett states the following:

1. “In 2014, 42% of homeless individuals slept in unsheltered, public locations — under bridges, in cars, in parks, on the sidewalk, or in abandoned buildings.

2. “If sufficient shelter space is unavailable because a) there are inadequate beds for the entire population, or b) there are restrictions on those beds that disqualify certain groups of homeless individuals (e.g., because of disability access or exceeding maximum stay requirements), then it would be impossible for some homeless individuals to comply with these ordinances. 

3. “In those circumstances enforcement of the ordinances amounts to the criminalization of homelessness, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

4. “The United States also has an interest in breaking the cycle of poverty and criminalization.” 

We at Homeless Action!’s have had the backing of international law (UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights 1948, Chapter 25). We now have the backing of US federal law, per the US Department of Justice statement in Bell v. City of Boise, ID. 

 The time to act is now.
more at; http://www.sonomacountygazette.com/cms/pages/sonoma-county-news-article-4293.html
(Carolyn Upple and Mikeal O'Toole are co-founders of Camp Michela - 28 min bilingual video)

 The following article goes into detail about the many ways that the homeless are criminalized, with no way out and back into 'normal' society, even if they want to do this. 
Homeless Criminalized; Baltimore Evicted Homeless Using Prison Labor, Misappropriated 10 Million Dollars Slated For Providing Housing For Homeless

Far from being the only isolated example, most cities and towns around the US are in this same category. Rather than solving the problem, most towns and cities are still in the mode of evicting the homeless and bulldozing their tent camps, plus destroying all of their possessions. Rather than dealing with the INCREASING AND GROWING problem of hunger and homelessness, most cities and towns still seem to be denying the problem and bulldozing it under a huge rug.

Elephants are pretty hard to sweep under the rug, by the way, but many US cities and towns seem to be intent on doing just that...

UN HUMAN RIGHTS AGREEMENT

Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

 In effect, what the UN is stating is the following;

 “In the absence of proper shelter, it is the basic right of any living being to construct a temporary one.”

MUCH OF THE VIOLENCE AND DEATHS AMONG THE HOMELESS POPULATION, IS DUE TO LACK OF LEGAL ENCAMPMENTS OR HOUSING SUPPORT FROM THE CITY, COUNTY AND STATE


Camping in the woods among homeless people is common... Much of the violence committed against the homeless occurs there (or on city streets). Earlier this year two men were beaten to death, their bodies thrown into their tents and burned. This was committed by two other homeless men camping in the forest. In Camp Quixote there has never been an arrest or act of violence. 



Vagrancy is a criminal act, which makes any homeless person a criminal, just for sleeping, even if they just lost their job and had their home foreclosed on, through no fault of their own.

Begging for money or food is also a criminal act, which makes any homeless person a criminal.

Going to the bathroom anywhere is a criminal act, (due to no access to public bathrooms).

Standing or sitting anywhere for more than a few minutes is loitering, which is a legal offense.

Public intoxication is a criminal offense, but many homeless people drink and/or do drugs, because it is their only 'escape' from this desperate situation, where no one cares, and they are treated like dirt. 

Being addicted to drugs makes one a criminal, in spite of the fact that this is a disease, not a crime.

Mental illness often results in homelessness, but once there, it authorizes police to arrest anyone 'not acting right', and thus makes the mentally ill who need treatment into criminals warehoused in jails.

Veterans often suffer brain injuries, with an end result of homelessness, but this makes them criminals.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CITIES MAKE HOMELESSNESS A CRIME AND HIDE THE HOMELESS BY FORCING THEM OUT OF VIEW?


What Happens When Cities Make Homelessness a Crime: Hiding The Homeless
video: https://youtu.be/nYFeY2pS0ks 12 min.

A growing number of American cities are ticketing or arresting homeless people for essentially being homeless. The new laws ban behavior commonly associated with homelessness like reclining in public, sharing food or sitting on a sidewalk. 

Supporters argue these measures are necessary to push homeless people into the shelter system and maintain public safety. Critics say the laws violate the rights of homeless people and ignore the more complicated drivers of homelessness like mental illness.

We found homeless people camping in the woods to escape police harassment, a homelessness consultant opposed to feeding homeless people and a city that uses solitary confinement to force homeless people into shelters. 

VICE News began its investigation in Boise, ID, where a group of homeless people have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of these laws. Their case could change the way homeless people are treated across the country.

Read "New York Cops Are Now Shaming Homeless People On Social Media" - http://bit.ly/1PKH6qX

Read "San Francisco Mayor Vows to Remove City's Homeless by Super Bowl Weekend" - http://bit.ly/1Mi30iZ

LAWSUITS HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN FORCING A SOLUTION IN THE PAST, WHICH ONLY ADDS TO THE ALREADY RIDICULOUSLY HIGH COST OF IGNORING THE PROBLEM THROUGH DAMAGE AWARDS

It is a rather sad situation in the US, that a lawsuit is needed to FORCE the city or county to do it's job and protect people who have been made homeless by job loss, foreclosure or accident, among other reasons. Sacramento was forced to deal with it's homeless problem through a lawsuit, filed by Mark Merin...

A "lawsuit, Lehr et al vs. Sacramento, was brought by local civil rights lawyer Mark Merin on behalf of homeless persons and several non-profit organizations. Merin, the lead plaintiff attorney, fought for compensation for belongings of homeless people that had been illegally confiscated by city and county police. The lawsuit pressed the city and county for a way out of the policies that had been criminalizing homeless people. 

Merin states, “With the safety net long ago shredded – public housing eliminated, community mental health facilities closed – the unemployed and evicted are joining the ranks of the homeless individuals and families who drag their few belongings from one temporary camp to another as law enforcement moves them up and out in a perennial pursuit of a failed policy that promises no rest for the weary, no sanctuary for the homeless in Sacramento County.” 

Merin was recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” by the Sacramento Bar Association. The concept of having a “SafeGround” is very meaningful and important to homeless campers. The city of Sacramento, through various laws and regulations, essentially makes it a crime to be homeless, resulting in even fewer individuals succeeding in working their way out. The city’s “camping ordinance” makes it illegal for anyone to use or store camping paraphernalia on public property, in effect making it a crime to be homeless.
http://nationalhomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Tent-Cities-Report-FINAL-3-10-10.pdf

Law Office of Mark E. Merin
1010 F Street
Suite 300
Sacramento, CA 95814
T: 916-443-6911 F: 916-447-8336

UTAH ENDED HOMELESSNESS, WHY CAN'T ALL OF THE OTHER CITIES, COUNTIES AND STATES DO THAT?

Utah figured out that it was cheaper and solved many more problems by housing the homeless, and they are now at the goal of having housed their entire homeless population. If Utah can do this, so can any other city, county or state.

Utah Has Virtually Ended Chronic Homelessness By Providing People With Homes
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2015/10/utah-has-virtually-ended-chronic.html''

The surprisingly simple way Utah solved chronic homelessness and saved millions

The Road Home uses a housing first model to help solve the issues of homelessness. For some of the people staying with us, more support and services are needed to help them return to stable housing. By providing permanent supportive housing, we can reduce and even end chronic homelessness.
video; https://youtu.be/1TK8JS2QgVg 2 min.

SOLVING THE HOMELESS PROBLEM MEANS DESIGNING A SYSTEM THAT WORKS


Solving Homeless Problems In New Ways A Systems Approach
The greater Olympia and Thurston County areas have recently been addressing the homelessness problems in more thoughtful and comprehensive ways. On the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation's June 2013 TV program, three guests dispel the misunderstandings that have impaired public discussions. Our guests also lay out some of the positive new directions for helping homeless people more effectively. 

We begin with a clearer understanding of who is homeless and why. The stereotypes are not accurate. Poverty and homelessness are common also in rural areas, besides downtown. Large-scale homeless is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. People were homeless during the Great Depression of the 1930s, but from the 1940s to the mid-1970s, economic prosperity reduced the problem significantly. In the U.S., real wages started declining in about 1976.

Poverty pushes people into homelessness -- and often into mental illness. Likewise, mental illness can push people into poverty and homelessness. Both poverty and mental illness carry social stigma, which only make these problems worse and prevent people from honestly discussing their problems.
All of these factors isolate people from others and lead to loneliness and other problems, including "self-medicating" with drugs or alcohol to ease the pain or provide temporary escapes.

Local governments have traditionally focused on judging and punishing people (e.g., with local ordinances that ban homeless behaviors such as "loitering" and sitting on sidewalks and meeting their bathroom needs when they do not have access to bathrooms.

Attempts to deal with homelessness have traditionally focused on separate aspects of the problem and separate constituencies (youths, veterans, alcoholics, etc.) without seeing interrelated needs and opportunities for comprehensive problem-solving. The small amount of data collection focused mostly on inputs (e.g., numbers of bed nights and numbers of meals) rather than outcomes (e.g., numbers persons placed in stable housing situations).

Over the years, a few methods have shown real respect for human dignity. The Catholic Worker model of welcoming, nonjudgmental hospitality has persisted nationwide since the 1930s and persists in Olympia's Bread and Roses example. Also in Olympia, Camp Quixote has provided a sense of community and connection, which are just as important as a place to sleep. 

A recent new strategy in some communities to find every chronically homeless person a decent place to live as the first step, without waiting to solve other problems such as alcoholism or mental illness. 
Locally a new "rapid re-housing" effort can provide small amounts of money to re-stabilize those individuals or families and prevent homelessness and escalating problems.

Thurston County is using a new "systems approach" to relieve the confusion of a multiplicity of agencies and programs. This approach focuses a few agencies to perform certain roles, and it allows for one point of entry for single adults (SideWalk), one entry point for families (Family Support Center), and one entry point for youths (Community Youth Services). The entry agency can efficiently connect each individual with relevant resources and services.

SONOMA COUNTY HANDBOOK PROVIDES A TOOLBOX AND ROAD MAP FOR ENDING HOMELESSNESS


In the County of Sonoma Community Development Commission Handbook, entitled Building Homes, A Policy Makers Toolbox For Ending Homelessness, printed in Sept. 2015. For a copy, contact Jim Leddy, Special Projects Director, 707-565-7509 jim.leddy at sonoma-county dot org or download the PDF here; http://www.sonoma-county.org/cdc/pdf/housing_toolbox_20150901.pdf

This manual provides a roadmap for ending all homelessness, as Utah has already done and other states are doing as well. 

This roadmap includes interim housing on the way to housing all of the homeless in permanent housing within the next ten years. As the Utah model shows and proves, housing all of the homeless is cheaper, easier and reduces overall costs to the community for such things as cleaning creeks, homeless camp cleanups, reduction in vandalism, reducing law enforcement costs, reducing jail bookings, reducing jail time, and reducing citation issuances, plus medical interventions and emergency room visits. Studies have shown that solving the homeless problem is much cheaper than ignoring and denying the problem, but then having to pay for the consequences of that denial and NIMBYism.

SONOMA COUNTY INTERIM HOUSING


The Roadmap includes an interim proposal for ending homelessness in the County short term, because no one wants to wait under a bridge for ten years, as some huge project is being planned. The interim short term roadmap says; 

(pg 16)...."local government can provide free, or very low cost, safe camping and overnight parking areas, coupled with restrooms. The measures can reduce the suffering of homeless people, although those living in temporary shelters without full sanitation and food preparation facilities remain homeless by definition. Implementation of these measures would decriminalize homelessness and provide a more stable place from which homeless people could be connected with supportive services and find access to housing.

The types of temporary shelters that could be utilized as interim measures include tents, small yurts, conestoga huts, minimal tiny homes, passenger vehicles, camper shell pickups, and small RV's. The utility of these types of shelter would be limited to warmer months, unless a warming center or other source of heat is available at the site."

One example of a partially 'sanctioned' and Sonoma County supported tent encampment, (currently on county property) is Camp Michela. Of course, this camp is technically still 'illegal' and subject to arrest or ticketing by law enforcement, despite meeting the conditions above.

Many more 'safe camps' are needed, as the waiting list is huge for this camp. Camp Michela is modeled after Camp Quixote in Washington, which is self governing, has strict entry requirements and screening, plus sanitation and safety procedures.


Camp Michela
video https://youtu.be/L8P1NptifEI 2 min.

On September 10, 2015, a group of homeless individuals live in tents in a parking lot of a vacated Sonoma County Water Agency to draw attention to their plight. As of Nov. 2015, they moved to another location. Homeless Action is the group that is responsible for founding the camp.

“We cannot wait anymore,” said Carolyn Epple, an organizer with Homeless Action, based in Sonoma County. “We’ve been saying for years that we need to stop criminalizing homelessness and build more housing.....”
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4449523-181/from-santa-rosa-protest-camp

ONE DOZEN OFFICIAL AND SANCTIONED TENT CAMPS AROUND THE NATION, THE REST ARE EITHER BULLDOZED OR LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES, WITH ZERO SUPPORT FROM THE COMMUNITY

Homeless people across the United States have been developing special tent communities for their mutual support
One resident of a New Mexico community said most Americans were only one pay check away from homelessness. Some of the tent cities have developed have their own vegetable gardens and community buildings. There are more than 100 tent cities across the US, although only around a dozen of them are officially sanctioned. Authorities have cleared well-established camps this year in Honolulu; Washington, D.C.; and, most recently, Boise, Idaho....'It's become unhealthy, unsafe and really unsustainable,' Boise Mayor Dave Bieter said earlier this month when he ordered police to evict and clear a camp with some 130 dwellers.
Bottom line, people without homes and often with no hope are self organizing into tent camps, but without the legal right to do so, and without any support whatsoever from the city, county or federal government agencies/government. The first step to housing everyone in this rich nation, is to decriminalize homelessness, legalize tent camps and then to provide permanent housing as a longer term solution, as Utah did. 

What follows are the MANY potential ways of getting to the goal of decriminalizing self organized tent camps, which are then provided minimum city/county services such as trash pickup, porta potties, etc. All of the homeless can be housed. But in order to make one or more of these methods around legalized tent camps to work in anything more than a pilot project where a church has to take a huge legal risk, three things are required first.

DECRIMINALIZING HOMELESS INTERIM HOUSING SOLUTIONS REQUIRES THREE LEGS, TO MAKE A STABLE 'CHAIR' THAT HOUSES ALL OF THE HOMELESS

According to the leaders of homeless organizations, there are three legs that make up a sustainable interim housing solution; 

 1. A social agency or non profit has to be in charge and accountable, so that other community organizations will get involved, such as churches and foundations. 

 2. The solution, such as a tent encampment, has to be 'legal' and sanctioned by the city or county via one of the methods outlined below. The city or county may also contract with the social agency or with a private property owner via a master lease agreement, and a hold harmless agreement, thus resolving the legal liability end of the situation as much as possible. 

 3. The solution has be safe, which may mean hiring a security service or having on site management. If the tent camp or micro home village proves itself over time and stays free of problems where police have to be called, then the need for security may be dropped after a certain period of time.

THE MANY LEGAL WAYS OF DECRIMINALIZING THE HOMELESS AND HOUSING THE HOMELESS VIA INTERIM SOLUTIONS


There are many legal avenues to implementing this interim housing plan. The methods of decriminalizing the homeless are itemized below:

1. Federal Case Law; which mandates that churches have a fundamental constitutional right to house the homeless on their property without interference from the city, state, or federal government, even there are ordinances, zoning laws or rules against it. A church could proceed to set up an interim housing solution, get taken to court by the city and then fight it out in court to winning, because it is a basic constitutional right. Few churches have the money or will to fight in court however, so this option would be limited to an organization that has access to a no cost attorney. 
http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1368&context=law_urbanlaw

1) The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) gives religious organizations the right to utilize their property for whatever land use they deem appropriate for their religious mission. Congress passed this law citing a religious organization’s right to religious assembly. More specifically, this law enables a church or tax-exempt religious organization to usurp city and county zoning codes for purposes they deem within the purview of their religious mission. 

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act was passed by Congress on July 27, 2000, and was signed by President Clinton on September 22, 2000. Its language was drawn from a similar bill (the “Religious Liberty Protection Act”) offered in Congress in 1998 and again in 1999.

The tent city, which has moved 27 times in its two-year history, has spent much of the past year in church parking lots. Those lots became havens from the threat of city fines after officials acknowledged that federal law may be viewed as allowing churches to ignore land-use codes by insisting that welcoming the homeless is part of ministering to the poor and integral to their religious practices.

2. A Use Permit can be issued for a particular property. The limitation with this is that it is subject to neighbors complaining and having it cancelled at some point in the future. A Use Permit is expensive, and it is time consuming, so this option is also not realistic nor cost effective for most organizations that desire to house the homeless on a very low budget and in a very short time frame. 

3. A City Ordinance provides what may be one of the best overall solution to make it legal to sleep and to provide legal cover for churches or non profit organizations to set up interim housing, within certain parameters. In Washington, several cities have passed ordinances and/or judges issued consent decrees in response to lawsuits filed by churches, etc, that gave permission for homeless encampments and/or tiny home 'villages' on church  or other property. Camp Quixote is one such example of a homeless encampment that turned into a tiny homes village longer term. The cities of Seattle, Olympia, Tumwater, Lacey and Thurston County passed ordinances legalizing tent camps.

Community Homeless Assistance Program (CHAP) - On October 11, 2016, the Santa Rosa City Council approved CHAP to allow property owners to use their properties or facilities for safe parking, safe camping, the placement and maintenance of portable toilets and access to existing bathroom facilities, provision of temporary overnight shelter, and storage of personal belongings. CHAP builds upon a pilot program approved by the Council on October 2015, which ran during the winter months (November 2015 through April 2016). The new program (CHAP) allows for year-round operation and expanded activities such as safe camping under the Council’s recent action declaring a local homeless emergency in Santa Rosa. 

Tent City 3  Seattle Metropolitan Area Tent City 3 • Est. 2000 • Population: 100 • Location: Church Land / Urban Center / Mobile: 90 days • Regulatory Status: City Ordinance / Consent Decree • Funding Source: Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE) Womens Housing Equality and Enhancement League (WHEEL) • Structures: Tents raised on palates 

Tent City 4 • Est. 2006 • Population: 100 • Location: Church Land / Urban Periphery / Mobile: 90 days • Regulatory Status: Local Ordinance • Funding Source: Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE) Women’s Housing Equality and Enhancement League (WHEEL) • Structures: Tents raised on pallets 

 4. Consent Decree; As a result of a lawsuit, a judge issued a consent decree that legalized a tent encampment. In the "town of Redmond, a frequent host of TC4, recently reduced its permit cost from the standard $1,000 to $200 citing the community’s success, but was also concerned that large permitting fees could be construed as unconstitutional. Regulatory Status Tent City 3 is recognized by the City of Seattle by a consent decree issued in 2002 with SHARE/WHEEL and El Centro De La Raza. The agreement gives tent city residents the right to put their one hundred person encampment nearly anywhere in the city — a large back yard, a commercial parking lot, church property, etc — so long as certain conditions are met, such as being at least twenty feet from a neighboring lot or making sure a buffer to obscure the view is at least eight feet tall. 

When the first ordinance was passed in the town of Bellevue there was intense public concern. The first public meetings regarding the ordinance were filled with detractors. A group of concerned citizens even created a website and an organization to stop the encampment, claiming firstly that homeless deserve better- (although most of the reasons on their website referred to declining property values, safety concerns, fears of vandalism, and negative effects of having homeless people in their community). However, those fears have largely dissipated, rarely does someone challenge the permitting of the encampment, and the public hearings are now empty. Many of the churches that have hosted the encampment have done so more than once and their local communities are largely supportive. The police who were at first concerned of increased incidents are now proponents of the encampment and believe that it makes their jobs easier.

Contact: Scott Marrow (SHARE/WHEEL): 206-448-7889 Peggy Hoates (Veterans for Peace): 206-399-5458, PSHotes@aol.com 
 
Additional Resources: 

RE; Tent City 4; To read the Supreme Court Opinion, click here.
To read the Concurrence to the Supreme Court Opinion, click here.

RE; Tent City 4; Superior Court Judge Thomas Majhan signed consent decree that, in effect, overrides the land-use code. Tent encampments, he said, are used safely by the military, disaster-relief organizations and scouting groups. Majhan in September ruled that the city had erred in not issuing a permit.  

Tent Cities in America Report
http://nationalhomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Tent-Cities-Report-FINAL-3-10-10.pdf

In February, 2007, a homeless camp was established in a downtown Olympia parking lot to protest a city ordinance that forbade sitting or lying on a sidewalk. When police threatened to break up the camp, a local church offered campers sanctuary on their grounds.
The founders of Camp Quixote hoped to find land and build a village for themselves, consisting of tiny houses and a shared building that would house showers, laundry, and cooking facilities.
For the next six+ years, the camp moved from one church parking lot to another every three to six months under the terms of an ordinance that regulated it.
Panza, a non-profit organization, was created to support the camp. Panza and the camp’s Resident Council worked together to build Quixote Village.
Camp Quixote residents left their tents behind and moved into the Village on December 24, 2013.



http://quixotevillage.com


5. Existing zoning and state laws that allows these types of interim housing solutions, such as; campgrounds, transitional housing, mobile home parks, RV parks, safe parking programs and related property zoning types, which grant this type of use by RIGHT. Dignity Village is designated by the Portland City Council as a transitional housing campground, and falls under specific State building codes governing campgrounds. Homeless people would have a RIGHT to be housed, and should not be kicked out by the police, city, county or state, just because some neighbor complains, via NIMBYism. The homeless can be and are being incorporated into existing RV parks, mobile home parks, campgrounds, and rental units in a variety of ways, using the encampment ordinance, 2nd granny (interim housing) unit on private property, renting a bedroom program (with oversight by city/county or non profit, or shared housing, where a group rents a larger home using HUD vouchers for example, as part of a transitional group home, much like this model already exists for addicts, felons, etc. Tiny home villages are also part of this solution.

Safe Parking Program; decriminalizing people sleeping in their cars at selected locations
http://sonoma-county.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=382&meta_id=127205

In Sonoma County, a heartwarming safe-parking program for the homeless
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/08/local/la-me-santa-rosa-homeless-parking-20140309

Sonoma County is tweaking a novel program, launched amid last winter's freezing weather, that allows homeless people to spend the night in their cars at the county fairgrounds. The safe parking program, which started Feb. 3 and served 130 vehicles through Tuesday, proved costly for the county and for the homeless, whose average monthly income per vehicle was $912, officials said.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/1860865-181/sonoma-county-modifies-homeless-parking

Find and access safe parking locations, as well as other homeless housing resources
http://www.srcharities.org/get-help/shelter-housing

To create a homeless community on a property that is zoned for that use, the first step is to apply for a permit. If the property is zoned for camping, that permit has to be granted (by right). If the use for the property is not listed by the zoning designation, a conditional use permit must be applied for. A conditional use permit is harder to get and because it is conditional, it can be pulled away or cancelled, given enough pressure from neighbors, etc.

Providing rental housing for the homeless via partnership with rental property owners or developers

Empowering the homeless, by providing homes FIRST, and then providing support and services
Video; https://youtu.be/HyYKeOulcTs 4 min.

At Chapman Partnership we assist our residents with everything from applications, utility and security deposits to providing needed furniture, appliances and move-in supplies during their housing placement process. Housing is only one step towards the goal of a stable life, and to that end we keep in contact with former residents through follow up case management for one year. To help empower the homeless, please visit: http://bit.ly/RauUoF

California State Law SB2; The SafeGround Initiative is also exploring legal considerations arguing that a homeless Safe Ground and encampment should be permitted under California State Law SB2, which permits sitting emergency shelters, transitional housing and permanent supportive housing by right in certain zones.

The law requires that cities zone for emergency needs, and if someone comes forward and shows those needs aren’t met, then citizens have a right to set up an emergency site. A political consultant, Phil Garrizo, is working on this approach and has created maps, brochures, and PowerPoint presentations for the task force of possible sites that would work within this regulation. The SafeGround Initiative is also working closely with Legal Services of Northern California to assure that the legal rights of homeless persons are protected.
http://nationalhomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Tent-Cities-Report-FINAL-3-10-10.pdf

An exciting milestone in the movement to legalize Tiny Houses has recently taken place. The California Building Standards Code changes that were adopted last summer took effect on January 1st, 2017. This means that all counties are required by State law to enforce the 2016 Edition of California Building Standards Codes (a.k.a. Title 24 or the California Code of Regulations). According to International Code Council (ICC) and California Building Standards Commission (http://www.bsc.ca.gov/Codes.aspx) all Jay Shafer's designs meet codes and requirements for a house on wheels or a house on a foundation.
https://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/bsc/title_24/t24trainingguide.pdf

MICRO EMERGENCY HOUSING SOLUTION

Artist builds pint sized portable homes for those sleeping on the streets; it at least gets them off the ground and out of the weather
Video; https://youtu.be/i_DlPN9gkBY 2 min.

An American artist has decided to throw his talent and skill into helping poor people in rich California. Read More: http://on.rt.com/kj9wyd

Helping Homeless: Artist comes up with micro housing solution in California; Cost? $30 to $50 per tiny home on wheels, built out of recycled materials illegally dumped in the city. 

6. Rezoning; A property can be rezoned from another zoning designation, although this takes time, energy and money.

Fresno didn’t want to fill up its jail with the whole encampment and homeless people in camp wanted to do something to keep the encampment by partnering with a non-profit. Poverello had just purchased a piece of land next to the center and the area was re-zoned by the city as a campground, which relaxed its building code requirements of having running water, weather-safe materials, fixed sanitation and other building code enforcement requirements.
http://nationalhomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Tent-Cities-Report-FINAL-3-10-10.pdf

Infinity Shelter provides MICRO HOMES for the homeless; one door, one window, makes a huge and positive difference
Video; https://youtu.be/rQR0LijbeLo 1 min.

Infinity Village is the first of its kind in Nashville, joining a national trend of homeless housing solutions through micro-home villages.

7. More zoning laws can be developed along with certain areas designated as legal interim housing zones, with a basic RIGHT to have these types of housing on a particular property for areas around churches for example, which would give them a RIGHT to have a tent encampment, or other interim housing solution on their property, just like an RV park has a right to have RV's in it, subject to certain conditions. A city or county can pass a temporary waiver, exemption or pass an experimental carve out to specific rules, laws or ordinances in specific places in order to give a pilot housing project a chance and see if it works. A two year trial period would be sufficient to give a specific solution sufficient time to work out the bugs, and give neighbors as well as the community time to really investigate it and see if it works. After two years, the pilot project could be made official and have a specific law, rule, ordinance or carve out made permanent.

8. Waive Building Code; A Homeless Housing Design And Build Competition could be part of an experimental pilot project (with waiver of certain  building codes, requirements, fees/etc.) that a city or county could use to come up with a solution that would work and could be duplicated later on in larger numbers, once a specific design has been awarded the best design, and then decided on. Tiny homes or very inexpensive permanent homes built using very creative low cost methods and materials is one possibility. The cost of homes for the homeless and what they can afford to purchase and/or rent, should be calculated based on the lowest income of that population, not on the median or middle income of the community.

For example, a competition could be held on a specific piece of city or county land to see who could build the most affordable house under 120 to 1,000 square feet, with the most recycled and/or local materials and the most sustainable design.

This competition could also be held to build micro or mini homes in a specific area, usually city or county land that can be devoted to housing the homeless. The city and/or county could waive fees, building code requirements, and more in order to facilitate the fast construction and lower cost, with a goal of housing the homeless. For more on low cost housing, with a goal of getting everyone into a permanent shelter that is owned, click on.....

Housing The Homeless Children Challenge; Why Can't They All Be Sheltered For $2.00 Per Day, Per Person, In Tiny Homes? HUD Study On Tiny Homes As Solution For Homeless Housing
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2015/02/2015-housing-homeless-children.html


9. Human Rights Law; the basic right to exist as a human being free from police arrest, harassment should be in the Constitution of each city, county, state and country. It should not be illegal to sleep in a public place, just because there is a failure by the community to address it's homeless problem. Every town, city and county can pass an ordinance that mirrors the language of the UN Human Rights Declaration;

Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
10. Sanctioning; Any local town, city, county or state can provide a way to sanction whatever solution is required. Initially, even without passing any emergency declaration or ordinance, the city or county can 'sanction' something. The city and county of Santa Rosa are sanctioning Camp Mikela for example. This camp is not 'legal', but the city and county are providing supportive services and/or are not 'evicting' the camp from the present county owned property. This is a good first step in 'sanctioning' homeless solutions. 

 As a second step, sanctioning can mean that a building code can be waived, or an ordinance such as vagrancy can be exempted. A specific example is that a building code can be passed allowing 'experimental' housing solutions, such as tent camps or other interim housing solutions that will shelter the homeless on the way to providing permanent housing. 

 This tool can easily be combined with another tool, such as an emergency declaration. If all 'illegal' tent camps are made legal by a sanctioning of them, then the community can work on providing needed services such as tents, warming method, garbage collection, porta pottis, as well as other supportive services. 
Tent camp locations would obviously have to be moved in many cases to locations that are acceptable to the community after the initial 'legalization' mandating that all homeless have a RIGHT to sleep somewhere without being made into criminals. The goal to house all of the homeless can be accomplished quickly. All of the homeless can be safely sheltered LEGALLY, with SUPPORT, in acceptable locations. 

11. LOCAL Emergency Disaster Declaration; People treat their animals better than fellow human beings. Why do animals all get shelter, food, heat, sanitation, medical care and more, but humans get NOTHING? With more people dying homeless in the cold each year than die from terrorist attacks in the US, what is REALLY needed is an Emergency Disaster Declaration on a local, state or federal level, by the government. A mayor, city council or board of supervisors could initiate and ask for the state to approve an emergency declaration due to the cold weather and 'emergency situation' of thousands of people. 

PewTrust; "Hawaii, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have all declared states of emergency, using the proclamations as a way to loosen up funds or bypass ordinances to take swifter action.....But the emergency declarations represent a new approach. One motivation is to publicize the problem, but officials say the declarations are more than a public relations gambit and will lead to big changes for the homeless in their cities.

“It has created a sense of emergency, and it describes the situation because we’re in a crisis. We’re galvanizing attention and getting the resources we need to address the problem,” said Greg Spiegel, homelessness policy director for the mayor of Los Angeles, Democrat Eric Garcetti.

12. Emergency Order; The next step once the emergency declaration is made, is for the local mayor, city council and/or board of supervisors to declare an emergency order. With this order, city, county and/or state resources such as warehouses, abandoned buildings, or unused facilities such as empty motels, hotels or other resources can be itemized and used in a very fast fashion, which is REQUIRED in an emergency situation that is being faced by the US at this point. 

For more specific information and links to actual emergency declarations by various cities, click on;

Local Proclamation Of Emergency Orders Or Civil Emergency Filed By Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, And Hawaii To Address Growing Homeless Crisis

HOSPITALS, PRISONS AND JAILS ARE A VERY EXPENSIVE SOLUTION FOR HOUSING THE HOMELESS AND MENTALLY ILL; $5,000 PER MONTH, $50,000 PER YEAR OR MORE, PER PERSON


The lack of housing, bathrooms, food, or other social services, is not an excuse to criminalize and jail the homeless, but is rather, an abject failure of our communities to address the needs of our neighbors.

US Incarceration Rate, Prison Mistakes, Prison Reform, Restorative Justice As Alternative, Decarcaration
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/prison-mistakes-prison-reform.html

There are over 1.2 million people in federal and state prisons in the US as of 2014, and another 750,000 in county jails, for a total of almost 2 million people, not including city jail populations. 

Thom talks with Truthout’s Editor-in-Chief Maya Schenwar, author of “Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better.”

Among western civilized nations, the US has by far, the highest incarceration rate of any of them. There is something VERY WRONG with this picture.

TOTAL COST OF $50 PER MONTH, PER PERSON, PROVIDES INTERIM HOUSING - HOUSING THE HOMELESS IN INTERIM TENT CITY COSTS $5,000 PER MONTH, PER 100 PEOPLE, WHICH IS MUCH CHEAPER THAN HOSPITALS AND $5,000 PER MONTH FOR 1 PERSON IN JAIL


SHARE / WHEEL pay the bills for the communities, which usually amounts to $4,000 - $6,000 a month for each tent-city. The largest part of those expenses are for utilities (sewage removal: $1,800; garbage and dump fees: $1,200) and bus tickets for the residents ($1,100). SHARE / WHEEL receives donations for the tent cities from organizations, individuals, and Tent City residents and volunteers. churches – sometimes the hosting church and its congregates will make a large donation when the tent city visits and others are regular contributors. While SHARE / WHEEL receive government money and contracts for their shelters they do not specifically receive money for the tent cities. SHARE / WHEEL do use a portion of its FEMA emergency shelter grant on the tent cities.
http://nationalhomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Tent-Cities-Report-FINAL-3-10-10.pdf

Conservatives love to conserve government money and not waste it on boondoggle 'huge government' projects. One reason Utah housed all of their homeless is that Conservatives figured out that conserving community resources was the best solution. It was much cheaper to house everyone and pay for it that way, than to pay orders of magnitude more by ignoring the problem and wishing it would go away. Ignoring the homeless problem and paying for jails, police, hospitals, and emergency treatment ended up being MUCH more expensive than just taking care of the problem and caring for their homeless neighbors.

The cost of the Lubbock Texas county jail is $65 per day, or $1,950 per month, PER PERSON... not counting any other costs, such as police, mental health emergencies, court, emergency room visits, vandalism, injuries to self or others, etc. The average community pays $40,000 per year per homeless person on the street. That cost goes way down when secure, safe, sanitary housing is provided, to an average of $15,000 per year. As a taxpayer, which choice is better? Which choice conserves more taxpayer money and resources that can be utilized for other needs?
Housing First; An End To Chronic Homelessness
video https://youtu.be/Dal6RuJc2t4?t=4m

There is plenty of money to conduct war, but there is supposedly no money to take care of our own US citizens, who are brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, veterans, fathers, mothers, and children.

The United States would have to cut its military spending by 95% to match the average of the other 95% of humanity on Earth, if the spending is compared per-capita.

The US would have to cut military spending by 99.5% to equal the spending on military by all other nations on Earth.
Source; Green Shadow Govt.
 For more on this, click on

US Military Budget And Top Secret "Black Budgets" Keep Growing, Money Cannot Be Accounted For, 6.5 TRILLION Dollars Missing From Secret CIA, NSA, NGIA

COST OF PERMANENT TINY HOMES FOR THE HOMELESS CAN BE AS LOW AS $2.00 PER DAY, PER PERSON


For more information and in depth successful examples of tiny home communities around the nation, click on...

Housing The Homeless Children Challenge; Why Can't They All Be Sheltered For $2.00 Per Day, Per Person, In Tiny Homes? HUD Study On Tiny Homes As Solution For Homeless Housing
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2015/02/2015-housing-homeless-children.html

The Power Of Simplicity; How Simple And Small Is Beautiful - Tiny Homes Movement
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-power-of-simplicity-why-and-how.html



Credit/source Occupy Democrats

What an excellent idea.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/1O7vWLk

CHEAP SHELTERS AND HOUSING
Thousands of IKEA Flat-Pack Shelters Have Gone to Refugees in 2015
https://www.yahoo.com/realestate/thousands-ikea-flatpack-shelters-gone-223333029.html

Tiny-Home Village in Dallas Aims to Revolutionize Homeless Care
https://www.yahoo.com/realestate/tiny-home-village-in-dallas-1322025837772854.html

WHY BUILDING MORE SHELTERS WON'T WORK TO HOUSE THE HOMELESS


If you interview anyone who is homeless, they will almost universally agree on one thing; they don't like shelters. Why? Shelters are usually designed to cram a large number of people into a small space, so no one has any privacy. Noise, smells, bed bugs and germs are common, and in an interview with one resident of a tent camp, he said that he preferred a tent to the shelter because he got sick every time he spent any time in a shelter, where the tent camp did not generate that kind of issue for him.

Ownership is important to anyone, including the homeless. Owning a tent, a micro home or a mini home is an important element for making a person feel like a member of a community that has value and meaning. Putting a person temporarily into an emergency shelter  or ware house situation offers little value or meaning. In a shelter, a person feels like a cog in a large machine, who will be tossed out as soon as the weather warms up, or if some minor rule is violated. There is little or no sense of belonging or community in shelter situation.

Creating a community feeling is important, and an emergency shelter does not generate a feeling of community. Because everyone is temporary, and no one has 'rights' to be there long term, there is no stability, no feeling of belonging, and no sense of community building. By contrast, a tent camp  or mini home village where residents are governing themselves DOES build that community feeling of belonging, value and meaning.

THERE IS PLENTY OF MONEY TO HOUSE AND FEED ALL US CITIZENS, EXCEPT FOR THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, WHICH IS PRETENDING THAT THE COLD WAR IS NOT OVER

Why is there always enough money to hurt and kill other people and US vets, but never enough to help hurting and injured people (including US vets) here at home?



Source/credit The Bitchy Pundit

Many of the homeless are veterans, who fought and got injured in wars that created a huge amount of debt. But now they are left ignored, forgotten and despised, just because they are homeless. Combine the huge number of homeles veterans and the 2.5 million homeless children, and what do you get? Maybe it is a recipe for transferring some of that 'entitlement' money from the military and using it to house American citizens instead...

RELATED ARTICLES


Benjamin Franklin; For Want Of A Nail, The War Was Lost Story
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2014/11/benjamin-franklin-for-want-of-nail-war.html

The Power Of A Thought; One Person Moving A Single Small Step, Or Taking A Small Action Like Tiny Homes, Or Micro Lending Can Result In The Butterfly Effect

Carl Sagan; A Pale Blue Dot - A Dust Mote In A Sun Beam - Who Will Save Us From Ourselves? via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2013/07/carl-sagan-pale-blue-dot-dust-mote-in.html

Eternal Life And Lessons From The Tallest, Largest, Oldest Life On Earth; The Redwood Tree
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2014/11/eternal-life-and-amazing-lessons-from.html




Credit/Source We Are Humanity

BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO SOLVING THE PROBLEM AND HELPING THE HOMELESS




Go deeper.....

33 Biblical Verses That Mandate Helping The Homeless And Solving The Homeless Emergency Crisis; No Root Cause Solution Means A Permanent Untouchables Caste System Just Like India


SUMMARY

All of the pieces are in place to solve the homeless issue, which has been getting worse for many years now.. Let's solve the problem, by implementing the interim housing measures first and getting everyone out and away from the bridges, fields, alleys, underpasses and creeks where the homeless live alone and where they are vulnerable to the predators in society.

Every city can and should pass ordinances like the one that governed Camp Quixote in Washington, making sleeping in public places legal, and for the city/county to provide minimal support services, such as garbage, sanitation and social services. The many existing and illegal homeless camps can be legalized and be provided basic, minimum support services in every city.

It should not be illegal to be human and without a temporary or permanent home. In small tent or other interim housing style camps, small communities develop where people protect and support one another. In Sonoma County, an average of 30 homeless people die every year because nothing is done for them, just in Sonoma County alone. Camp Michela and the Washington encampment model serves as a model for how housing the homeless can be done. The tiny homes movement is another example of solving this problem at low cost. Let's get it done. 

SEE: http://www.sonomacountyhomeless.org/resource_guide.php to access homeless resources and contact information for homeless service providers in Sonoma County.

In the Philippines, there is no homeless problem. In Cuba, there is no homeless problem. In Germany, there is no homeless problem. European Union countries are considered to have among the most socially advanced housing policies in the world. Among developing nations, countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Senegal, Singapore, and Tunisia are praised for their efforts. In Brazil, for example, cities such as Fortaleza, Recife, Porto Allegre, Santo Andre, and several others are considered to have quite effective housing programs. And in post-apartheid South Africa, much progress has been made in making housing policies more favorable to the poor.
http://www.share-international.org/archives/homelessness/hl-mlaroof.htm

In the very conservative state of Utah, there is no homeless problem anymore, because they figured out it was much cheaper and better for their community if they did not have homeless people with no support wandering around their community, doing desperate things just to survive, with zero support being provided for them. If these countries and the state of Utah can take care of this social issue, why can't the richest country on Earth do the same? 

Tourists and visitors coming to the US see the hypocrisy of a supposedly Christian nation, which ignores and/or criminalizes the poorest of their poor people, many of them also being Christian. 

HAVING A SAFE AND SECURE SHELTER  SHOULD BE A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT IN THE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH, EVEN IF A PERSON HAS NO MONEY

America treats their animals better than homeless people. Lost pets are taken to the shelter and given free housing, medical care and have all of their other needs taken care of. These shelters work hard to provide permanent loving homes for these pets. Why can't the same basic compassion and empathy that we show animals be extended to our fellow human beings, many of whom are honored veterans of war?

“In the absence of proper shelter, it is the basic right of any living being to construct a temporary one.”

This simple UN HUMAN RIGHTS statement can and should be translated into a basic RIGHT for homeless camps to exist and for cities to provide basic services to them, in order for them to have sanitary, safe and secure housing in their self built or city provided shelters. Instead of fighting the self organized homeless tent camps, cities and counties need to support them and find ways to help that camp make the next step up the housing ladder. Destroying or bulldozing the bottom of the housing ladder does not solve the problem. An emergency declaration is the easiest and fastest way to deal with is emergency situation, where more people are dying each year than from terrorist attacks.


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