Housing for the homeless....Lifeark

[Vine Abider]

2 hours ago, FJK said:

This is not a bad idea at all, but I've always been of a mind that dealing with the cause of the problem is better than dealing with the symptoms of it.

There will still be no worthwhile place in the world for these people, one that makes them valuable to both themselves and the world they live in.

When I was young, anybody with only a "strong back and a weak mind" could make a living and raise a family on his own because there was both a need and a place for him in the world, but that place was eliminated leaving those in that category unneeded and with no place in the world other than becoming a nuisance living on the streets.

So what to do about that?  Because that is where the root problem lies, where the useless people are being created by the world around them, why they've been squeezed out of a formerly worthwhile place in life.

IMO.

For many years I've been associated with a local nonprofit that is solely about helping homeless and disadvantaged find decent jobs.  Their main office is in a downtown complex that is the central hub for homeless/disadvantaged services.  If someone going to any of these other agencies expresses a desire to work, they send them to this particular agency.  Their current success rate of finding a job for those who are willing and able is now close to 90%!

Of course there are many who are either not able or not willing to work . . . I've heard figures that this number is around 65-70% of the homeless.

At the brothers' breakfast yesterday I was talking with a dear brother who is a retired police detective.  He said he has spent countless hours talking with homeless folks.  He said that a very large number are actually there by choice.  He said when he would offer compassion or to provide some help he was told many times, "Look, you think you can help me and that you're better than me.  But I actually like what I'm doing and choose to be here - I get free food, free housing and lots of other things free.  So please just leave me alone!"

That actually surprised me, hearing that he felt this was the case with most he'd talked to!  But that seems to be pretty much inline with the figures I've heard. So isn't this one of the main takeaways: If you just throw more money at it, the problem will just continue to increase?

[FJK]

9 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

So isn't this one of the main takeaways: If you just throw more money at it, the problem will just continue to increase?

Money really doesn't cause or solve any problems except an actual basic lack of money (and that's in the overall economy and doesn't address individuals who have no money have gotten into that situation because they have no idea how to handle things like budgets and earnings.)

There is something I call personality types, having a mind and driving desire for certain things and not for others, that drives the place we find ourselves in during out lives.

This is actually a complex subject in its own right but let me give a simplistic example and how social/cultural conditions act on them.

Look at the classic example of three different people born having a driving desire to cut flesh.  One might become a surgeon, one a butcher and another a psychopathic serial killer, each expressing that desire in a different way according to their abilities and where they fit in.

Now take away the position of, say, Butcher.  Where do those that would have become butchers go to fit in?

Not the best example, of course, but an easy one and one that anyone can think about, and it shows how those on the street have ended up there instead of in a productive position that gives meaning to their lives.  There is simply no place where they actually fit in anymore, they're squeezeouts, squeezed out of any place to lead a fulfilling life because we no longer need their type to fill the spaces they used to fill because we eliminated those spaces.

Obviously, a great deal could be discussed about this but that would take a great deal of time and not be the place for a simple internet forum.

My basic premise here is that it is better to create both square and round holes than it is to just have round holes and try to hammer all square pegs that come along into them.  The homeless on the streets are, for a large part, square pegs in a world intent on getting rid of square holes they can fit into.

 

[Debp]

14 hours ago, Neighbor said:

Looks much like a porta potty to me;  BUT if one doesn't have even a porta potty  it is likely much appreciated!

No, that isn't the complex I saw on the news.

The complex shown on the news looked like a regular low rise apartment building.   It was quite attractive!!!

An architect who designed many high rises in Asia is designing them.

They also have running water and facilities.   I don't recall where the complex is, but I think it was around here.

[Debp]

Here is a page from Lifeark that shows several types of housing they build.

If you click on "housing types", it also shows permanent type housing such as I mentioned.... looks like apartment buildings.   One design is even two stories.

https://lifeark.net/housing-types

[Debp]

15 hours ago, Alive said:

Something like this was inevitable. Very interesting.

The key will be sewage and potable water infrastructure to support it.

Kinda like the mini house industry, which is booming.

The complex I saw on the news is like an apartment building.  It had running water and facilities.   

One lady was so happy to have running water.

They design several types of housing including permanent buildings.

https://lifeark.net/housing-types

[Sower]

17 hours ago, Debp said:

With the housing shortage and high rents here, I wish they would build these for seniors, too.

Some pretty neat things have been going on similar here in Texas.
Started by a man who first began a ministry of mobile food pantry called 'Mobile Loaves and Fishes'.
It has expanded somewhat to now provide mini houses many many of the homeless, and they work to pay their own way.
It evolved since the 1990's to what it is today. Vids below present the how and why of development. Really cool.

Copy paste, or highlight and open in new window.

https://mlf.org/community-first/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFshGln9oDo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ife7WbktJYM

 

[Neighbor]

Very interesting developments for sure in minimum residential use building codes. We (Spouse and myself) have considered tiny home community development plus sustainable food  supply systems, but to be quite honest I don't think I have the  energy left in me. 

And to be quite blunt dealing with (some) tenants in today's world is a real pain, and at times highly risky to one's employees and self. Every landlord is going to face violence of a sort at some point.

Operating what will too quickly become a slum of mini dwellings will also be a local police department nightmare. The problem is more than being poor of financial capability it is one of being poor of ability to behave civilly within one's immediate surroundings.

With a couple of wonderful exceptions over the few decades of apartment ownership, every time I tried to help out individuals in trouble financially I also ended up taking on a behavioral problem that adversely affected all my other tenants!

The problem of affordable housing will not be solved by shrinking living space per person to an uncomfortably small area per person and crowding them into a tiny geographic area.  That instead will amplify the dangers to all individuals residents service people and management/owners.

Providing subsidies to families to move into homes has not worked well either, for as our local police department stated the family moving in may be wonderful, but they will bring their friends  into the neighborhood who are not so wonderful and crime will enter your neighborhood.

Sounds like an awful attitude I know, but it is what happens. The poor will always be with us, our Lord has told us that, and we do have obligation to help out  under certain conditions. That does require monetary assets be spent by each  family helping their own first. Yes kinda like being the Walton family  tale with multi generations under a roof. It takes sacrificial love, for many love extended in the name of our lord Jesus.

That is my take on the overall situation. "Incoming!"

 

 

[FJK]

1 hour ago, Neighbor said:

......... but to be quite honest I don't think I have the  energy left in me. 

If it is in God's will for you to do this, you will have the energy to do it.

When God wills you to do a thing, he will make sure you have what is needed to do it.

Remember Desert Pete, have faith and believe.

[Neighbor]

5 hours ago, FJK said:

If it is in God's will for you to do this, you will have the energy to do it.

When God wills you to do a thing, he will make sure you have what is needed to do it.

Remember Desert Pete, have faith and believe.

Hi, Perhaps but; there comes a time to pass the torch. God provides replacements too, don't want to be a hinderance to that either.

[Dennis1209]

As previously mentioned, throwing money at a symptom has never cured anything. Still, it creates additional problems: Namely, unappreciated generational dependence, entitlement mentality, Section 8 housing, gangs, neighborhood flight, lower tax base, high crime rates, etc. Government(s) are not the cure, but the problem, usurping a function of the church and communities.

Also implied was a utopian socialist society. There are no free lunches and circuses, and increasing taxes to support government socialist initiatives decreases a family’s ability to provide for themselves and reduces the initiative to work hard to save and get ahead.

Who would debate whether these people passing these useless programs do not want the homeless in or around where they live? Suffice only two of dozens of examples, Martha’s Vinyard and bussing illegal aliens to the politician’s dwellings and territory. Has anyone witnessed Los Angeles, Seattle, and other sanctuary cities and the degradation?

They have tried different forms, but every public housing project and public assistance program has led to waste, fraud, inefficiency, and failure.

I could ramble on about the remedial judgments of a society mocking and removing God from the law, calling good evil and evil good. As quoted previously, the poor will remain until Christ rules.

John 12:8 (KJV) For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.