How to fix the Homeless problem..

[benuck621]

I live in the Austin Texas area and not to long ago the City Counsel decided they would allow the homeless to erect tents seemingly where ever they want. I have had this idea floating around in my head every time I roll up the window before passing a homeless guy holding up a sign. I have a serious problem giving to someone who I know will spend it on drugs and is basically asking for money with out providing any value to society. Now before anyone gets all preachy, I was homeless as a kid and I know what its like to go hungry and the only cure is not to be a victim....

Here's the Idea: for a mere $37.45 you can purchase a cooler with wheels, a bag of ice and a case of water. Now imagine that same guy holding a sign saying "I don't want to be homeless anymore, Water $2.00!"
I want to go buy like 5 coolers and distribute them and see what happens.
I'd imagine for one successful guy it could really shed light to the problem that homelessness can only be solved by giving the population a trade or something they work for. The pride that could be generated after the first day of sales could be the shot someone really needs.

Here are the problems I see coming:
-Some of the homeless population is struggling with drug addiction and mental health issues - Might have issues with dedication and making change doing it for more than a day etc...
-City counsel might issue fines because they wouldn't have business licenses (biggest hypocrisy in history) and could make their situation worse.
- Competition could become violent, I don't want any one getting hurt because "that's my corner"
-could be a dumb idea and just sounds good in my head, Ya'll Tell me what you think cuz I'm Stupid enough to try........

 

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[Bekit]

I live in the Austin Texas area and not to long ago the City Counsel decided they would allow the homeless to erect tents seemingly where ever they want. I have had this idea floating around in my head every time I roll up the window before passing a homeless guy holding up a sign. I have a serious problem giving to someone who I know will spend it on drugs and is basically asking for money with out providing any value to society. Now before anyone gets all preachy, I was homeless as a kid and I know what its like to go hungry and the only cure is not to be a victim....

Here's the Idea: for a mere $37.45 you can purchase a cooler with wheels, a bag of ice and a case of water. Now imagine that same guy holding a sign saying "I don't want to be homeless anymore, Water $2.00!"
I want to go buy like 5 coolers and distribute them and see what happens.
I'd imagine for one successful guy it could really shed light to the problem that homelessness can only be solved by giving the population a trade or something they work for. The pride that could be generated after the first day of sales could be the shot someone really needs.

Here are the problems I see coming:
-Some of the homeless population is struggling with drug addiction and mental health issues - Might have issues with dedication and making change doing it for more than a day etc...
-City counsel might issue fines because they wouldn't have business licenses (biggest hypocrisy in history) and could make their situation worse.
- Competition could become violent, I don't want any one getting hurt because "that's my corner"
-could be a dumb idea and just sounds good in my head, Ya'll Tell me what you think cuz I'm Stupid enough to try........

I've put a fair amount of thought into solving homelessness.

The bigger issue I see with this plan is that the homeless person needs to change their mindset first.

I just ran across this video that I posted in another thread where a guy was homeless but then he changed his mindset. He got off the script. He started seeing and implementing solutions for himself. Now, he's on a nice little 5-acre homestead that he thinks he'll pay off in the next 5 years.

MINDSET - Guy was homeless. He got off the script, and then this happened...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uooo6PJvnQ This randomly popped up in my youtube recommendations. Sounds like the guy was solidly on the script (and homeless), but he got some classes that gave him a new mindset. First, he built a skillset that would allow him to bring in a regular...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

If you were homeless, you'd get $37.45 together to get yourself that cooler, ice, and a pack of water to sell. And you'd very quickly not be homeless anymore because you'd innovate further if that strategy didn't pull in the results you wanted.

But that kind of thing is already available for every homeless person out there. Even if they don't think of this exact idea, there's SO many other ways that they could hustle, stand out from the pack, and get themselves into a better place. Why aren't they doing it?

-could be a dumb idea and just sounds good in my head, Ya'll Tell me what you think cuz I'm Stupid enough to try........

All that said, it wouldn't hurt to validate it. Talk to a few homeless people. Run it buy them. "Would you do this, if it was available?" Some people wouldn't.

If I was going to try it, I'd maybe create some hoops to jump through so that you don't hand out the coolers to "just anyone." Maybe make candidates go through an application process or something to get to work with you. Maybe sell them on the idea first. Maybe it comes with mindset coaching. I don't know. There are a lot of ways to go about it.

Hard to think of a way you could "do this wrong." What do you have to lose? If it doesn't work, they were already homeless anyway. If it does work, maybe you're onto something.

 

[benuck621]

I've put a fair amount of thought into solving homelessness.

The bigger issue I see with this plan is that the homeless person needs to change their mindset first.

I just ran across this video that I posted in another thread where a guy was homeless but then he changed his mindset. He got off the script. He started seeing and implementing solutions for himself. Now, he's on a nice little 5-acre homestead that he thinks he'll pay off in the next 5 years.

MINDSET - Guy was homeless. He got off the script, and then this happened...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uooo6PJvnQ This randomly popped up in my youtube recommendations. Sounds like the guy was solidly on the script (and homeless), but he got some classes that gave him a new mindset. First, he built a skillset that would allow him to bring in a regular...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

If you were homeless, you'd get $37.45 together to get yourself that cooler, ice, and a pack of water to sell. And you'd very quickly not be homeless anymore because you'd innovate further if that strategy didn't pull in the results you wanted.

But that kind of thing is already available for every homeless person out there. Even if they don't think of this exact idea, there's SO many other ways that they could hustle, stand out from the pack, and get themselves into a better place. Why aren't they doing it?



All that said, it wouldn't hurt to validate it. Talk to a few homeless people. Run it buy them. "Would you do this, if it was available?" Some people wouldn't.

If I was going to try it, I'd maybe create some hoops to jump through so that you don't hand out the coolers to "just anyone." Maybe make candidates go through an application process or something to get to work with you. Maybe sell them on the idea first. Maybe it comes with mindset coaching. I don't know. There are a lot of ways to go about it.

Hard to think of a way you could "do this wrong." What do you have to lose? If it doesn't work, they were already homeless anyway. If it does work, maybe you're onto something.

I thought about the vetting process and I don't have the funds to just hand out coolers and water to anyone willy nilly, I'm not Oprah lol
I think I'm going to start with one this weekend as a test and see how it goes. I have a few places to start. My biggest goal is to change a mindset and get the word out that there is hope in hard work.

Future goals include getting the City Counsel to start a program for homeless where they waive business license fees, provide training and stop ignoring the issues in ways of decriminalization.

I just finished Henry Ford's autobiography and its insane how his view on work is applicable a 100 years later.

more to follow....

 

[Sanj Modha]

Here's my thoughts on this...

1 - Avoid gentrification. If this pandemic has taught us anything its that startups don't need to work from San Francisco. They build remote apps and services so why are we concentrated in any city? Working from home produces higher productivity and its better for the planet too (less CO2 emissions associated with traveling).

2 - Pay people a living not a minimum wage. Most people are ambitious and they WANT to work plus corporations can afford it. Don't believe the lies that they can't - look at the board vs average employee pay ratios. All the money goes to the top.

Smaller enterprises with 250 or fewer employees should be given tax rebates or cash incentives to hire more people and pay better wages. There's a net benefit to this with lower federal welfare costs and employees are assets. They help to build better societies and they drive capitalism which benefits us all.

3 - Rent control doesn't work. They tried it in NYC and if you want more information about why it failed - listen to the Freakonomics podcast. They ran an episode on it.

4 - Build more affordable housing. Society doesn't need mansions and expensive condos for every citizen. Look at current technologies in mobile homes, homes on the water, and sustainable living - it's quite revolutionary.

5 - Homeless people aren't stupid. Give them skills training to build a business or find another job. There might be a global pandemic but some sectors are booming and they need more employees.

I'm not anti-capitalist. I'm a globalist but we need to focus on social capitalism because it doesn't need to be a race to the bottom.

 

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[James90]

I live in the Austin Texas area and not to long ago the City Counsel decided they would allow the homeless to erect tents seemingly where ever they want. I have had this idea floating around in my head every time I roll up the window before passing a homeless guy holding up a sign. I have a serious problem giving to someone who I know will spend it on drugs and is basically asking for money with out providing any value to society. Now before anyone gets all preachy, I was homeless as a kid and I know what its like to go hungry and the only cure is not to be a victim....

Here's the Idea: for a mere $37.45 you can purchase a cooler with wheels, a bag of ice and a case of water. Now imagine that same guy holding a sign saying "I don't want to be homeless anymore, Water $2.00!"
I want to go buy like 5 coolers and distribute them and see what happens.
I'd imagine for one successful guy it could really shed light to the problem that homelessness can only be solved by giving the population a trade or something they work for. The pride that could be generated after the first day of sales could be the shot someone really needs.

Here are the problems I see coming:
-Some of the homeless population is struggling with drug addiction and mental health issues - Might have issues with dedication and making change doing it for more than a day etc...
-City counsel might issue fines because they wouldn't have business licenses (biggest hypocrisy in history) and could make their situation worse.
- Competition could become violent, I don't want any one getting hurt because "that's my corner"
-could be a dumb idea and just sounds good in my head, Ya'll Tell me what you think cuz I'm Stupid enough to try........

I was pondering about this the other day as well. Here in Hawaii, we have a huge homeless problem as well. The faucet never stops, because other States ships they're homeless here as well.

Now I have no idea how city employment policies work... But

If you exclude the ones that aren't willing and able to work (severe drug addiction, mental illness/handicap)

You'll have a group that wants to work, but what types of barriers do they need to overcome just to be employed? (at the same time competing with other fully qualified candidates)

• Home address?
• Proper hygiene
• Handicap
• Lack of access to transportation
• Ones with young children (no child care)
• Bad Credit
• Criminal History
• Marketable job skills

Then they finally landed a job, Hawaii's minimum salary (20K). Having to locate affordable housing as well. (Hawaii's low income caps off at $67,500)

A combination of geographic location, political & economic setting can create a perfect storm that can seemingly look irreversible.


I turned my attention to Vietnam, my home country. A more free-market economy.

Significantly more poverty... The only difference is that the willing and able homeless have way more opportunities to make a living on their own.

The main difference I've seen... (I have no idea what labor laws are like over there)

• Businesses can just hire anybody off the street for a day's work
• Especially in large cities, there's an opportunity to make money (ex. reselling packs of gum to tourists, selling lottery tickets, Roadside barber shops, shoeshine, etc..)
  I have never heard of any operators receiving a fine for no business license
• Lower cost of living
• The culture (People there are extremely hard workers and It's very frowned upon to get free-handouts)

I suppose the system can work against a fragmented group of people sometimes...

 

[Deleted50669]

Here's my thoughts on this...

1 - Avoid gentrification. If this pandemic has taught us anything its that startups don't need to work from San Francisco. They build remote apps and services so why are we concentrated in any city? Working from home produces higher productivity and its better for the planet too (less CO2 emissions associated with traveling).

2 - Pay people a living not a minimum wage. Most people are ambitious and they WANT to work plus corporations can afford it. Don't believe the lies that they can't - look at the board vs average employee pay ratios. All the money goes to the top.

Smaller enterprises with 250 or fewer employees should be given tax rebates or cash incentives to hire more people and pay better wages. There's a net benefit to this with lower federal welfare costs and employees are assets. They help to build better societies and they drive capitalism which benefits us all.

3 - Rent control doesn't work. They tried it in NYC and if you want more information about why it failed - listen to the Freakonomics podcast. They ran an episode on it.

4 - Build more affordable housing. Society doesn't need mansions and expensive condos for every citizen. Look at current technologies in mobile homes, homes on the water, and sustainable living - it's quite revolutionary.

5 - Homeless people aren't stupid. Give them skills training to build a business or find another job. There might be a global pandemic but some sectors are booming and they need more employees.

I'm not anti-capitalist. I'm a globalist but we need to focus on social capitalism because it doesn't need to be a race to the bottom.

People are required to work in the office so they can be monitored and controlled. Most employers know their employees can do the work elsewhere, but that gives them risky freedoms. So the employer covers their a$$ by forcing people into a shitty little office like lab rats.

 

[minivanman]

People are required to work in the office so they can be monitored and controlled. Most employers know their employees can do the work elsewhere, but that gives them risky freedoms. So the employer covers their a$$ by forcing people into a shitty little office like lab rats.

No one is forcing anyone to do anything. If they want to live like lab rats, they can or they can start their own business. Those same males & females that sit in the a/c in a shitty little office can get a job pouring concrete or putting shingles on a house or digging ditches. They are free to do what ever they want, they CHOOSE to sit in a shitty office, partly because they want the a/c and heat and partly because they are too lazy to start their own business

 

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[minivanman]

Back when I was starting my last house cleaning business I was on my bike passing out flyers (I stayed skinny doing this). I saw this guy passing out flyers so I looked at the flyers he was passing out..... they were for window cleaning and house cleaning. I rode over to him and asked if it was his business and he said, "No". I asked how much are they paying you to pass out flyers? He said $9. So I said.... if I pay you $10 an hour will you pass them out for me tomorrow? He said hell yeah! I normally never pay over about $8 to pass out flyers but, the original reason I did this was because he was working his @ss off with no supervision and I just felt that I needed to do this. Something inside told me to. I asked if he needed a ride tomorrow and he explained that he did and he was homeless staying at the shelter downtown. So I picked him up and for the next 3-4-5 days we went with that routine. So I said hey, how about you stay working for me and I'll get you a hotel room? He was thrilled. Later he told me that just the night before we met he had told the guys at the shelter that something was going to happen and he was getting out of there.... he just felt it. To make a really long story as short as I can, he met a lady that was staying at the hotel and she was jobless and about to be homeless. She moved in to his room. She went to work for me in another business. The got married, rented a house and then I let them have a part of a house cleaning business. Nowadays they are still in the house cleaning business and have bought their own house. About once a year they contact me. I've helped a few other homeless people but that is the best outcome.

 

[StrikingViper69]

Back when I was starting my last house cleaning business I was on my bike passing out flyers (I stayed skinny doing this). I saw this guy passing out flyers so I looked at the flyers he was passing out..... they were for window cleaning and house cleaning. I rode over to him and asked if it was his business and he said, "No". I asked how much are they paying you to pass out flyers? He said $9. So I said.... if I pay you $10 an hour will you pass them out for me tomorrow? He said hell yeah! I normally never pay over about $8 to pass out flyers but, the original reason I did this was because he was working his @ss off with no supervision and I just felt that I needed to do this. Something inside told me to. I asked if he needed a ride tomorrow and he explained that he did and he was homeless staying at the shelter downtown. So I picked him up and for the next 3-4-5 days we went with that routine. So I said hey, how about you stay working for me and I'll get you a hotel room? He was thrilled. Later he told me that just the night before we met he had told the guys at the shelter that something was going to happen and he was getting out of there.... he just felt it. To make a really long story as short as I can, he met a lady that was staying at the hotel and she was jobless and about to be homeless. She moved in to his room. She went to work for me in another business. The got married, rented a house and then I let them have a part of a house cleaning business. Nowadays they are still in the house cleaning business and have bought their own house. About once a year they contact me. I've helped a few other homeless people but that is the best outcome.

Wow. What a great story!

 

[Bekit]

You'll have a group that wants to work, but what types of barriers do they need to overcome just to be employed? (at the same time competing with other fully qualified candidates)

• Home address?
• Proper hygiene
• Handicap
• Lack of access to transportation
• Ones with young children (no child care)
• Bad Credit
• Criminal History
• Marketable job skills

Then they finally landed a job, Hawaii's minimum salary (20K). Having to locate affordable housing as well. (Hawaii's low income caps off at $67,500)

A combination of geographic location, political & economic setting can create a perfect storm that can seemingly look irreversible.

This is absolutely true.

I do a bunch of volunteer work with people coming out of jail. I have also sat down on the sidewalk and chatted with homeless people. Asked them about their life. Tried to figure out what they wanted on a daily basis. What it was like for them. What their ambitions where. What was standing in the way of them getting out of homelessness. Looked for any ambitions or desires that would possibly be motivating enough to them to rise up and make a change.

Things that I take for granted pose incredible hurdles for them. Other examples beyond the ones you listed...

• No ID, because they lost all their paperwork. Getting an ID again requires a lengthy process of getting new birth certificates and social security cards (necessary documents for the DMV to verify your identity and issue you an ID). Often, the documents are lost again within a few months.
• Intoxalock payments for several years ($100+ per month and COUNTLESS hassles. I'm convinced that Intoxalock is one of the worst companies on the face of the earth. Heartless oppressors.)
• Constant fees for urine testing and classes that are mandated by probation or parole officers
• Paying off fines, which often run into thousands of dollars
• Temptation to return to addiction, leading to setbacks
• Temptation to sell drugs, where they can easily make thousands of dollars, instead of working for minimum wage in a miserable fast food joint. A lot of people wonder why they would ever work for minimum wage when they know how to get a whole lot more money a whole lot faster if they just sell drugs. When faced with the option of having lots of nice things now or working like crazy (only to stay stuck and poor and still not be able to afford housing), a lot of people will choose the illegal option. And then they'll eventually get addicted or busted or both, and the cycle starts all over again. (Often, these people are great candidates for running a successful LEGAL business instead of getting hired at McD's, as they already possess the sales skill and hustle that will help their business to succeed.)

Ways I've seen people successfully rise above these challenges:

• Show up to work early every morning at a place like Labor Max or People Ready. (This is the equivalent of your statement, "Businesses can just hire anybody off the street for a day's work.") These agencies offer daily jobs and daily pay. They're typically manual labor jobs that anyone can do without any training, like flagging for road construction, landscaping, sweeping a warehouse floor, shoveling snow, unloading a tractor trailer, etc. This is a way that a person with a criminal record can get steady work.
• Open a post office box so that they have a stable address, even if their living situation changes all the time. A stable address is critical for things like being able to receive legal notices. Missing a court appearance can result in a warrant being issued for the person's arrest.
• Build relationships with good, stable, helpful people. Cut off relationships with toxic, addicted, entitled people.
• Run the risk of driving without a license. I've seen mixed results from this. Getting pulled over can send a person straight back to jail. I don't condone breaking the law. But to a former inmate, earning an income depends on having transportation to and from work. And to them, the benefit of an income can outweigh the risk of what could happen if they get caught.
• Incredible perseverance. I've seen people who have to move once a month over the course of several years. I've seen people who spend months secretly living in a storage unit just to get by. I've seen people who were sick with grapefruit-sized tumors and needed surgery, who worked manual labor jobs, pushing through the pain, just to be able to pay their bills. They feel like they're losing more than they're winning. They feel like they're not getting anywhere. They feel like there's no hope. And yet they keep trying.

All of this goes back to a mindset shift.

The bigger the mindset transformation, the higher the achievements I've seen people reach.

Often, it takes a long time for that mindset shift to occur, because the issues run really deep. It's a gradual process, not an instantaneous breakthrough.

For instance, Person A continually gets fired from jobs and kicked out of housing because they lose their temper and rupture relationships. What does it take for Person A to get a good handle on their anger and address their frustrations in a more productive way?

Person B has handled frustrations all their life by turning to their substance of choice. Just when they had finally gotten a good job and a stable housing situation, they run into one frustrating situation, get high, and make a string of bad decisions resulting in losing the job and the apartment. All the progress they had accumulated disappears from one week to the next. It may take months or years before they regain the ground they lost. What does it take for Person B to begin to choose a new method of facing their frustrations?

Person C has a habit of getting into really bad relationships. The abuse and toxicity they grew up with as a child leads them to choose partners that are abusive and toxic. These codependent relationships end up leading Person C down a bad path and then hurting them when they finally break up. What does it take for Person C to improve their self-esteem and self-confidence and change their criteria of what they look for in a partner?

I list these examples to illustrate the importance of mindset work. It's a long process that may take a lot of patient teaching.

Often, the people who have already made the biggest strides in the mindset department are the ones who make the biggest and fastest progress away from homelessness and crime. (To this point, if you're looking for people to help, it may be worthwhile to select people who already demonstrate the best baseline mindset.)

But even people who have the worst sidewalk/entitled mindset ever can still learn. They're still miserable in their situation. They still want to be happy. Even people who are super messed-up can learn, change, grow, and become unrecognizably wonderful versions of themselves. Sometimes, all it takes is for someone to believe in them, invest in them, and give them a chance. (On this point, working with younger people (kids and teens) can often give you bigger results than working with older people.)

In short... the homeless and those with a criminal background have a bigger challenge than you and me to "make it"—even to a "slowlane" / "normal" life. But they can do it.

I LOVE your story that illustrates this, @minivanman !

 

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[Deleted50669]

No one is forcing anyone to do anything. If they want to live like lab rats, they can or they can start their own business. Those same males & females that sit in the a/c in a shitty little office can get a job pouring concrete or putting shingles on a house or digging ditches. They are free to do what ever they want, they CHOOSE to sit in a shitty office, partly because they want the a/c and heat and partly because they are too lazy to start their own business

O I'm not saying they don't opt into it. My point was to address the question of

"1 - Avoid gentrification. If this pandemic has taught us anything its that startups don't need to work from San Francisco. They build remote apps and services so why are we concentrated in any city? Working from home produces higher productivity and its better for the planet too (less CO2 emissions associated with traveling). "

From the employer's perspective remote workers are nothing but a liability.