Friday, April 25

Faith in Action
Jessi Taran

Up until now homeless people have been viewed as a problem that needs to be solved.

What I propose is that we instead view the homeless in terms of their economic potential. Instead of spending money on trying to fix the homeless problem, we should instead be investing in unhoused individuals in a way that allows them to add value back into the economy.

What I propose is the development of an OFF GRID tiny home community (RV park), for the chronically homeless, built around research and development of novel green energy paradigms. Residency requirements for would be tenants would include enrollment in a job skills training program – especially in the fields of green/alternative energy technology, sustainable agriculture, research protocols, waste management/recycling, etc.

Furthermore, this community will be managed/overseen by an academic research facility (UC Berkeley, Stanford, Lawrence Livermore Labs, etc), which will be responsible for coming up with/keeping track of various measurements criteria by which the objective success of the program can be judged. In addition, being affiliated with a university research program (or some other highly respected scientific endeavor) will help negate the NIMBY factor (which is always a problem when attempting to develop very low income housing).