I am catching up with my blogging efforts this morning...trying to find names for all the topics I want to cover, getting some posts done, and trying to see what there is to do. It is a big challenge, a big desire, a big goal...and I hope someone else will be there to continue it when I can't.
I have been homeless far too much in my life. Poverty is a big problem, and it takes you to places you would not like to go. I am hoping to create decent home ownership options for poverty households at the lowest ends, like the homeless, inmates released with nowhere to go, the elderly, disabled, and young... whoever may need it, and as many as GOD allows.
I am very fond of the small house movement... ever since I discovered the "$20,000 House" project (you can search for it using that title), I have been so hopeful for the future. I have designed my own small house plans - rough sketches based on what I know - and have been trying to decide what the minimum requirements should be for one person, for couples, for small families, for large families, and for community living options. I have tentatively decided, but have not made a firm decision.
I am fond of housing options like HABITAT FOR HUMANITY and hope they will reduce the construction costs for these small houses.
I am hoping to create OFF-THE-GRID housing to reduce the long-term costs of ownership, and to provide for emergencies, and for environmental reasons. I think solar and wind can be integrated for small needs, and have read articles about methane from manure as a great option for cattle/dairy operations. I don't like the large wind machines, but have a great hope for water wheels, wind mills, and small applications for creating energy without being attached to the big grid.
I think land space is essential for growing as much of our own food supplies as possible, of sharing those resources in small communities, and finding the goodness of life again. I am trying to work out the details of ownership, something that will protect the resident and also allow for repurchase by Working Together when the property/house is no longer desired by the resident, or the resident has passed on. I am considering tenant-farmer relationships, lease to own contracts, partnerships, and any other legal format that will help people to stabilize their lives with ownership options.
I can't begin to describe all my hopes and efforts in the area of shelter. I have known what the world, the government, and the church provides... what they provide won't be good enough for the End Times and persecution. I hope to find better solutions in places all over the world.
Naturally, this is only if GOD allows me to live that long. :-)
