Friday, 6 MAY 2016 :: Checking in and catching up with everything

You might think I don't really care about shelter issues, but you would be wrong.  I have been spending a lot of time with social media, commenting on Facebook (FB) and linking to articles, getting emails from housing organizations, and working on my own designs for affordable home purchasing instead of renting.  I just haven't been able to post anything.  Mostly, I have been trying to decide the best way to use my time and energy for all the things I care about.

Today I posted a very long entry at a local organization that deals with homeless issues and provides an income option through the sale of newspapers.  It is called Street Roots (in Portland OR, USA).
http://news.streetroots.org  -- Local officials have committed a wad of money to affordable housing and I was responding to a post about those issues.

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Homelessness is not like the needs of a sudden disaster... it is ongoing and often has "repeat offenders" for various reasons, from lack of income to drug issues and prison release. Is anyone at SR keeping tabs on the issues at the local government level? (Like vendors, I mean) How that money gets spent is the real challenge. Both temporary and permanent solutions are needed because there will ...always be a "new" group of people entering homelessness and others who will be leaving. I read that there are about 3500 homeless people in this area ... I don't know if that is ongoing or a yearly figure, but it means there needs to be options for a lot more than 3500. If there is a disaster, like the BIG QUAKE that is expected, then there will need to be temporary shelter and services for thousands of local people. Maybe parking garages can be upgraded with individual restrooms that have a hidden shower option (handicap accessible)... those who have cars can be put on the top level now so that all these details can be worked out ahead of time...and emergency funds can be used for the upgrades. Maybe the city has land, maybe five acres with access by bus and car, that can be made into a permanent KOA-type facility with separate sections for day and night workers, for families and singles, etc. Maybe it can have its own store with food stamp foods, maybe a food cart that can help residents grow their own business and then move on. Maybe it can have laundry facilities, showers, and all the things that camping facilities have, and homeless people need. Maybe it can have a work trade option. Maybe the city can build housing that the homeless can PURCHASE instead of rent, starting with the 30% of income that public housing is operated at. Tiny Homes, smaller homes, small apartments in a coop setting, and more... building toward a stable and more financially secure future. Maybe the city can build and sell instead of fund and subsidize. I think there are a lot of solutions that no one wants to think of... sometimes homelessness is the reason a business exists... like Welfare programs, it is more about job security than really helping people with what they need... no programs means no jobs. What are YOUR solutions to these problems... how do you REALISTICALLY think the government should INVEST tax dollars to SOLVE these problems ???????

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You have to search through posts like this at FB because you can't make paragraphs in the comments section... unless you copy and past them from somewhere else !!  :-)

I lived in war housing when I went to the University of Oregon... they had purchased old military barracks and made them into student housing (FAMILY housing!).  They were small.  In the NW there are still some of the old lumber industry housing units around, and they were very small.  I have seen cabins for the wilderness that were very small.  Tiny homes are popular now as an ownership option that moves with you -- they are very small.  When resources are difficult to find, small seems to be the word that everyone goes to.  We can find a way to make small houses at small prices IF we want to... but the current funding process doesn't allow for that.  I am hoping we can change the process and change the results.

My design efforts are for handicap-accessible units so anyone can live in them... which means wider doors and halls and other things.

I have considered the option of separating the land from the "improvements" (house, etc.) to reduce the tax burdens until we can get rid of property taxes altogether.  Property taxes don't work well and we need reforms throughout the country and government.  (I want to get rid of income taxes, too... to make it a ONE TAX system, a limited -- 10% maximum -- sales tax.)

A smaller mortgage means a smaller payment window.  Fifteen years is the goal.  A revolving fund will encourage everyone to pay as fast as they can.  Instead of an interest rate, I want to make it a biblical loan fee of 20%.  (GOD charges 20% when we "borrow" the tithe... it sounds like a great idea to me... and makes a finite loan amount.)

I can't remember all of the things I am working out, but those are some of them.  Now the only thing left is to win the BIG prize in the lottery, or sell a lot of my products !!   Whichever comes first !  :-)

In Christ, 
Deborah Martin

http://work2gather.us
http://work2gather.etsy.com
http://fiverr.com/work2gather

25 MAY 2015 :: Recent discoveries - Pallet houses and more

I am still trying to figure out how to share the information I discover by it's main topic, but have only had the time and energy to write on my main blog at working-together-inc.BlogSpot.com most of the time.  Today I am trying to remember what I can and share some of the housing issues I came across at this blog.

I found a Yahoo News article on houses made of pallets, which I shared on a blog or Facebook post.  Two of the houses were notable, one that looked like a little house and another that looked like a shipping container house.  I copied them and sent the photos to two of my sons that might be interested in seeing how they are constructed.  I couldn't find a link to the  creators to find out for myself, but it is on my list of things to look for one day.  :-)  I don't have the photos to share here, but I am beginning to figure out how to share photos in the future, too.

I also found an article about an abandoned property in Texas that had an assisted living structure partially built on 15 acres.  I thought it was a rural development, but it is outside Houston and has major neighborhoods by it (they changed the photo since I read it the first time).  If you could secure the acreage, it would be semi-rural... I don't know what the zoning is, but big gardens and livestock would be nice to have on that large of a land space. 

In the major city by where I live, an acre is about a square city block.  A YouTube video I watched a long time ago said an acre is almost the size of a football field.  An acre of any crop would be a lot...but the basics for living would be goats, chickens, maybe horses, and as much food as you could grow.


Because I was not able to work enough hours to pay rent at the last apartment I lived in, I was evicted.  Now, I am taking a community housing class for 12 weeks to try to get back into rental housing.  It gets harder and harder to rent anything anywhere, but if you have other issues to overcome (like evictions, criminal records, poverty, disabilities, etc.), the choices are even less.

I think home ownership is the way to create stability in poverty households...and hoped to build a program trough Working Together to start the process.  I may try a KICKSTARTER campaign to raise funds for the effort.  I am reading about it now.

There are some young mothers in my class.  I remember how hard I tried to stay in housing and wasn't able to, and had no one to help me purchase.  We suffered so many times and so needlessly because of these same income/rental issues.  I always wanted to find a better solution.  I would like to see these young mothers (sisters) find houses they and their children could live in permanently.  It isn't impossible, but it does take flexibility and patience and someone with the financial ability to work through the ongoing problems that come with changing your life.

If you pay rent anyway, why not pay on a mortgage?   I think there are lots of options for this cause, including abandoned homes and properties, HUD houses, foreclosures, Habitat for Humanity renovations, partnerships, coop's, selling subsidized housing to the occupants, tiny houses, $20.000 Homes, campgrounds for those who like them, mobile homes, trailers, rural land spaces, rooftops, etc.  It is better to work with someone in one place than to have that person be forced out of place after place after place for the same issues...especially when children are involved.

In my housing searches, I have discovered that toilets don't have to be connected to sewer systems anymore, and collecting grey water is an achievable tool for land and financial conservation.  It may become a survival issue.  These two things, alone, change the purpose of current housing regulations.  Solar options, wind options, methane energy, water-generated energy, and other green strategies allow owners to live more cheaply and individually.  

I don't think governments and utilities like these realities, but they exist and will grow whether they are approved of by tax collecting or tax using organizations or not.

Low-income households desperately need stability as much, or more, than any other family groups. What they need that isn't available in the traditional financial markets is flexibility in their payments, no money down, and someone to help them grow into the changes that home ownership creates.

If I get my crowd-funding campaign going, I will be sure to let you know.  :-)

8 APR 2015 :: Finally...my first post!

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.   :-)