Announcing the Beautiful Minds Ranch network of communities, the millennial solution to poverty and homelessness in the US. This is a call to Federal, State and local governments across the country to focus funding on building new, self-sustaining, affordable housing communities to house the growing non-labor force civilian population.
There are several successful, active communities that demonstrate the expansive benefits of the low cost investment that such affordable housing endeavors generate. Benefits for the community members, millions of dollars annual cost savings to the public, and the timeless benefits that the labors of members and volunteers contribute to improving the health of the land, water, and air quality in the world.
The public cost of homeless and impoverished Americans, especially the 17 million children now living below the national poverty line, is far higher than what tax revenues can cover [$44 billion deficit in fiscal year 2015].
According to a report issued by the Social Security Administration using data from fiscal year 2002, expenditures for disability benefits and health care expenses related to Severe Mental Illness was $124.4 billion, plus almost $200 billion in lost earnings. Most Americans who suffer from Severe Mental Illnesses and apply for SSDI benefits are highly vulnerable to toxic workplace dynamics, which have become increasingly volatile during the mass layoffs from 2008 thru 2010, and remain dominate today.
Most SMI SSDI recipients are highly intelligent and many are physically fit. There is a very small percentage of this population who find adequate career opportunities in work environments which are supportive their sensitive natures. They don’t require special equipment or structures built to accommodate their needs. Telecommuting jobs are the best fit for this population, however, many qualified SSDI recipients have not had the luxury of higher education, either for lack of funding or due to barriers to public exposure, and are quickly passed over by employers who offer these alternative career opportunities.
Research shows that 1 in 5 children are vulnerable to mental disorders, and children who live below 50% of the national median income level are 4 times more likely to develop severe mental disorders in their lifetime. Of this 20% of children who do survive childhood and go on to build meaningful lives, the loss of a close family member, or the loss of a respectable job, can intensify vulnerability to SMI and increase the likely hood of disability status for those who qualify. For the millions who do not qualify for SSDI benefits, many have little to no family or social support and end up joining the masses of chronically homeless Americans.
Reports indicate that the public cost for the growing population of chronically homeless Americans [having experienced 12 consecutive months of homelessness or multiple episodes over a three year period], who are placed in supportive housing programs saves the city of New York approximately $20,000 per person per year from different sources in 2015. In Sonoma County California, the estimate was about $8,500 per person per year in 2014.
These estimates are based on State and local welfare funding sources and do not include the Federal expense.
Financial security and affordable housing continue to evaporate in the US as the cost of living steadily increases, wages steadily decrease, and access to adequate employment opportunities continue to fall far short of the work-capable population. In addition to the manmade scarcities that now exist in this once great nation, the use of illegal street drugs, alcohol abuse, and other behaviors linked to the hopelessness and despair attached to social exclusion, further incapacitate the impoverished masses.
The progress of the campaign to end homelessness varies from state to state, but the counts in 2015 show a total decline in homelessness of 11% nationwide from the counts in 2007. Chronic homelessness has dropped by 31% nationwide in 2015 from 2007. The hundreds of billions of dollars spent in this campaign show little progress because the underlying issues are not being addressed.
Alan Graham, Founder and CEO of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, and Community First!, set out to address the real needs of the chronically homeless population in Austin, Texas, 11 years ago. Today Community First! is welcoming the first new residents to the 27 acre community located just outside the city limit. Alan estimates that by midsummer this year, there will be 250 residents living at Community First!
This is a supportive community program which provides the residents with the freedom and dignity that every human deserves by also housing professionals who are drawn to participate in this very selfless program by contributing their professional skills to the on-going needs of these most vulnerable members of society.
Residents enjoy the security of supportive services, far away from the filth, noise and confusion of the city, where 10s of thousands of predators have flocked over the past decade. Residents operate the Genesis Gardens project where they grow fresh, nutritious foods for community consumption. There is a wood-shop supplying hand tools and blacksmithing equipment, Community Works, for use by residents, volunteers and visitors, to build goods and products that improve the quality of life, as well as for artistic projects just for fun.
A Bed and Breakfast structure is being constructed to house visitors from around the world who wish to engage in workshops and entertainment productions at the village. The B&B will help generate funds to help cover operating costs for the village.
Homes are laid out comfortably and promote social participation. Many homes are micro-homes which provide sleeping quarters and privacy, but have no air conditioning, bathrooms or kitchen facilities. Community-use facilities are strategically located throughout the village where micro-home residents can go to shower, prepare and share meals, enjoy entertainment venues on site, and use the picnic areas sporting beautiful stone fire pits for bar-b-ques and campfire social gatherings.
Volunteers, a base of about 20,000, come out in small groups each Saturday to pitch in on construction projects, gardening, and other areas as needed. The volunteers are broken down into smaller groups, led by trained residents and assigned specific projects. The sense of purpose and inclusion that this arrangement gives residents, who generally don’t do well in traditional employment situations, is priceless.
The cost for the initial capital outlay for this venture was somewhere around $14 million, being one of the first of its kind. Alan Graham and supporters have achieved this magnificent solution to house and protect the most vulnerable members of society without any grant funding, but with individual donations and volunteer labor hours.
By networking similar communities to pool resources and purchasing power, both supportive and independent affordable housing communities would soon become fully self-sustaining and profitable, eventually eliminating the need for public welfare assistance.
I imagine that with each new community built modeling Community First!, the total capital outlay will decrease significantly over time, and the cost savings to the public for unsheltered, chronically homeless individuals will increase exponentially in the years to come.
The same village model can be used for low income family and individual households across the nation to alleviate poverty and the serious health issues related to poverty and hunger. Statistics show that the US labor force continues to shrink in relation to the growing population. The Community First! village is the long term, sustainable solution for Americas most vulnerable members of society.
Another model community village with affordable housing is the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center located in Sonoma County California. The best community model I have come across, where partners contribute their time and knowledge through labor efforts and education workshops that improve the quality of life of the entire world population.
http://oaec.org/our-work/projects-and-partnerships/ (excerpt from site)
One of the first actions taken in the founding of the Sowing Circle community was an agreement made by all partners that each owner’s “share” in the company that owns the land would not be linked to the land’s market value. This took the land off the market and affirmed that relationship, the good of the whole, and kinship with the land are all more important than the conventional rights associated with ownership of property.
WILDLANDS PRESERVE
The 70-acre Wildlands Preserve serves as OAEC’s living learnscape for stewardship and wildtending methods that integrate traditional knowledge with modern science. Our goals for land management are simple, yet bold: we strive to create conditions conducive to life, and to return people to our place as an interconnected and regenerative component of a thriving landscape.
Our objectives include surface water management and groundwater recharge and erosion control; sequestering carbon and building soil; restoring fire to its place as a beneficial and healthy process; enhancing habitat for biodiversity; and tending ethnobotanically significant native plants that are gathered as wild food, medicine, basketry, and craft material.
Various strategies help us achieve these goals, such as mowing, grazing, controlled burning, thinning and limbing the forest, saving and sowing native grass seed, and creating wildlife habitat.
We are Americans, pioneers of ingenuity and invention. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2015) initiative, successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 2000), was initiated to end extreme poverty in the world. The number of people now living in extreme poverty in the world has declined by more than half, falling from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015.
In the US, the number living below the national poverty level in 2007 was 37,276,000 (12.4%), in 2014 that number was 46,657,000 (14.8%). There is something very wrong with this picture. In 2014, the number children under the age of 18 living in poverty is 15,624,000 (21.6%), the number living in homes receiving public assistance was 20,751,000 (28.3%) up 10% from 2007.
A report released in 2003 by the Social Security Administration, using data collected in 2002, shows that expenditures for disability benefits related to Severe Mental Illness was approximately $24.3 billion, and health care expenditures totaled approximately $100.1 billion. With inflation, these dollar amounts almost double in 2015. Severe Mental Illnesses are defined as: Major Depression; Schizophrenia; Bipolar Disorder; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Panic Disorder; and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The 2015 Federal deficit was $44 billion. If we were invest in sustainable communities for US residents most vulnerable to developing severe mental disorders alone, the total public costs for welfare program expenditures would quickly decrease below ½ the current burden. That would shrink the (with estimated inflation) $250 billion Federal expense to $125 billion, alleviating the Federal deficit to a ($81 billion) surplus, savings which would surely increase over future years.
Bio for Cynthia Schramm: In April of 2013, I committed myself to building a self-sustaining, affordable housing community village in rural California, for highly sensitive people, and others with significant barriers to traditional employment.
