Potential Solution for the Homeless in California
Author: Kurt Davis, Clarence Chang
Thesis: Forming a Level 2 or 3 Micro-Economy as a Solution for the Homeless in California may be a way to alleviate the crisis in big California cities.
By building a separate town — possibly in Central Valley — where specific services and a distinct economy for the homeless population, it may be possible to move the homeless out of large cities in California and into a place that they call their home. This idea stems from what I (Kurt Davis) observed while I was in Africa at a refugee camp and learned how the United Nations creates a home and environment for refugees. Unlike refugees, the homeless face other challenging issues such as drug addictions, but there is substantial reason to believe that a separate environment away from the cities for these people can help them overcome their addiction issues as well.
This idea stems from three areas:
1) Experience working at a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya which can be viewed here www.kakumaventures.com
2) Recent economic research by Hans Rosling and Bill Gates
3) Approximately a dozen interviews conducted of homeless people in San Francisco.
Kakuma Refugee Camp
Since 2017, I’ve been working on a project in a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. There, I’ve learned how the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) helps refugees. First, they provide citizenship or a home to call his/her own. Then they provide basic housing, necessities, and job training. Finally, in some cases, they provide local jobs that pay income of about $70 per day. This is enough for a person and even a family in a Level 1 economy — later to be discussed.
The first step is to provide citizenship with consent. To receive this a refugee must follow a set of guidelines and will have restrained rights to live there. Some guidelines are that they cannot leave freely or seek employment in Nairobi — unless given permission. In return for following the guidelines, they are given basic needs. [1] Like a refugee camp, our camp would provide the homeless person basic life necessities while they also agree to follow certain guidelines. If they do not meet these guidelines, they must leave. This must be a mutual agreement and one that the homeless person wants to do.
The next step is to provide housing. In the Bay Area, the city currently tries to house homeless people in expensive property located in the city. While this may work in Sacramento with the help of housing vouchers and software to place homeless with landlords (please see my other proposal entitled “Software Placement Services”), it can’t in the Bay Area. The current housing crises and boom in technology have made it difficult for educated people to lease apartments. So how can homeless people ever enough to keep pace? It makes more sense to offer this housing to new innovators and business creators, not to homeless people with no money. Vindicating this argument, I spoke to a homeless person who stayed around Fruitvale Station. She told me that after she went through their training, she must pay $1600/month to live there. I responded, “I can hardly pay $1600/month. How can you?” She said she also couldn’t. When I pitched her my idea of a separate village, she said she was very interested to move out of Oakland to a place that catered to homeless and was much cheaper to live.
What’s needed is a separate community or village of small houses, mobile homes, or even an apartment building. As an example, in Kenya, the UNHCR built an entire village of small homes in an enclosed space. There, the refugees were given a stipend to build their own houses and pay for goods in the surrounding community.[2] In this situation, the refugees have a home, community, and cash stipend to operate in their own village. Something similar could be created for the homeless.
Hans Rosling and Bill Gates Research
The next step is to create an environment supportive for people to work and or learn without having the economic pressures of daily living. Middle class Americans already struggle to live in San Francisco. To think homeless people can create a life — in the most affluent part of the world — lacks logic and economic principles. Before Hans Rosling passed away, he wrote “Factfulness”. In that, he speaks about how the world’s population can be divided into 4 economic levels[3].
Level 1: Population makes $2/day and one billion people live here.
Level 2: This is the income group where the majority of the world’s people live. They get by on between $2 and $8 a day and might have some possessions like a bicycle, a mattress, or a gas canister for cooking at home.
Level 3: This is the second most populous category after level 2. People in level 3 live on anywhere from $8 a day to $32. They have running water, might own a motorbike or car, and their meals are a rich and colorful mix of foods from day to day. They also probably have electricity and a fridge, which makes things like studying and eating enough varied nutrients easier.
Level 4: Like level 1, roughly one billion of the world’s people live on this level. They make $32 a day or more and have things like running water (both hot and cold) at home, a vehicle in the driveway, and plenty of nutrients on their plate. They’ve also likely had the chance to finish twelve years of school, or more.
Perhaps, adding a Level 5 for those who live in cities like San Francisco and make $100 to $1k per day makes sense. With that in mind, how can we expect homeless people to jump from a Level 2 or 3 economy to Level 5 in a few months of training, when it takes years of education and work experience for a normal person to live in a Level 5 economy? We just can’t.
However, we can form a space where they can create their own Level 2 or 3 economy in a separate village that has the medical services, basic necessities, and an environment to work. Take for example the refugee camp. UNHCR offers a variety of training programs including cutting hair, cleaning clothes, motorcycle transport (like an Uber), delivery, administering medical attention, teaching, and computer skills and more. Once refugees learn these jobs then they can start their own businesses or even work at non-profits who pay them the standard rate of $70/month. With that, they can buy necessities, even enough to raise a family. If a refugee shows up for work or training, they earn their salary. This framework enables refugees to have a home, workplace, and income that supports their lives both physically and mentally. They also have the ability to buy clothes, get haircuts, drink espresso, buy cellphones, and go to a gym. That is all in a Level 1 economy.
Homeless Interviews
I surveyed about a dozen homeless, asking their opinions of this idea. Each one has said they would like the opportunity to go to this place and live where they can be around their friends, not worry about the pressure of making money, and have support away from the city. Though this is a small sample set, it is large enough to validate the idea that plenty of homeless would choose to leave the city and live there. It is important that this is a choice, not a requirement for them.
Some may argue that the homeless don’t want to leave the city. Or it’s the city’s responsibility to keep help them here. But did you ask them what they’d prefer? They prefer the city because their friends are there. I opine that it doesn’t matter where the city is as long as they can develop their community.
Others may argue they need the medical services in the city. That may be true but we can transport those to a different location. The city offers easy access to alcohol and drugs. Our new village will not have any of that and refugees will agree to abstain. Otherwise, the luxuries of our village will disappear for them. I grew up with a drug addicted sister. She needed a new environment that didn’t have access to drugs around her. But, having support from others also trying to get clean was helpful. A place with no access and support from others who want to quit drugs can be a successful equation.
Once a person has lived in the village for years and has acquired transferrable working skills, the village will help that person find a job and housing in other cities away from the Bay Area. There are many cities in California, Nevada, Colorado and more that support lower standard of living for basic jobs. If the person wants to stay, it may be possible for them to create businesses or continue living in the city.
The creation of a micro-economy with medical, community and financial support would ease the homeless situation in California. Creating this ecosystem outside the cities would draw the homeless out of environments of alcohol and drugs and into a safe environment which can be called home.
[1] United Nations Minimum Standards and Protected Needs https://www.unhcr.org/3ae6bd4c0.pdf
[2] https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/stories/2019/8/5d64e08b4/cash-shelter-programme-empowers-refugees-hosts-kenya.html
[3]Gates Notes: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Factfulness
