Tiny houses ending homelessness
when I was five years old I saw my first
homeless person a man was standing in a
vacant lot and I knew something was
different so I turned to my mom for
answers she did her best to explain but
it was confounding to me because I knew
there were empty homes in my
neighborhood my fascination grew from
there the first time I met a homeless
person I was in California when I was 8
I asked if he knew the homeless guy in
Kansas City I guess I thought they all
had some kind of secret connection
that’s about how well most of us
understand the homeless we don’t
understand them because of our world
views and there are two kinds of people
who see homelessness in two different
ways both unhelpful about half of us
just want homeless people to stop
behaving like homeless people get a job
quit asking me for money don’t be crazy
don’t be an addict don’t scare me go
away the other half of us want
homelessness to be comfortable here’s
some cash here’s a coat you volunteered
a shelter you work at a soup kitchen on
Thanksgiving from one of these two
perspectives we’ve lied to ourselves
about what might solve the problem and
we feel the tension between these
worldviews every time we see a homeless
person on the street and you know how it
is you pull off the freeway and there
they are at the light or you walk by
that corner storefront and you’re
suddenly forced into two decisions one
after the next first do I acknowledge
this human being look them in the eye if
I do I’m gonna feel things I don’t want
to feel like fear or sorrow or annoyance
or guilt or disgust then if I have money
on me I’ve decide whether or not to give
give don’t give it’s the paper or
plastic conundrum which is worse for the
planet I promise you by the end of this
talk you will know how to decode at that
moment now I misspoke earlier when I
said there’s two kinds of people there’s
the third kind and they work in social
services I spent years and organizations
trying to help the homeless and social
service people really want to help but
I’m telling you there’s a lot of
systemic self-deception in this racket
the system we’ve set up is pretty much
based on a lie we tell ourselves
that there’s this linear process if
homeless people can just meet a few
demands will move them right on through
from the street to shelter to
transitional living to permanent housing
it seems logical right but let’s look at
what these phases actually offer the
typical homeless person on the streets
the positives are you aren’t being
bothered by a lot of people all your
decisions are your own but the price of
that autonomy is extremely high it is
dangerous and you’re always in survival
mode the shelter the positives are you
get a meal and a warm place to sleep but
the negatives but there was a ride at
Disney called shelter there’d be a
three-hour line to get in all of your
stuff could get stolen or you could be
assaulted in shelters you spend all
night worrying about both it’s like that
loud sound that wakes you up at night
who’s going back to sleep transitional
living or halfway houses the positives
are you start to feel like you have a
place of your own I’m sort of because
the negatives are it’s like living with
the strictest parents ever parents who
answer to institutional rules you have
to give up who you are and be who they
require you to be just so you can stay
I’ve seen dozens of people kicked out of
halfway houses for not attending their
programs or classes because they had
jobs now permanent housing the positives
are you aren’t homeless and I’m gonna
say this knowing I’ll offend
well-intentioned people who believe in
what they do the middle piece of this
puzzle that we call shelter and
transitional housing or halfway houses
do not work and we need to gut this
system shelters have no impact on ending
homelessness and I know what you’re
thinking it’s below zero outside what do
we do so yes they can temporarily help
someone but they continue to be homeless
you want homeless people to get jobs how
does that work if they have to be in
line by 3:00 p.m. or they don’t get a
bed and I won’t describe the hoops you
have to jump through to get into most
halfway houses or how likely a homeless
person is to break one of their many
or look the wrong way at a staffer and
wind up back on the streets starting all
over
seriously we’re asking people to solve
all their problems first then give him a
place to live
shelters enforce homelessness
transitional living reinforces
homelessness ask any homeless person
have them tell you their horror stories
if you can bear it and they’re used to
war by the way eighty percent of
homeless adults were homeless at some
point as a child
eighty percent chaos when they’re little
chaos as adults and they’re used to it
but some are traumatized by it many
self-medicate and all are in one kind of
negotiation or other with the system to
get help the system remember that third
kind of person social services people
are good-hearted and they’re especially
vulnerable to the beliefs of the system
in which they work when you work in a
system it’s hard to see that homeless
people really just need a place of their
own house the homeless first ask
questions later house them and they get
them healthy and in recovery and
contributing house them and don’t make
it impossible for them to stay house the
homeless first
what does housing them do think of it as
the ultimate medication imagine the
change in a homeless person’s life if we
can give them these things first sleep
homeless people on average sleep three
hours a night and I don’t need to tell
you how unhealthy that is if we can even
double that imagine the health benefits
the physical the mental and the
emotional benefits of sleep housing is
an immune booster in an anti-psychotic
second thing it gives safety and privacy
imagine worrying 24/7 about being mugged
or raped or trafficked a lot of homeless
people are on the autism spectrum the
bipolar the physically disabled they’re
vulnerable to mockery or bullying on the
streets there’s nowhere to hide and
shelters aren’t much better coming into
a shelter is like being last in Group C
when you board Southwest everyone is
watching you wondering what spot you’re
gonna pick and you know it if you ever
make it into transitional living
constant fear is a beat
kicked out now imagine eliminating all
of those worries the safety and privacy
provided by housing they’re like
anti-anxiety meds the third thing it
does it gives you connection and hope
taken together
what all of this gives homeless people
is relief from the constant battle of
survival on the streets housing connects
you to a neighborhood a community when
you’re not just surviving you can
actually plan for the future you may
have a sense of hope housing is an
antidepressant immune booster
antipsychotic anti-anxiety
antidepressant it’s like we have this
wonder drug that does all of these
things but we’re saying get well first
and you’ll qualify for that drug so
housing is the prescription working
homeless people pick it up in Kansas
City they can come to 89th and Troost we
build tiny houses for homeless vets we
started with vets because we knew we
could get support and we have tremendous
community support for everything we’ve
done and it’s a good thing because what
we’ve done has been one happy accident
after another BCP started because a
bunch of us new homeless vets and we
couldn’t stand it we knew if we could
show the community the effectiveness of
being real and honest with this
population alongside the safety and
comfort of a tiny house we can make a
dramatic impact on ending homelessness
70% of each house is built by volunteers
you want community buy-in invite them to
be a part of your idea
I promise they want to people like
community America Farmers Insurance Bank
of America have sent hundreds of their
employees to help us build an entire
neighborhood the houses are built
understanding the danger filled mindset
of a homeless person using the parlance
of our time
these are trauma-informed tiny houses
there’s one way in and out the bed faces
the entrance it’s low to the ground the
windows never face the windows of the
other house so no one’s staring in at
you you’re secure you can rest and heal
while at the same time finding your way
to become a part of a community and we
place folks who live in this
neighborhood with intention we are
about community and safety our family
houses are built in the interior of the
village with houses facing each other we
want to place our female veterans and
their kids in this area it takes a
village and people with like problems
can rally around each other other
residents they want to keep to
themselves and there it’s even people
who don’t want to talk to me which is
insane we put all of our vets who would
prefer to be alone on the edges of the
village these folks make excellent de
facto guards for the community because
they recognize anyone who isn’t part of
the village we like our veterans to
police themselves this is real
functional transitional housing and we
focus very simply on five supports that
lead to permanent housing readiness if
you want to keep the community of
housing providers like landlords and
property managers in this game we need
them and they need us to help our
friends become community ready apartment
ready permanent housing ready we focus
on income stability education and
training fiscal understanding health and
well-being and network of support these
lead to permanent housing readiness and
we’re already seeing how well it works
we had a vet addicted to meth who lost
his entire family and who detoxed while
at BCP he’s got a high paying job now
he’s reclaimed his family and now they
have a house all of their own a woman
who fled domestic violence she lost
everything no income she recovered with
us and now has a three-bedroom house in
the suburbs a cataract blind homeless
fella who lived in his car and had his
car stolen he lived with us for one year
and now he owns property near his family
where he’s building his own house and
yeah we helped him get eye surgery and
he can see in his words in three
dimensions now these are low-hanging
fruit we’re building our legacy on
stories like this and people really get
it I toured a local business owner who
looked around the community he turned to
me he pulled out his checkbook and he
wrote us a $350,000 check they gave us
our community center and that’s where we
offered job training pet care dentistry
behavioral health care and other
services and yeah we throw a few parties
there too
we’ve got so many great supporters and
now they’re helping us expand into other
cities Longmont Colorado this year in
seven more by 2022 so veterans community
project is a construction company that
became a social services company if we
can make that transformation others who
want to solve this problem can make it
too
you can start right now remember that
terrible choice about whether or not to
give money next time remember this
giving a buck or two to a homeless
person is not going to end their
homelessness but investing that dollar
into something that works can so I’m not
letting you off the hook I’m not saying
don’t give money to homeless people I’m
trying to sink this hook deeper and keep
you engaged in solving this problem now
when you’re faced with that choice
instead of reaching for the change in
your pocket you can reach for your phone
and just say hey Suri
hey homeless vet $2.00 and there’s money
going to help people get the housing
they need remember when it comes to
homelessness we invented the rules we
invented the system that doesn’t work
why are we still playing by the old
rules pretending that this system can do
what we all want it to happen to get
homeless people off the streets
let’s stop lying to ourselves in a way
what we know to be true is just looking
for a home when we give truth a home and
act on that truth the homeless will have
a place to live - thank you
you