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