Blog Moved

My project has been undergoing a metamorphosis which is involving a new website that doesn't play nice with blogger so all future posts will be done through the blog I've set up on Squarespace (and all these old ones have been ported into that one too.)

Please find it at www.pshospitality.org

Thanks!

OSL

I had a great meeting with some folks at OSL (Only Serving Love) today. We are working through the final details on how they can be a financial sponsor for my new non-profit, Puget Sound Hospitality. I'm really looking forward to working with the folks at OSL, they're really doing a lot of great work.

After the meeting I had the opportunity to help serve lunch at their outdoor meal site under the freeway. There were a lot of volunteers so I cleaned up the eating area which gave me the chance to talk to people about the kits we'll be putting together. I didn't learn a whole lot... It's fairly intuitive, but there does appear to be a genuine interest and need.

We didn't hand out any of my kits at lunch because I only had about 12 and there was at least 100 folks being served. On my way back to the ferry though, I was able to hand out 4 kits which were graciously received...often with a bit of a confused look as they tried to figure out what the heck I was giving them. I did get one "I only need a couple bucks and I'll have enough for some beers" so I really like having this cash-alternate option.

Now I'm in the process of website and kit development. I've got to develop contents for feminine hygiene, youth, and pet specific kits. If you have and ideas I'd love to hear them, just comment or email me. Once OSL helps me get set up I can do some fundraising, build some kits, and look into an order of subway cards for the kits and then that phase of the project can take off. I'm really excited about that aspect, I hope it goes as well as it's going in my head...

The website, still very much in development, can be found at www.sites.google.com/site/pugetsoundhospitality

Or use bit.ly/PSHospitality

Might be a bit before there's much to see there but I always appreciate feedback.

...suppose I should do some homework.

New Project!

Wow has it been a long time! I have a new project I've been working on lately that fits this blog like a glove so let's bring it back :)

Back in 2012 I had an idea that I posted on Starbuck's idea page called Share Mug. Basically I wanted to give people gift cards that would be useful so stick the bar code on a re-usable mug and give it out that way. The idea didn't get any votes so I tried to repurpose it into something that would still work. I contacted some folks at several banks and card companies to try to devise something I called the Samaritan Card. The idea here is to have cards, as opposed to cash, to hand out to people that are asking for help. The cards could be one-use or reloadable, linked to an account that you manage online...I even toyed with some ideas of having scannable barcodes or QR codes on the cards so that other people could donate to that card with their phones. Unfortunately this died a quick death when it came time to actually execute any aspects of it because none of the card companies could figure out a way to make it work.

I can't get this desire out of my head. It would be such a useful tool in the fight against hunger, making it easier for people to be generous and removing a few of the barriers some people experience when thinking about giving that handout...not all of the barriers but it eliminates a few such as wondering if the cash will be used to purchase drugs, alcohol, or smokes. To this end, I wanted to have these cards accepted at restricted locations where such purchases would be at least minimized (this was before the laws changed, back when liquor couldn't be purchased at the grocery store or gas station). But the idea didn't go anywhere so it's apparently been percolating in my subconscious and recently returned with a vengeance .

For the past few months I've been working on putting together Homeless Hospitality Kits.

Through bulk orders at Fred Meyer I've got the cost down below $5 per kit which is typically less than I'd probably want to give someone begging on the street. Pack this all in the Ziplock baggie and you can toss them willy nilly whenever you see someone that is asking for a little help. 

I am currently "in talks" with a non-profit, OSL, to see if I can create an account under their 501(c)(3) for me to fund raise into and fund the purchase of these kits from there. If it doesn't work out with OSL then I'll keep looking...I could start my own non-profit but I am of the opinion that there are too many out there and it's better for everybody if we can simplify that front a little. If it all goes as I have it worked out in my mind this will be a rare 100% charity, 0% overhead, which means all of the donations go directly to helping people.

I am also still researching, with recurring frustration, other solutions for a reloadable card, similar to my original Samaritan Card idea, to be included in the kits. If I can create enough funding for that account then I could hand out hundreds of these cards and people could have reliable money for food on at least a weekly basis (frequency and amount of reloads would be completely reliant on how much money got put in that non-profit account). Right now it looks like Subway cards are the only feasible option. For some reason none of the more generic reloadable cards offer the same flexibility, account management, and freedom to donate the cards. The positive to this is that it really does eliminate that pervasive concern that funds will be misattributed to nefarious purposes. The, in my opinion larger, negative to this is that Subway only offers delicious sandwiches. The money on the cards would not be able to be used toward health items, foods that aren't at Subway like fruits, veggies, and canned goods, or clothing items.

One item on the immediate to-do list is to compile a Feminine Hygiene Accessory Kit that can accompany the Homeless Hospitality Kit when appropriate. If you have any suggestions for items that should or should not be included in this, including brands and other ways to make it generically as useful as possible please comment on this post or email me with your ideas since I'm a little clueless there ;)

Eventually I may begin to sell these kits at cost so that I can increase the reach of the program. So far I've given a few kits to folks to hand out but until today I had not even given one out myself! I am a bit more removed than I used to be from the homeless issue since we moved to Port Orchard but I hope to head to Seattle to cycle through some of these in a somewhat regular fashion. Today my Botany class met on the grounds of the Tacoma Community College nature area and discussed a lot about collecting plants for the course and other aspects of the class. We were standing on the trail and just a few feet into the bushes was a pile of blankets and personal effects, a little homeless habitat. After the class was over I placed one of the kits into the little camp. There was nobody there but hopefully whoever is reduced to sleeping in those conditions will enjoy the surprise when they return to their spot. Who knows, that could be a student on campus with nowhere else to stay...or it could be a despicable cretin who is a bane on society...there's no way for me to know but that shouldn't stop a little generosity. 

A bit of a rambly post today but it's been so long that I've got to get back into the stride here. 

Breakfast with an Old Friend

I've been feeling guilty lately for neglecting a promise I made to one of my friends, Jared. When I was living in Lake Forest Park and taking the bus to work each morning, I would often find him across the street from where I got off the bus. A good relationship developed over time and I'd get him breakfast and chat pretty often. He has an apartment in Seattle but no job. He's also got schizophrenia which likely explains the lack of employment even though he's a great guy. With a close family member also affected by schizophrenia I feel extra close to Jared's struggle. It takes so little to end up in a situation over which we have no control, especially with a condition like that. This could easily be my own family or myself asking for handouts on a street corner to make a living.

When I was seeing him a few times a week I had said that I would take him to the library and help him get set up so he could learn some computer skills. It never happened and now that I rarely see him I have been thinking about it a lot. So I took a detour on the way to work from the ferry docks this morning and walked past his corner, he wasn't there but half a block away I was very happy to run into him. We talked quite a bit, got some breakfast and talked some more. He is such a great guy it is depressing to think of him in his position. After he got his breakfast we sat down and he asked a blessing over his food and extended his prayer quite a bit with thoughts for me and my family. Unfortunately, I don't think I will have much to do with getting him to the library the way things are working out beyond encouraging him to get it done. In an attempt to not lose touch again I asked him if he had a cell phone. He used to have one but lost it. My mind was put a little at ease when he gave me his address so we could keep in touch via snail mail. Hopefully after a while of sending letters (I'll have to remember how to write those things...) and harping on him to get to the library he'll get set up and start emailing. Who knows, maybe he could pull off an online job and earn himself a more satisfying living. When I met him today he told me that he had just finished after making $30 and not wanting to be "greedy" by begging more than he needs...

Kind of a short post but maybe it'll get me writing more frequently again.

Clever Seattle Artist, Shanti

It's been far too long since I posted anything in my little blog here and with Lent upon us once again I have been motivated to revisit the project.

A couple weeks ago a man came up to me as I was walking to the bus and asked if I had a car nearby so he could wash my windows for some grocery money. Well, I didn't think the bus driver would accept his offer but it had been a while since I had helped anyone so I offered to get him dinner. He had already ate but now I was committed to help so I upped the ante and said we should go get him some groceries. An hour and a little bit too much $ later I was helping him carry too many bags back to the bus. I helped him load them on but didn't accompany him further so I hope he managed to get it all home okay...he got a little carried away, and so did I, because it was his wife's birthday the next day so he wanted to get her cake and ice cream in addition to all the other stuff he needed.

He was a very talkative guy and told me all kinds of things as we perused the isles. He admitted being a hopeless drug addict and a bit of a con artist but insisted that he wasn't taking me for a ride. I told him I didn't care if he was, everybody's gotta eat. He told me would pray for me for a month because I helped him out so much and I told him I'd reciprocate though I think I've dropped the ball a little bit on my half of the bargain. He also told me he was a paranoid schizophrenic...he had to explain this because he kept pointing out this guy who he insisted was following us around the store. It was a bit comical (he thought so too) but the feeling he had was quite genuine.

Anyway, all that was just supposed to be a side story leading in to why I hadn't sought out any more meals since the beginning of Lent...my budget can only handle so much...but today my attention was attracted by a street artist on my way to the bus. Once I started talking with him about his art he seemed almost a street performer as well, he had a very smooth way about him...even with the slightly crazy, political personality.

Ultimately I bought a $7 sticker of his artwork (but I only had $6.25 on me...I felt bad ripping him off but he insisted it was okay)


H2O/Fire by Shanti (Seattle, WA - duplication of original water color)

When I asked him if I could post a copy of his image in my blog he said okay, so long as I mentioned this:
    H20/Fire, two great things. Without which you couldn't have "coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or my favorite, soup."
I couldn't quite quote the whole thing verbatim but I got the important part right.

He was a great guy, I hope I'll see him around again, if for no other reason than to give him the $.75 I owe him...

Some of his art was extremely thoughtful and he had great explanations for the symbolism. I'm not really much of an art fan, I picked this one because I liked the colors I guess but he has a great way of putting very poignant messages into his artwork that, unfortunately like much in the art world, may need a little explanation to the simple minded like me but is still brilliantly done.

Anyway, if you're ever walking through Seattle and spot an older middle age African American, surrounded with art and missing his front teeth (and if you have a few minutes to spare) stop by and take a look and a listen to what he's got for sale, it's well worth the time.

Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of this blog again here...if people are interested still (???) and share some more good stories.

This just in...

Bit of a hiatus lately due to a class I started taking but there's still been some activity on the Just One Meal front. I haven't been down to help with Morning Watch for quite some time now and probably won't until after my class is over since I've got to be out of work and onto my class by 4pm so I can't show up later to work as easily.

But anyway, I was prompted to write today's blog because I caught sight of a friend of mine on King 5 news last night during a segment where they were covering a new program for drug addicts where, when caught, they are given a choice between jail and rehab instead of just being tossed in the slammer like nobody cares. My friend who is a great guy and has had a tough go of things, was picked up, it seems, for possession of a small amount of crack cocaine and decided to take advantage of the rehab option. I'm really praying hard that this works for him, gets him clean and off the streets but I'm very worried that the program won't be comprehensive enough for my friend because he's definitely got some cognitive challenges beyond being addicted to cocaine. It's strange but I really didn't think he was into drugs until last night. He's a super nice guy, loves to talk (in fact if you aren't careful lots of time can disappear in between "Hi" and "Bye"), and has a very faithful outlook on life. If you're talking with him, it's likely that your talking about God and how wonderful He is. Either that or you are talking about lotion because this friend of mine also happens to have lupus (now Tim knows who I'm talking about if he reads this one) which is an autoimmune disease that effects, among other things, a person's skin, making it very hard to care for. Because of his condition  he needs to use a lot of lotion and has to bathe every day which isn't easy on the streets. So he was forced to use the fountains down in Waterfront Park...not the cleanest solution but they served their purpose well enough for him and he was very grateful to have them. Hopefully he'll have a better option in rehab and after.

I'll tell you about my Just One Meal connections sometime later, I've got to get ready for work. I just wanted to get this out of my head since it's involving my friend (send some prayers his way if you feel so inclined) and this new program in Seattle. Hopefully it's a very successful program and lots of people choose life over incarceration.

Something a little different

Over the past few posts I've noticed a diminishing number of readers. I take this as an indication that there's been too much of the same thing and people are getting bored and maybe a little depressed by my posts. Therefore for this post I'm going to try to spark some discussion with one of my harebrained ideas. Hopefully this accomplishes a few things: it's an idea to provide for our homeless neighbors so hopefully it'll be less depressing, maybe even hope inducing; I expect people to get involved in the comments section, tell me why my idea won't work, what parts might work by themselves, what could be added to the idea to make it better, even just tell me just how much of a waste of time this crazy talk is; and finally I just needed to diversify my posts a little to break up the monotony for you guys so hopefully it works.

The Question:

Why don't we engineer an entire city designed to help people get out of poverty and back on their feet?

Pros: Central entity to provide support for all homeless individuals; Homeless would get warmth, food and community; Assistance, therapy and counselling could be focused; Homeless people and their often associated drugs would be out of the main cities making them cleaner and safer places for our non-homeless neighbors (also a con, see below); the overflow areas would be extra valuable in the event of a natural disaster where housing has to be found for vast numbers of people quickly.

Cons: Homeless people would be out of the main cities making it easier for main city residents to forget about them, "out of sight out of mind" would be a big hindrance to getting the country to provide adequate care and funding to the Homeless City (Or "Gateway City" as I thought I'd like to call it, as in a Gateway off the Streets...in a side note I also thought this name might help convince Bill Gates to invest ;) ); I'm not sure how exactly this would effect the national drug trade but centralizing those individuals that are involved in the use of drugs could initially have very negative effects by making it easier for suppliers to find their buyers...however, over time if the system worked then it would be effectively reducing the number of users by giving them a system through which to kick the habit without judgement and at their own pace. Even if they relapsed they would know that all they have to do is show back up to one of the Gateway Cities to find their way back out of the rut. So...kind of a pro-con on that one but I'll put it down here in the cons because that's the way I think most people will view it.

The Design:

It would have to be a tiered system, allowing anyone and everyone the freedom to come and go at will, safely and un-judged from the lowest tier as well as providing protection to those individuals who manage to shed some of their baggage and succeed in moving up tiers (ie. recovery from drug addiction, getting a job but still not able to make house payments or keep up with rent while building savings and re-establishing healthy credit).

The city could be engineered so that, just by existing, it is giving back to the surrounding communities by making it state-of-the-art in green tech, efficient and solar power.

The city would be designed entirely of dwellings eliminating the need for large roads and vehicles inside the city (most homeless don't have and can't afford vehicles anyway). It would need an effective commuting system for inner-city travel and connecting to excellent commuter options for getting to the neighboring cities where the ex-homeless would be holding most of their jobs (some jobs would still be sustained inside the city, ideally by lower tiered individuals as a starting point for developing the work skills and honing their communication and social skills with their coworkers before being expected to interact in a common work place. Jobs like these would be mostly custodial and maintenance related within the city)

For a real leap of faith, the city could be organized, for all but the highest tiers just about to leave, as a mini socialist community where everything done within and without is for the benefit of the city as a whole (As a point of reference it's important to note that this is how many, if not most, tent cities are currently being run)  This would help build the community involvement, encourage working together and give people a support system larger than themselves and their counselor to rely on. Coupled with the higher tiers' focus on getting jobs, learning how to save money and establishing savings and good credit on the individual level this setup would give everybody the chance to take advantage of community assistance until they had things figured out enough that they could get out on their own. All income from the lower tiers therefore would be put into a central fund that would be used to maintain the city, pay the limited staff and employees of the city and, if anything is left over, contribute to improving the neighboring cities as well. This would make it easy for people to make donations to their homeless neighbors because they could just write a donation to the city and it would benefit thousands.

I don't think I would try this system with any more than 50,000 individuals in one particular city since these social societies historically only work with smaller populations. Using homeless population estimations from the internet I figure that 5 or 6 of these facilities around the country would cater to about 10% of our homeless brothers and sisters. Hoping that the system would be effective in funneling people out of poverty and back into healthy living, eventually this would be enough to service everybody's needs. A central part of this system would be getting people to the city in the first place. For this I see taxi services run by the Gateway Cities and called by people who would like to become residents. I also see potential collaborations with airlines or bus and train companies to help facilitate the movement of this very vulnerable population.

Here's a 1st draft for the design of the community built around a 5 tiered system moving people closer and closer to independence and self sustainability at each tier. (I imagine, with the buildings having several stories, the building area taking up about the space of half of CenturyLink (Qwest) Field because 60ish thousand fit in just the seats there...the garden areas could take up as much or little space was available but ideally enough to provide for at least the community itself)

The 1st tier is completely open providing anybody the freedom to sleep in a warm, dry location. One of the things I hear a lot in my travels around Seattle is that people have been "Kicked out" of particular places for bad behavior. The first tier would have a large capacity area for sleeping on mats when there are no rooms available, another similar area for people who are disciplined for bad behavior and need to be separated from one group but still need and deserve a warm place to lay their head (maybe a couple different of these areas would be needed) and another area for couples that are experiencing drug related problems. Children could be taken care of in a facility inside the administration building where the families would be able to spend time with them but they would be kept safe from the drug infused environment.

The 2nd tier would comprise a secure area where people's movements may be restricted because these people would be undergoing voluntary treatment to quit their abusive habits. This would be a high turnover tier and so would probably not need to have as great a capacity so it could be kept in the upper stories of the admin building where the patients would be closest to the help they need.

Tiers 3-5 would be for people reaching increasing levels of independence. Anybody would be welcome to enter directly to tier 3 so long as they were not bringing drug related problems into that area of the community. The living quarters would improve from tier to tier just enough to make it an added incentive to improve your situation but not so much that the tier 5 dwellings are a place one would want to live out your days in...the goal of the whole system is for people to eventually move on (though it is designed with the willing acceptance that some will choose to stay put and that choice would be respected).

Gardens in the community would provide produce for the residents as well as, hopefully, enough for some of the higher tiered individuals to be able to take some of it into the neighboring cities to sell at farmers markets and grocery stores. Fields above and hydroponic gardens below ground with artificial light sources or light tubes would be a good way to maximize the useful area.

In the ultimate optimistic gesture I envision the whole community being designed in very flexible buildings such that, as the homeless population diminishes, the residences on the outside of the community (in the non-drug side only) could be retrofitted easily into either nicer apartments that could be rented/purchased or retail store locations that could be sold or leased out to companies and businesses or residents of the community could start their own businesses in.

To be completely clear, I have no dilutions that a system like this would ever actually come to fruition (not that I don't think it would be very successful in its goal but there is just no way it would ever get great enough support or funding from our non-homeless neighbors) BUT I do believe that we can learn a lot about what we could do with the systems we have in place and those that we plan on devising by thinking about our ideal systems and this is simply my version of that. Especially because of that fact I welcome your comments to help me learn what I can :)