Put me in this tiny house - and solve the affordable housing problem

Some months ago I happened upon a great idea for a cost-effective small home. Something like this can be developed into a single-room occupancy (SRO) apartment complex in major cities with monthly rents below $400.

http://www.quora.com/Design/What-are-some-efficient-designs-for-a-tiny-home/answer/Jordan-Phoenix

Also take a look at this interesting website: The Tiny Life. Now, I don't totally advocate a "tiny home" as a total replacement for a regular traditional home. My interest is in housing that's affordable and fulfills the mission of housing being a basic human right, readily and freely available. I'll be learning more about this interesting movement. I'd like to find out how I (and others like me) can directly benefit.

http://thetinylife.com/what-is-the-tiny-house-movement/

One week on a mat

As I mentioned in my last major update, I have become homeless again. The temp job I had ended and my income stopped, leaving me unable to keep my hotel room. For the past week (since February 8) I have been staying in the Men's Outreach Shelter (MOS), colloquially referred to as "overflow", between downtown Phoenix and the Arizona state capitol complex. Everything in this immediate area is centered around the Human Services Campus; a one-stop facility where the homeless population is provided with various services, including shelter beds (Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS)), medical care and soup kitchen meals. The Men's Outreach Shelter is located immediately across the street from the Human Services Campus but is considered part of the same group of services.

I have to get in line at MOS as early as 4pm each afternoon to get the best possible spot inside (they let people in starting sometime around 6pm), which means my days have been a little on the short side. The facility holds about 200-250 men; if there is no room inside, one must sleep out in a gated outdoor area. I sleep on a mat which is foam rubber covered by a thick vinyl shell. The facility has no showers, just four Port-A-Potties, the kind you see at construction sites or outdoor concert events, which get extremely foul smelling as the night wears on (damn I hate using those things). I use the on-campus "bag n' tag" baggage storage facility across the street to store my suitcase and my computer bag for most of the day, but I take the suitcase with me each night to make sure I have my clothes with me as I like to at least change my shirt each day.

Showers are a little problematic, because the MOS has no on-site shower facilities. I have to sign my name on a list to use the main CASS shelter facility on "campus" after it opens at 6:45 and have to coordinate/arrange to go back and forth to "bag n' tag" to take a change of underwear into the shower area and put away my dirty clothes in the suitcase after I am finished; therefore I do not shower every day. I carry a razor and toothbrush with me in my pocket so I can brush my teeth and shave as I can duck into a suitable public restroom and do so.

There are long lines for everything on the Human Services Campus, and a super-high demand for a limited amount of services. However, the setup here in Phoenix is light years better than in, say, Houston, which would greatly benefit from having a Phoenix-style campus for the homeless. One interesting note: the lines get dramatically shorter for everything around the first of each month, as many homeless people receive some sort of cash assistance and leave for a few days to get a hotel room, get drunk, get high or whatever.

As for my immediate situation: things may improve over the next few weeks. Last week, I interviwed for and got a customer service/sales telephone job with a major locally-based company; that position will probably start next week - it's a 60 day minimum temp assignment with strong possibility of permanent hire. I should be able to hold down this job and keep using the MOS for a couple of weeks, I will try and get more clarification on that this week. After that I will try to get a room in a single-room occupancy hotel downtown for under $150 per week. Barring that, because I remained in the main CASS men's shelter from November 2012 until late April 2013, my maximum time frame of 180 days has been exhausted until May 1. There is a 90-day limit on the use of MOS.

The homeless population, particularly in Phoenix, is very diverse and no single stereotype can be fairly applied to all of the people using these services. There are hard-core drug addicts and alcoholics, guys just released from being incarcerated, young people under 25 struggling to get started in life (and some just out of high school), and "normal" people like myself who are unemployed and have no means to pay for a hotel room or apartment and don't qualify for many support services.

In my opinion, the entire mindset and attitude of America needs to change to end poverty and homelessness. Some have the mindset that it is the fault of the poor and homeless for their situation. That is "blaming the victim", which is absolutely incorrect and unacceptable. There is no excuse in my mind for anyone to be homeless or poor. In previous writings and posts, I have expressed my views on this and have outlined my solutions.

Simply put: America needs to get the politcal will, the political desire, to change the lives of the poor, the needy, the homeless and the unemployed, and America needs to do this sooner rather than later - or risk increased chances of social and political unrest. Because when enough of the "middle class" are forced, as I was, to share a mat with people who are the "lowest of the low" (because there are simply NOT ENOUGH jobs to go around to support the entire population and will never be - software/hardware improvements, robotics, higher productivity and globalization will see to that), it will be too late.

How you can help me right now: My FundAnything campaign is still going on. Please consider supporting me and putting me in better accommodations. Any amount is welcome and will be put to good use. Immediate need by the 24th will be a bus pass to get to my new job, but I should have enough money from what I was given before to get at least one bus pass.

On being homeless yet again

I am about to be homeless after living in a hotel for two weeks (and another one for over six months prior). And by homeless, I am referring to having to seek shelter in a homeless shelter, but mind you, the last time I was in an apartment suite I signed a lease and was paying monthly rent for was November 2012. This will be the fourth time in over three years, in three different cities, that I have had to seek accommodations in the "continuum of care".

The employment market acts as though it has no long-term use for me anymore, since I am not young enough or skilled enough or cheap enough - even though I have a degree and enough experience to more than adequately perform in the jobs I want to work - if such jobs are even offered at all.

I am living proof that this economy sucks and "free market capitalism" is an utter and absolute joke and failure. There is enough food, enough housing, enough of everything to provide for the basic needs of everyone on this planet and then some. Why are there still poor? Why are there still homeless?

People are living on the street as we speak because we simply will not house them. We can easily give all homeless people adequate shelter, but we don't. We can give all who are hungry proper food, and many times we do, but many times we don't. We can provide a job to anyone who wants to work, but we don't, and when there is no work needed to be done, we refuse to provide for the basic needs of those displaced when they are no longer needed or wanted in the workforce - many times as a result of the natural technological progress that always happens.

We as a society do not see access to the abundance of the world as a human right. We see it as something with a monetary value to be bought and sold, for the enrichment of an elite class of "our betters".

That is an unacceptable and unsustainable view, and must change. Now. We can no longer afford to say "we can't afford it" when it comes to providing for the basic needs of the people. Change will come in this country. It will come peacefully or it will come through chaos and civil/social unrest. I would prefer peaceful change but as the saying goes, "Power concedes nothing without a demand", and those in power will react angrily to that demand, causing those who demand the concession to react angrily in turn. Not a good situation for the future of our republic.

But if we act now, if we change our minds, our attitudes and hearts to seek solutions that will end poverty, end homelessness, end the dependence on interest and debt - we may have yet a chance. Access to adequate food, shelter/housing, a basic income on which to live - that's a fundamental human right that must be freely provided without prejudice or precondition to all human beings. Until we understand and resolve to make that happen, people will continue to needlessly suffer.

Another update: Possible new job - now what?

I have an interview with a temp agency later this morning concerning a possible assignment as a graphic production artist. If this comes to fruition, the dilemma: I have no idea where I will be staying in 48 hours. I have pretty much run out of the money from my last temp job. My last dinner was at a local soup kitchen here in Mesa, where I am staying in a hotel until Saturday morning (when I must leave).

I did receive a monetary gift over last weekend, but $20 of it was eaten by a Valley Metro ticket machine as I was trying to purchase a bus pass. Now I have no money and no bus pass (I will have enough for one daily bus pass for today and money for another bus pass this weekend.) I have applied to be admitted to the East Valley Men's Center and will find out later today if 1) I have been admitted and 2) if they have space available. If not, I must head back into downtown Phoenix and to CASS, where I stayed for six unsuccessful months.

You may ask "why don't you just apply for unemployment benefits since your temp assignment ended?" I looked into that, and because the earnings threshold is so high and my assignments only paid so much - and I cannot even count the previous three months in my claim - I do not qualify.

You can help out in this situation. I have reinstated my crowdfunding campaign on FundAnything.com. You can literally be that "bridge" that will make it easier to start a new job. Take a look at the link and consider chipping in a little: