Homeless again

Tomorrow, I will be homeless again, for the third time in the last two years.

As I have indicated on this blog, I was fortunate enough to have regular employment from March until this past Wednesday (August 20), when the assignment came to an end. That employment made it possible for me to leave the homeless facility where I was staying for about two months. The job was a temporary assignment in a call center with no guarantee of permanent hire. I was given the opportunity to apply for a permanent position in another area of the same call center but was not selected after an initial phone interview.

I am currently staying in an extended stay hotel and pay by the week, so there is no lease. Because my week is up tomorrow morning, I must check out.

In the past five years (since 2009), I have been homeless four times, because I have voluntarily quit a job and was unable to find other employment in time to keep paying rent on where I was living at the time. In the process, during this five-year span, I relocated from Phoenix to Austin, Austin to Houston, and from Houston back to Phoenix.

This time is different. With the position I left, I was employed, and performing at a satisfactory level, but asked to leave due to overstaffing and a business need to reduce headcount, and was told all along that there was no guarantee of permanent hire. The managers were not happy to see me leave but indicated that the situation was unavoidable.

I am cautiously optimistic about my chances of securing another job - but it may again be a process that could take 2-3 months or longer depending upon the economy and demand for employees here in Phoenix.

I am also still promoting my services as an independent graphic design/branding consultant, offering unique brand identity solutions for startups and small businesses. That process will continue regardless of the immediate situation.

I did go on a job interview today. The manager noted that I was probably overqualified for the position, but was gracious enough to offer to pass my name along to another company where she indicated an opening may come up soon. She also agreed to keep me under consideration in case she was not happy with her other applicants.

Bottom line: I should not have to face homelessness just because I am unemployed. The so-called "safety net" does not work for people in my situation, because of the means testing and other requirements that are difficult to easily meet. For example: I would like to apply for food stamps, but in order to do so I would need documentation that my income has actually ended. That might be problematic because the job was through an employment agency that I am still actively registered with. Theoretically, the agency could call tomorrow and say "please report to this new assignment." So I am a little reluctant to even apply for food stamps.

What America MUST implement - NOW - is a guaranteed basic income. Over the past few months, I have become convinced beyond any possible doubt that a guaranteed basic income is a huge step and a major solution to the problem of poverty in this country.

1. A guaranteed basic income would be a more effective replacement for other welfare programs such as food stamps, Section 8, SSI and others.
2. A guaranteed basic income would preserve people's ability to support themselves in the face of job loss or inability to find work. Increased productivity WILL make many jobs obsolete, and this is already happening.

A guaranteed basic income need not add to the tax burden. It can be paid for through the use of interest-free United States Notes, NOT tied to the "fractional reserve" system, and NOT canceled after they have been spent. United States Notes can be "backed" by the full faith and credit of the United States, as well as by the quantifiable productive capacity of business and industry.

A guaranteed basic income, paid for with interest-free United States Notes, can stimulate the economy, reduce or even eliminate poverty, and have little to no adverse impact on the national debt, the budget deficit or the rate of inflation. In fact, the deficit may actually decrease as economic activity is stimulated by direct injection of millions of dollars of these interest-free United States Notes into the economy.

Along with other reforms, such as single-payer healthcare, college tuition benefits, and minimum wage reform, a guaranteed basic income would keep me, and others like me, from having to again deal with 1) having no permanent home and 2) having no permanent job.

Our nation, including our political leaders, must make the guaranteed basic income a national priority. It is the modern, efficient and common sense way to solve MANY problems, and reduce or even eliminate poverty. Eliminating poverty will in turn reduce the crime rate and reduce so many other problems in our nation related to that.

Let's work on really ending poverty in our nation. We have the tools to do this NOW. All we lack is the national political will.

As we move into summer...

I haven't posted here for a while, so I thought I would provide an update.

1. My call center job seems to be going fairly well. The quality assurance standards are a little on the "nit-picky" side, but as they seem to place a far higher priority on good attendance (no lateness or absences), I'm not terribly worried as far as that goes. Because of the Memorial Day holiday, I worked a schedule where I had 10-hour days for the four working days this week, as I am not eligible for holiday pay. What a grind! Very tired this weekend as a result. Also, the initial 90-day period for the temp assignment is coming shortly to a close. No word yet on whether or not the assignment will be extended, but the call center is gearing up for August, which I am told is by far the "busy season", and they hired about 20 new agents this month, which seems to indicate my services might still be very much needed.

2. I am still in Friendship Inn, paying by the week. It's not really possible to save to move into an apartment unless I get a huge infusion of cash to cover move-in costs somewhere, and I want to wait until I find out more about my employment situation before I even worry about this. Weekly rent is scheduled to go up next week, by how much I do not know, so I will need to see if staying at Friendship Inn is still even possible going forward. This time next week I could be in a different hotel.

3. My activity on my msreeddesign Twitter feed has increased dramatically in the last two weeks. This has been very encouraging as far as my ongoing plans to make a living at graphic design without working for some other company as an employee. I renewed my self-promotional efforts and focused on retweeting tweets about startups, giving selected tweets promoting my design and brand identity work, and focused also on adding followers from the startup and entrepreneurial community; this is my target audience for clients. I went from about 20 followers at the beginning of May to almost 300 at this writing. I am using tools such as Buffer and Twuffer to automate my tweets at strategic times in the day. I think if I keep this up through the summer I might actually land a few clients. Because of this, I have switched focus to this Twitter feed, and de-emphasizing my activity on LinkedIn, which seems to be losing its effectiveness as a promotional tool for me.

4. I will focus this weekend on my personal Twitter account and comment on social and political issues. I have become a huge advocate of a guaranteed minimum income as a means to eliminate poverty, and funded by means of the issuance of debt-free US Treasury notes that recirculate in the economy rather than being canceled as is the case with the current Federal Reserve Notes. If such a "Social Credit"-type system was implemented, and debt-free money injected at a massive rate into the economy to finally jump-start consumer spending, our recession would literally be canceled. The only people in the workforce would be those who truly wanted to work (as opposed to those who "needed" a job to keep a roof over their head or to keep food on the table); employers would compete for the best talent still available AND automate those functions where having a human being was no longer cost-effective or needed.

How to fix the economy: my new thoughts

In a society that has the capacity - and potential - to fully produce, domestically, everything we need for basic survival - food, clothing, housing and transportation - at minimal cost, there is simply and utterly no excuse for scarcity. There must be a commitment to rethink and redefine our society as a culture of abundance and NOT a culture of scarcity. We CAN afford it and we MUST afford it.

How do we get the ability to afford it?

We must redesign and reform the financial system so that it actually works for the citizenry, for the people.

These ideas are based on the following previously published ideas:

• The $25000 per year stipend by Marshall Brain (the man behind the "How Stuff Works" website and books)
• The "Cook Plan" and the "Gaia Plan" by author and researcher Richard C. Cook
• The "Social Credit" movement

There should be new, mandatory state banks chartered and established in the 49 states that do not yet have one, modeled after the highly successful Bank of North Dakota, backed by the full faith and credit of each state, and by extension, the federal government. Each state, and all cities and counties therein, would be required by law to deposit all of its revenues in the state bank. Interest and profits are returned to the state government and to the local economy. Each state bank would deposit up to 5% of all its revenues in the US Treasury.

The primary new medium of exchange can be a a debt-free currency issued by each state bank. For the sake of convenience and discussion, I will refer to this new currency by an old, historic name: the greenback.

- This should eventually be done through a nationalized Federal Reserve under direct control of the United States Treasury with the existing Federal Reserve Notes transitioning into debt-free federal Treasury greenbacks

- State-issued greenbacks shall be accepted as legal tender and payment for:
- Basic necessities as food, clothing, housing and transportation
- Other uses such as leisure/business travel; books/magazines/movies; sporting events; Internet access; cable/satellite TV/radio
- Prohibitions and/or restrictions on other uses such as gaming/lottery, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and drugs

- Credit unions (NOT commercial banks) can be affiliates of the state bank for purposes of disbursement of the dividend but...
- US Postal Service shall be the primary issuer of greenback deposit accounts/debit cards as part of its service to the public
- Businesses would then deposit the greenbacks in the state bank, NOT commercial banks. Businesses would be required to keep a certain percentage of greenbacks on deposit to help capitalize low-cost/low-interest public/community lending by the state bank (and again, credit unions can be affiliates of the state bank to issue the low-cost/low-interest public/community loans).
- State-issued greenbacks shall have unconditional reciprocal acceptance as legal tender in all 50 states and all US territories and possessions
- Greenbacks can be completely virtual currency with no paper printed if so desired, just deposited on existing debit cards
- Banks/credit unions/card issuers cannot take more than 3% of dividend as direct fees for account service
- US Postal Service cannot take more than 1% of dividend as direct fees for account service
- Greenbacks CANNOT be traded like a commodity

- Federal taxes collected on greenback purchases shall be converted into conventional US dollars to pay necessary taxes, and also for debt/deficit reduction, and state and municipal taxes shall be deposited into the state banks for capitalization of the greenbacks
                    - It may be possible to reduce or eliminate taxation eventually

How is the greenback paid for? What is it backed by?
- Value of the greenbacks is pegged to the value of the US dollar at date of adoption by the first state that uses it, and all states agree to that value, which is frozen and set indefinitely. It is then matched 1:1 by the determined value of goods and services existing, as well as an equivalent level of production of new goods and services within the physical economy. This can be accurately determined and tracked; because of this the greenback cannot inflate.
- We have a surplus of productivity and goods in society
- No bank interest charges shall ever be added
- New greenbacks are issued as the need arises; the potential need can be quantified and tracked
- Once created a greenback remains in circulation because it never gets canceled as loans now do
- Any surplus greenbacks are held as surplus savings to eventually be released and redistributed

What can the greenbacks be used to pay for?
Any usage deemed reasonable, beneficial and necessary by the people.
- Guaranteed minimum income
- Single-payer healthcare
- Low-interest community loans
- Public transit infrastructure
- Complete funding for construction and operation of schools, colleges, universities, libraries
- Funding for certain operations of US Postal Service

Impact:

The "Great Recession" will end within one year because of the massive economic stimulus. Consumer spending shall skyrocket to levels not seen in years. Demand for goods and services will skyrocket. The greenback can quite literally eliminate poverty if used responsibly and never tied to the interest-based fractional reserve system that has bogged down and ceased its effectiveness for the public good.

--------------------

Ways to spend the greenback and fix the economy:

1. Guaranteed minimum income:
- $29,500 mandatory annual lifetime dividend to every adult US citizen beginning at age 18, payable without any other conditions or means testing
- non-taxable (except when buying taxable items)
- to completely replace SNAP, UI, EITC, Section 8, Social Security which are actually piecemeal, stop-gap, "Band-Aid" measures that are ineffective to end poverty

2. Abolish minimum wage BUT:
Implement major labor/workplace reform
- Require mandatory reduction of standard workweek from 40 to 32 hours
- require mandatory collective bargaining across all industries every two years with an agreement on basic wages.
- These will help discourage downward pressure on wages.
- Wages paid in either greenbacks or conventional, existing dollars that can be deposited in the same account as the dividend
- Banks/credit unions cannot take more than 3% of wages as fees for account service


Impact:
Companies may hire fewer workers, but will not totally cut back.
- Because of the GMI dividend, those people who truly do not want to be in the workforce, or who cannot for any reason, can safely drop out of the job market without risk of losing income to pay for basic needs.
- Base wages may initially come down sharply to compensate for dividend but...
- Companies that want to attract the best workers will need to keep base wages relatively high in relation to the guaranteed income dividend.
- This will be critical to keep service sector going in the face of increased consumer spending and demand.
- Companies will compete with one another to attract and retain the most qualified candidates.
- Some jobs will be permanently replaced or consolidated through increased efficiency/automation via machines and software.
- Some companies will eliminate certain positions altogether if they cannot find suitable talent at a price acceptable to their needs and business models.
- Some of the most unnecessary jobs (i.e. telemarketing) will eventually disappear for lack of demand on both employer and worker sides.
- Productivity will actually increase as technology makes it possible to produce the same amount of goods and services, if not more, with fewer workers, and fewer materials at the same or lower overall cost, with no decrease in quality.

Crazy week and a new place

This has been somewhat of a crazy week for me.

After settling in to a new room at the Sterling International Hotel (24th Street and Jefferson near Sky Harbor Airport), where I have been staying for the previous four weeks, I arrived back to the property after work on Wednesday night to find, to my shock, that the front office was dark, the door was locked, and there was a sign on the door saying the hotel was temporarily closed. I was dumbfounded. My key card had expired (that's another story), so the door to my hotel room would not open. After spending about 30 minutes trying to get over my anger and surprise, I had to climb through the window (which was unlocked) to enter the room. Now, I usually lock my windows when I stay in hotels, but this was the fourth time I changed rooms in the four weeks I was staying here (that's another story), so I overlooked the fact.

This hotel had put me through so many changes, I wasn't totally surprised; there was a fire the previous Tuesday in the business behind it which damaged several rooms, including mine - and at the time I was moved to yet another room. The next day I call the office and I am told they will not be taking any more payments as the property was shutting down, and to call the office number when I get back that night for the maintenance guy to let me in. That night the maintenance guy tells me the property has been shut down for renovations and all guests need to leave ASAP as the work would be starting as soon as the last guest leaves, and to talk to the manager about a refund for the final night I have paid for. I decided not to bother (they have a posted no-refunds policy and I did not have the time or patience for an argument), and left Thursday morning.

I drop off my larger suitcase at the bag n' tag at the homeless day resource center (I still had my campus ID for that facility) and spend Thursday day wondering if I will need to sleep in the men's overflow shelter again (on those vinyl mats with crazy guys snoring and very few options for restroom/shower), but Thursday night I was happily able to get a weekly room at the Friendship Inn at 7th Avenue/Grand Avenue/Van Buren Street - the original place I wanted to stay in the first place. $195 per week which is a little steep given what I am making, but it's only $10 more than Sterling, and the room I think is in the same or slightly better condition and my commute time is only increased by a few more minutes. I am still trying to save for a more permanent spot, but that depends on whether or not my temp assignment at work is extended another 90 days, which I will not find out until the beginning of June. So far the job is still going well.

More updates to come, so keep your happy thoughts coming!

No fooling on this April 1st

My new job is going very well. For a call center, the working environment is the best I have encountered in years. Call volume is steady but not crazy, and the callers for the most part are not super-irate, which is nice. I'm not holding my breath, but at the end of 90 days I hope I will be accepted as a permanent employee. Biggest challenge: finding a place to live! I am still sleeping at the "overflow" shelter on a vinyl mat with no real restroom or shower facilities. We do have access - albeit very limited - to the main shelter building for showers, but that's inconvenient. Thinking about getting a guest pass to Gold's Gym downtown or LA Fitness on the south side for morning showers this week...I have been able to get away on the weekends! The last two weekends I have stayed at the Coronado Hotel, downtown. A little bit of a run-down transient hotel, but better than a mat with mice scurrying about trying to eat people's food they leave on the floor. (I have seen the mice.) My plan: to get a weekly room at the Friendship Inn Motel at 7th Avenue and Van Buren. Pretty much another transient hotel, but WAY nicer than Coronado. I spent $50 (which I didn't have) to spend Friday night there and it was awesome. The hotel looks as though it was built in the late '50s/early '60s and I felt like I had stepped back in time. Very well maintained. I was surprised, I was expecting a dump but it was anything but, and in at least as good, if not better shape than some of the "major chain" hotels I have stayed at in the past. The towels were stamped with the hotel logo on them. Furniture was a mix of '50s and '80s and there was a modern microfridge/microwave. Weekly cost is $190 (including tax) which is doable on what I am making, with enough left over for food and bus pass each week. Maybe I will do another crowdfunding to raise the first couple of weeks rent. If you can spare $190 let me know!

Update: new job: a relief, but not out of the woods quite yet

As of this writing, I am scheduled to begin a new job Monday, March 10. This is an inbound telephone customer service job for a nationally-known, locally-based company. It's a temp job with the possibility of permanent hire. The job starts out with a two-week training session before I am assigned my actual schedule.

The interesting thing is that I am still staying in the Men's Overflow Shelter (MOS), with only limited access to my belongings, which are stored off-site. I will need to pack basic hygiene items and even a change of underwear in my computer case (I will place the iBook in my larger suitcase). Maybe the facility where I will be working will have a weight room with showers- a lot of workplaces provide this nowadays. I (hopefully) will have access to my stuff when I return each night around 6:30 or so. MOS provides vinyl padded mats on a concrete floor with no air conditioning. Not the most comfortable accommodations. Showers will have to be taken at night when the MOS guests are allowed to walk across the street to CASS at 10pm for showers (and hopefully I won't sleep through shower time!)

Once I get my first paycheck, which should be on or around March 20th, I will have a better idea of where I will be staying. It will be nice to have a real shower in my own space again!

Observations:

- The shelter system is inadequate to serve the needs of working professionals, or, more specifically, educated professionals who are accustomed to "white-collar" work and social environments. My "Restore Centers" proposal is one possible solution: professionals who find themselves homeless can stay at no charge in a "mid-priced business hotel" environment similar to a Fairfield by Marriott or a Hyatt Place, with meals provided, as well as access to computers and various job search/job placement services right there on site. Being in a familiar professional environment, and NOT being around drug abusers, ex-cons, alcoholics, severely mentally impaired individuals and the "chronically homeless" should greatly help serious professional people with the support and motivation to re-enter the workplace.

- Many (not all, but a disturbingly sizable number) of the homeless people I see around the Human Services Campus apparently have no real desire or motivation to find employment or otherwise have a way out of their situation, which disturbs and saddens me. There are those who spend their entire days around the campus getting drunk or high, getting into arguments and fights, and annoying the hell out of others who actually need to be there because there are no other options - but are willing to take steps to improve their lives.

There are a handful of people there that I saw when I first re-entered CASS in November 2012, and a fewer handful still who have been around when I first moved to Phoenix in September 2004. Why people would actually "want" to be homeless frankly baffles the shit out of me. Housing is a fundamental human right. Could it be, because we are so conditioned as a society NOT to regard housing as a human right, that we don't do all we can to fight for and demand this?

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/