25 AUG 2014 ::

Monday...again.  Week 3.  I'm beginning to think about the directions I should go in blog writing... planning some topics to focus more heavily on.

Homeless issues are really important to me because I was forced into that situation so often. If the economy falls, there may be a lot more people on the streets and in our missions. I like the vendor programs that help homeless people sell newspapers and magazines on the street for income. I think the programs that deal with this group could operate housing (apartments) and ground-floor retail for the people they are involved with. Create community sponsorship programs that would purchase subscriptions to support individual vendors. And find more ways to generate income and training with the ground-floor spaces in the apartment buildings mentioned above. They generally exist in the inner city, but could expand to other commercial areas in larger cities.

I also advocate for small housing options, sometimes called micro-housing, tiny housing, and other related names. These are usually 400 square feet or less, sometimes more. I have seen storage buildings that are big enough to be emergency housing, and much better than having to exist on the street. We could create a KOA-type property with units like these for people with pets, people in cars and trucks, people who don't want to live at a mission, and more. They would allow people to lock their belongings up when they leave, and protect themselves when they sleep. For ownership, however, a real home is necessary...even a small home.

I first came across the concept at Rural Studio, a program at Auburn University in Alabama. They called it the $20K House. Since then I have discovered all kinds of housing being developed. You can probably search for them at YouTube and find videos I have seen. I have been trying to decide what the optimum space would be to build for one person or a small family.  I started out at 15x20, I think it was. Then I went up to 30x30. This seems reasonable and might fit into the small budget I have in mind. I am also considering 40x40 because I am thinking of long-term permanent housing.

Along with my desire to build housing for Working Together staff and members, I want to see these units available for purchase to homeless and low-income households, preferably on land that can be used to provide their own food. I don't think it helps anyone to be subsidized...flexible payments is my goal.  The government could invest in the building and sales of housing for the poor. It would bring stability to the ones that are struggling and begin the process of creating future assets. Shared acreage is a solution, but poverty households need to be on transit lines to deal with all their other needs. I think there are lots of solutions. My view is that the powers that be have to WANT to do something before there's a chance of it happening...of course, GOD hasn't provided for me, so I can't do it...yet.  :-)

And water issues are very important to me because we can't live without water. We need it for our own survival, and our food sources require it. No water, no food.  Everything else ceases to exist when there is no food...and no water.

I like to keep photos I find on water issues...to remind me of how important the issue is in other parts of the world. I had one newspaper photo I especially wanted to laminate for my collection. It was women in another country trying to pan out water from a very small, dirty, water gully. I don't think it was a river, or a creek.  May have been, but it was nearly dry. These terrible water sources lead to disease and death. I'm not sure boiling this dirty water would make it safe.

The newspaper here said we have lost a lot of our underground water sources in the length of this growing drought. Another article said the dams were going to release water to prevent another loss of the salmon run. It seems they all died off a few years ago because the water level was too low. (I am wondering how all the radiation from the Japanese nuclear reactor is affecting the life in our oceans. Salmon go out to the ocean to grow and then come back to spawn the next generation. In time, all the pollution in our oceans and rivers and water tables is going to hurt us...possibly kill or maim us.)

These are just a few of the topics I hope to write on in more detail as time goes by, GOD willing. I am concerned about growing violence, education, prisons, seniors, computers, and many other topics. I hope I can organize my life and find the freedom and provisions I am praying for to reach these goals.

I better get going for now...see you tomorrow, if GOD is good to me.  :-)