Housing Dependency Research, Proposed Solution

As part of our ongoing budget transparency report, we are stating that we are now at $40 (total budget) - $20 (cost of one individual proposed solution) leading us to a total of $20. Have thoughts on the proposed solution? Send in your own piece or get an interview. All information presented is from research, in order to come to actual solutions. This does not mean WSS endorses it, accepts it, or approves of it. As stated on WSS's philosophy page, we put humans over property as a rule without becoming anti-propertarian.

Dependency of Homelessness: (deposit)->(address)->(ID)->(job)->(deposit)

What’s Really At Stake: (property security) -> (residency) -> (proof linking body to billable/reachable location/ social contract insurance/verifiable/recognized residency) -> (source of funds) -> (property security)

After taking a look at our research, property security inarguably precedes and informs the ability to conduct recognizable labor and receive compensation/funding for it.

Immediate action: It seems that at the California DMV, those without homes can get ID as long as they have some other form of social security or identification (birth certificate, social security card). However, employees are not aware of this and turning those in need away. A very tragic circumstance. Proposed solution: Newsletters are sent out throughout the organization raising awareness of homelessness and what policies are in place to support people who are experiencing it. Anti-homeless sentiment/hatred is trained out using presentations.

Why do people view property security to be so important? AKA, why are deposits needed? Property security is important so that the property lasts, over time, and has sufficient funds to ensure that it will last. This is, again, toward the end that it will continue being a source of funds for the landlord for as long as possible. However property security without social security means that people are so worried about maintaining their property that they actively violate the outside fabric of societal trust (hiking rents, funding police to “get homeless people away”) that less and less people can afford housing, more and more people become homeless, and the economy crashes making it less and less likely that anybody will be able to match the exorbitant rents without picking a more competitive property to give those funds to.

Why does the landlord needs these funds? The landlord needs these funds to sustain themselves, create investments, and create wealth. However, without proper social securities (excessive homelessness) wealth is likely to be unstable or seized/made impotent if the banks themselves collapse as a structure.

Why is residency so important? It seems that establishing residency in order to enter bureaucracy is so important because governments and agencies need access to a person and their economic impact. They need a billable location to collect funds from and to reach for fundraising purposes. It is a way to insure embeddedness in the economy. It links the body of the individual to a point of access.

Why do we need the government to verify our point of residential access and link it to our body (ID) before we can apply for a job? This ensures we are reachable, that we are legally allowed to work (mostly for international security purposes), and that we are embedded in the economy in a secure manner. And, it clearly is for tax purposes as well. It is a way to tax the individual as well as make them an access point for outside fund raising activities that may be implicitly linked with any job.

Why do we need a job to make money? Usually, jobs are efficient ways to make money because their services are recognized, their networks are established, and the burden of maintenance does not lie with the employee but the managers and upper corporate leaders. Alternatives have lower security, which can have serious effects on an individual’s mental health. The chances of meeting someone traumatic in an insecure fundraising situation are too high for those who value human rights to take no action.

Why does having a job lead to more property security? Stabler employment is more attractive to a landlord as they are more likely to receive consistent funds and not have to undergo periods of precarity where their places of residence are vacated. As rents continue to hike, and more and more people are losing their jobs during Covid-19, more and more places of residence are being vacated and passive income is being lost. That means many are reentering the workforce in ways that may push out people who are neither propertied or employed, and this may mean those who are unemployed are even more likely to remain unemployed. As the unemployed remain more and more unemployed, their savings go down, they become homeless, and once they are homeless they are subject to all property security as a primary objective measure.

Next steps: Is there a way we can start with humans as the source of stability, from a human rights perspective and an economic one to evade this tragic starting point? It isn’t working. Hating homelessness is not, and continues to not be, an intelligent response from the economic or human rights perspectives.

Proposed Solution: (Human being exists) -> (human being receives basic housing, such as the “dining bubbles” that are pervading the streets that are preverified and prelocated and come with a changeable ID that is easy to update given who is residing in this bubble; totally cost effective, could be easily populated with necessary items) --> (human being is receiving sufficient funds as compensation for what they can do, even just giving interviews around addiction, or being paid to learn, or to undergo therapy that grow and accumulate as a function of quality, consistency, and completion) →(human applies these funds to housing of their choice or to education) →(human gets a job that is a good balance between what is needed and what they want) -> (excellent products create surplus value) -> (we all win)