I was running a few numbers recently and came across a surprisingly depressing thing. Fighting homelessness/hunger/poverty is not as expensive as most people who can afford to fight it make it out to be.
My ultimate goal in life is to create a self-sufficient society where those who cannot function in society, even if only temporarily, can find a safe place to grow and live; for life or for a short while. Without getting into too much detail, basically we would welcome the homeless, especially veterans who can’t function well because of PTSD or something, from all over the country into the organization.
Ideally everyone would receive a room of their own, but even if living space had to be shared it would still give people food, shelter, clothing, and a job. Those who are strong and virile would farm the property owned by the foundation, those who were too weak or inept to farm would be given other tasks such as doing laundry or cleaning the property.
Everyone would have a place in the society, whether for life or only for a short time. As such we would also welcome battered spouses who have nowhere else to go but back to their abusers, runaway children who do not feel safe or loved at home, and people who are simply fed up with the way society is structured and wants a healthy alternative.
No alcohol, no drugs, no guns, no fiscal castes, just people living together to benefit each other. I suppose you could call it Socialist, but it’s designed for people that are forgotten or disenfranchised by a Capitalist society, so I guess that’s not a bad thing. It’s a place that exists without the constraints of money.
Of course you’d need a lot of money to get it to work, cordoning it away from the money-driven, Capitalist society that surrounds it. Hence why my poor ass hasn’t started the process, yet.
But on a shorter term, I like to look at what it would cost to feed, clothe, and shelter people without creating an off-branching society.
And I was quite depressed to find out how cheap it would be to do so. Especially since it isn’t being done…not nearly enough.
~RCS
Richard C. Shaffer 
Feb 27, 2012 @ 22:34:26
always thought if i won the lottery I’d like to open a summer camp for troubled youths, and have homeless people (post-rehab for any addictions) work at it. i figure what better way to get through to some ignorant kid than to have someone who’s probably got a TON of experience at the school of hard knocks show them what not to do, where they went wrong, etc.
Feb 29, 2012 @ 03:37:49
I can’t remember what comedian it was that said it, but I’ve always liked the idea of hiring rehabilitated heroin addicts for Blood Drives. These people would find a vein in a second and a half and have that needle in so gently you’d have a full bag of plasma before you realized they were even in the room.
Jul 04, 2012 @ 14:19:36
You might be interested in this http://www.therapeuticcommunities.org/ (there are privately run communities in the UK run along the lines you describe but these are the more formal ones) and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18135537 which is now world famous and is only not adopted more widely because in the UK and USA the public think prison should be about retribution rather than redemption or putting something back into society.