TimWaagBlog

Saturday, March 28, 2015

LOCAL: Hope's Village Letter in the SLO Tribune on 3/31/2015

*****Update 3/31/2015: Becky Jorgeson of Hope's Village wrote a nice "letter to the editor" to the Tribune, which was published today. You can read her letter with the caption of "Many Great Villages" by clicking here. In her letter, she thanks the Tribune for their coverage of her cause, and reiterates the need for a parcel of land in which to plant the first Hope's Village.

Anyways, here is Becky's letter, as the link to the Tribune above does not always work:

Becky Jorgeson, founder of Hope's Village of SLO, was showing off this cabin at Home Depot in San Luis Obispo on Tuesday. She hopes to build villages of these tiny homes around SLO County.

I just want to thank Cynthia Lambert for her great article on Wednesday (“Nonprofit seeks land for a village”), and whoever wrote that wonderful bouquet to us in a recent paper!

Thanks to you, Hope’s Village of SLO is closer than ever to getting 50 more homeless folks off the streets and out of the bushes. We’ll serve those people living on the streets of San Luis Obispo who are ineligible for other services because of a million different reasons. If you know anyone in the world with a tiny plot of rural-type land (3 to 5 acres) outside San Luis Obispo city limits that they’d like a great tax write off on, or someone who would give us a longterm inexpensive lease, please advise.

Once we get the first village up and running, we can duplicate in North County; hence the name (Hope’s Village of Paso Robles, or Hope’s Village of Arroyo Grande, or Hope’s Village of Morro Bay). Time to get more proactive. We can reduce homelessness in our town, in our time!

*****Original Post - 3/28/2015: I am a huge supporter of Hope's Village of SLO. They were recently featured in the Tribune newspaper of San Luis Obispo on March 25, 2015 on page A3. You can read that article in the Tribune by Clicking Here. The reason for my support is that I support all options for affordable housing on the Central Coast - and so should you. Some excerpts from the Tribune article below (in blue):

The Hope's Village nonprofit's goal is to create a self-sustaining community of tiny homes in various parts of San Luis Obispo County, starting in or around San Luis Obispo. The idea is to augment existing services, not compete with them...

A village of 30 small, solar-powered dwellings could house about 50 adults in a drug-and-alcohol free space with a “common house” where residents could cook, shower and wash their clothes. The village would have private security and a council of residents who would meet regularly, Jorgeson said.

What the group needs ... is land ... around San Luis Obispo for about 5 acres on which to cluster the tiny homes, the common house and additional space for a garden and a workshop where residents could start small businesses such as refurbishing furniture.

Hope’s Village has constructed one model home; a 7-by-11-foot cabin that cost about $3,900 to build... In the meantime, the organization’s other project, RVs for Veterans, is still going strong. The organization, which passes on donated recreational vehicles to homeless veterans, just received its 37th donation.

Article by Cynthia Lambert - (805) 781-7929.

Above: Interior of Hope's Village Cabin on Wheels.

In addition, I support Hope's Village's other program: RV for Veterans, which receives donated RVs, makes minor repairs to them, and donates them to our homeless vets.

Other forms of affordable housing possibilities (besides Tiny Home Villages such as Hope's Village) include (in no particular order):
• Co-operative housing
• Building Codes in Municipalities which allow Affordable Green Micro-Housing to be built
• Expansion of "granny units" within existing residential
• Legalizing "HomeShare" to allow people to share existing housing
• Converting the sizable portion of unoccupied housing into rental housing
• Tent cities: Empty land with legal tents for the homeless, with basic services on site
• Permanent Tiny Home Villages that do not require them to be on a Trailer
• RV and Modular Home Parks, including Trailer Parks
• Allowing living units to be built on top of retail units on the ground floor
Most or all of the above affordable housing options are not being created in SLO county at this time, to my knowledge.

The reality is that existing so-called Affordable Housing activities by all levels of government do not produce actually produce affordable housing in volumes that make a dent in the problem. For evidence of that, all you have to do is look around - how much "affordable housing" can you find? Answer: pretty much none. I define Affordable Housing as 30% of total income going to housing and utilities. For a person earning $10 per hour ($18,200 per year), that is about $450 per month.

Note that Affordable Housing is in demand in order to house the unhoused, as well as to allow low income adults to spend a smaller percentage of their total income for housing. Typically, most low income families in SLO pay 50 to 70% of their income towards housing and utilities, leaving little for the rest of life's essentials.

Above: Hope's Village's "Cabin on Wheels", shown at night with festive lights!

You can contact Becky Jorgeson, President of Hope's Village at 805/234-5478 for more information, or email her at beckyrjorgeson@yahoo.com. As with all local non-profits, donations are always needed, especially once Hope's Village procure a site for their Village.

Below is a conversation from Facebook on this article about Hope's Village. I only show the first names of all the folks participating, while leaving my name "Tim Waag" complete.

Leslie - Thanks Tim Waag. Being on disability shouldn't have put me on the streets. I was scared how people would react to me. El Segundo to this. Weird and trippy ride.

March 28 at 3:39pm · Unlike · 1
Tim Waag Agreed, Leslie. People on disability should not have to live under our overpasses, in our doorways, or in creek beds. We have a massive unhoused population here in SLO (relative to the population at large).

March 28 at 3:43pm · Like · 2
Leslie - Its scary.

March 28 at 3:52pm · Unlike · 1
Tim Waag Yes, it's scary - especially for women, for whom it is scary and dangerous.

March 28 at 3:56pm · Like · 1
Leslie - Too true. People come down to do their dope and walk by and hang out in front of tent hell I have had someone try to get in. Hate it.

March 28 at 4:07pm · Unlike · 1
Tracy - Thank you, Tim . I will read and definitely support!

March 28 at 6:53pm · Unlike · 2
Tim Waag Thanks Tracy. Note that when Hope's Village acquires a property and develops their "Village", it will only be a drop in the bucket towards creating enough affordable housing for the homeless and the low income. HV envisions a village with 30 small cabi...See More

March 29 at 7:45am · Like · 3
Tim Waag On January 26, 2015, I participated in SLO County's Point in Time Survey, and wrote about it here: http://timwaagblog.blogspot.com/.../slo-point-in-time-pit...

TimWaagBlog: SLO: Point-In-Time (PIT) Homeless Census 1/26/2015 Report

Just a regular old Central Coast guy who raised some...

TIMWAAGBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM|BY TIM WAAG

March 29 at 7:48am · Edited · Like · 1 · Remove Preview
Sally - Tim, is the 30 small cabin limit due to money and resource constraints?

March 29 at 8:33am · Unlike · 1
Tim Waag Not that I know of. It's just their plan. Once the first "Village" is established, they hope to create more of them.

March 29 at 8:41am · Like · 1
Sally - That's what I was hoping. So it's like a test bed, so to speak. You'll keep us posted on the status of the place I hope.

March 29 at 8:44am · Unlike · 1
Tim Waag Yep. Just one model for the solution to affordable housing. One of many. A few more (from my blog post on the topic): Other forms of affordable housing possibilities (besides Tiny Home Villages such as Hope's Village) include (in no particular order):...See More

March 29 at 8:49am · Like
Sally - Yeah, I read that in your article. Affordable housing was what got Daniel and I through the tough times in the form of a couple of trailer parks. They were both fantastic. It's sad that they are getting closed down around here. We were able to make a small investment in the trailer on the lot too.

March 29 at 8:52am · Unlike · 2
Tim Waag The trend is towards Trailer parks getting closed down around here also - the land is too valuable. Certainly, none being built, even though we have the land to do so.

March 29 at 11:55am · Like
Sally - Yes. In the SoCal area here, there was a guy who wanted to close down a mobile home/trailer park but had to provide new housing for the residents before the closure. So what he did to try to skirt that law is he let the trailer park go to pot and soo...See More

March 29 at 12:07pm · Edited · Like
Sally - BTW, thanks for the greatly informative blog!

March 29 at 12:21pm · Like

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OBAMACARE PART III: Still Getting Scr*wed!

*****3/28/2015 Update: The Obamacare "Cadillac Tax" is coming in 2018, but employers are worrying about it now, and so are we. Based on our trajectory of every-increasing health care premiums, we will be subject to the 40% "excise tax" on our health care premiums as well by 2018. Isn't that swell. Read more at CNBC by clicking here. For those too lazy to click the link, here are some relevant highlights from the CNBC article (in blue):

Beginning in 2018, companies will have to pay Uncle Sam an excise tax of 40% on every dollar spent annually on health plan premiums in excess of $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. In 2018, the ... tax is projected to bring in $5 billion ... That amount is expected to double in 2019, and increase ... to as high as $30 billion in ... 2024. The tax will offset federal subsidies ... for ... Obamacare health insurance plans ...

Nearly 3 out of 4 companies polled in a new survey ... said they're either "somewhat" or "very" concerned they will get whacked with that hefty tax targeted at high-cost health plans, either because of what those plans already cost or where they are headed. Based on the definition today, and based on the trajectory most employers are on, sooner or later everybody is going to pay.

...the tax is indexed to roughly the general rate of inflation—which ... is worrisome because health-care costs for years have easily outpaced the overall consumer price index. Companies polled ... expect their health-care costs for active employees to rise by an average of 4 percent in 2015 if they make changes to the design of their plans ... without making such changes, those costs are expected to rise an average of 5.2 percent. The latest reading of the consumer price index ... shows ... increases of 2 percent over the past 12 months before seasonal adjustments, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In other words, medical expenses are rising at 2.5 times the rate of inflation, and by 2018, we (and many like us) will be paying the 40% excise tax on top of the crummy overpriced medical plan from Blue Shield that we are already paying. Right now we are paying a premium of $21,000 per year for a plan with a $2,000 per person deductible and a maximum out of pocket of $6,000. That could easily rise from in 2018 to the level of $27,500 where the 40% tax kicks in. Let's do some math:

2014 Insurance Premium: $21,000
2015 +5.2% = $22,092
2016 +5.2% = $23,240
2017 +5.2% = $24,449
2018 +5.2% = $25,720 (okay, it's not quite at $27,500, but close)
2018 + 40% excise tax = $36,008

In the above calculations, the odds that our premium increases will "only" be 5.2% are ludicrous, as ours have been rising recently at about 20% per year or so. Assuming that we pay our full out of pocket costs (like we will be doing this year in 2015), that adds another $6,000, plus prescription drugs at about $1,000 per year, gets us to $43,000 per year in 2018, using round numbers.

Paying $43,000 per year for Health Insurance Premiums and out of pocket expenses is like buying a new luxury car every year, or 2 brand new mid-size sedans (like 2 new Honda Accords) EVERY YEAR. At this rate, we can never retire because we cannot figure out how to pay for medical care.

The only possible way that we would be saved from this excise tax of 40% is if Hillary gets elected President after Obama. Why? Well, because the excise tax will hit the progressives beloved union workers the hardest, and we can't have that. Plus, with Obama's precedent setting administrative changes to ObamaCare, Hillary too would have her "phone and her pen" and give a gift to union workers of repealing the "Cadillac Tax of 2018" without any say from the Congress or the people.

*****2/7/2015 Update: ObamaCare and the insurance industry is totally screwing over people like us who buy small business health insurance plans. We normally never share private personal information like this on the internet, but it has gotten so bad that we no longer care who knows who screwed over we are.

Here are some recent numbers for us:

- Blue Shield PPO 2000 plan: 12 months insurance premium $20,721

- Tim and Sue made 10 doctor visits total between the 2 of us for the year

- Blue Shield insurance paid a total of $746 for all 10 doctor visits

- We paid $2,460 for all 10 doctor visits

Totals for entire year:

- we paid $23,181 for crappy health insurance that hardly covers anything

- Blue Shield shelled out $746, allowing them to net $22,435 from us: wonderful

- Thanks, Obama!

For this year, we have the same cr*ppy plan as we did previously. We changed health insurance brokers, hoping that they could find us something better. Nope. Wish we had the option for a self-insured cash plan (i.e, you go without insurance and pay all expenses in cash to the doctor), except that ObamaCare does not allow it - you have to pay the "penalty tax" if you self-insure. This s*cks totally.

Normally, we never share such personal information, except this blows so bad, that I feel compelled to put it out there. Don't get me wrong: we are grateful to be able to afford to overpay for health insurance in order to subsidize ObamaCare plans. However, it means we will never be able to retire until Medicare health insurance kicks in for us far down the road. Hey, we don't mind working, it's just that we've been working for 40 years and want to do something else.

Before ObamaCare, we used to pay less for better health care plans. Paying for health insurance with ObamaCare is equivalent to making a monthly 30 year mortgage at 4% on $400,000 forever (yep, payment on a $400,000 loan for 30 years at 4% is roughly $1,900 per month). In fact, its worse, because it only keeps going up, unlike a fixed rate mortgage. Sad.

This sucks so bad that I shall not adorn this bland text-only post with a beautiful photo.

LOCAL: Bill's Brother Bobby Passes Away 2/17/2015 - RIP

I am sad to report that Bill's brother Bobby passed away in a motorcycle accident on February 17, 2015. I didn't know Bobby, but am sad for the loss to Bill's family. You can read the Tribune article on the accident by clicking here. I attended the memorial service for Bobby on Saturday, February 21, 2015, and it was good to see the family and meet Bobby's many friends. May he R.I.P.

The family requests that donations be made to the Shriners Hospitals for Children www.shrinerhospitalsforchildren.org.

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Monday, February 16, 2015

Does anyone "Deserve" to be Homeless?

D R A F T

Once I finish this article, I will have it reviewed by a variety of folks - homeless advocates like me, homeless service professionals like CAPSLO, but most importantly, by those who are currently homeless. I want to see what they have to say. Do these words ring true? In the end, the result of this litmus test for the accuracy of my point of view will be the homeless themselves. This article is one more (futile) attempt to soften the hearts and minds of the hard-hearted toward those amongst us with the least.

It's black or white: people either despise the homeless, or have empathy for their plight. I have written on this subject before (google: timwaagblog "hate the homeless"). Both sides are rigid in their positions, and I don't think I've been able to change a single person's mind.

The "Homeless Haters" are convinced that the homeless are just lazy bums. Period. End of debate. Conversely, there are "Homeless Lovers" (myself included) or at the worst, those that believe that "the homeless are people too". Those in the "lovers" camp feel that the homeless are all human beings and deserve our compassion, whether they have earned it or not.

There but for the Grace of G*d Go I. Yes, it could be you. You could be homeless one day. Don't believe it? I can prove it to you - the subject of a future article. A series of "bad" things can happen to anyone - including good and / or successful people. Those who figuratively "pick the homeless up out of the gutter" do so because we are really saving ourselves. It could be us living in our own filth. We believe that and so should you - because its the truth.

In our relatively affluent society, we should be able to house and feed everyone, regardless of circumstance. Not gourmet food. Not luxury accommodations. Basic nutritional food. Basic shelter. A warm bed. A roof that doesn't leak. A place to lock up their stuff. A place where they can sleep without threat of being robbed, attacked, raped, cited or arrested by the local constable. But for government regulations and NIMBYism, this could be done cheaply and safely. Note that I do not believe this is a right - it's just something that we should be able to do.

The few "bad" homeless ruin it for the many "good" homeless. Unfortunately, the face of homelessness are the aggressive panhandlers (we all know who they are) and the severely mentally ill (those are the stinky, smelly, crazy people wandering around talking to themselves). The bad are the tiny minority - you'll have to trust me on this one. The vast majority of the homeless are decent people that have had a series of bad occurrences that put them into homeless. Once they are homeless, it's hard to get out of that situation without some help - from you.

Note also that some of the "homeless" you see waving their signs around are "con-men". They are after a buck and not necessarily "homeless" at all. As always, we recommend that you never give money to anyone you meet on the street, although offering to buy them food isn't a bad idea. If you need to "give to the cause', try one of the homeless support organizations or the downtown SLO "homeless parking meters".

They Deserve It. They deserve to be homeless. They made bad decisions - did stupid things. They got themselves in this situation - let them get out of it. Morons. Idiots. Losers. Scum.

Yet ... who hasn't made bad decisions? Most of us have been lucky that our bad decisions didn't ruin our lives. Be honest. Driving after too much to drink? Barely missed hitting the kid in the crosswalk? Texting while driving? Cheating on a college test? Unprotected sex, but she didn't get pregnant? Cheating on your taxes? Sold your buddy some of your pot? Sexual harassment or worse?

The homeless are people too. The homeless have hopes, fears (lots of fears), dreams, emotions, feelings - just like people do. They have children, mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters, friends. They are somebody's child, mother or father, brother or sister, friend. Just try talking to a homeless person someday - but first, google "timwaagblog 2011 tribune fresh eyes" first and read my a description of how to do this safely. You'll find out that they are really people like you and me - except they are living under temporarily bad circumstances.

The homeless somehow aren't fully human. Due largely to the ugly public face of homelessness, the unhoused have come to be seen by many as something less than fully human. I could compare how they are treated today to other classes of people who have suffered abuse in our past history (Jews like my wife and kids, various ethnic groups, etc.), but I won't.

Around the world today, various categories of people are treated by others as sub-human, but we no longer treat any class of people that way in America - do we? or did we forgot some group? Oh yes, the homeless are still treated this way by many - here - in America - today. We funnel our unhoused - 2,000 to 3,000 homeless alone in San Luis Obispo County (the count varies, but is growing) - to live in the streets - today - a somewhat less than fully human existence, in my eyes. Don't believe me? Go see for yourself - I'll take you. Oh yeah - you don't want to see the reality of homelessness.

It's easy to see how people have come around to this point of view, but I can assure you that the homeless are just as human as you and me. It is truly a sad commentary that I would have to try and convince you of this at all, but I do. An interesting side note: being homeless does rob people of at least some of their humanity. Actually, I am amazed at how the homeless face up to their reality with a certain dignity that I'm not sure I could muster under similar circumstances. Maybe that's why I respect them so much - yes, I respect them. All of them. Even the ones who are disgusting.

They weren't always homeless. Surprisingly, that comes as a revelation to some people. Given their apparent sub-human status in SLO and certainly elsewhere, many just assume that somehow they were always homeless...that they were born homeless, grew up homeless, and here they are, still homeless. Of course, its not true, but still, I have to say it. Some have been homeless a long time: 10 or 20 years or even more. But only a tiny percentage. Many have been in and out of homelessness. Again, a minority. Most are recently homeless - say the last 1 or 2 years. They weren't always homeless, and they don't want to be homeless now, either.

They should just go somewhere else. We get more than our fair share of the homeless here in SLO (don't we?), so shouldn't they just go back to wherever they came from? This has often appeared to be the point of view of our local SLO police department. Oh wait. Most of our homeless have ties to our community: they grew up here, or went to Cal Poly, or worked here, or have family here, etc. So yes, to some degree, this makes it our problem. I can make the case that at least those with ties to our community are OUR homeless, and that indeed makes it OUR problem. We can debate about the others without community ties some other time.

Nobody deserves to live under our bridges, in our creeks, or in our doorways. Nobody. This is another version of "we should be able to house everyone". IMHO, this fact should be self evident. But it's not. We have tent cities here in SLO county, just not in the way that you might think. A tent city would be illegal here, unless you are part of the politically correct "Occupy SLO" movement which was allowed to set up an apparently legal tent city in downtown SLO for a few months a few years back. Our tent cities are a sprawling underground community that differs from traditional "tent cities" in that they are spread out over large areas and are the tents are "not on top of each others". I need to coin a term for this - let's try "hidden tent communities". Since we actually allow these "hidden tent communities", why don't we allow them to come out from under our bridges and creeks into an open shared space where they can share community resources together in a traditional tent community. Also, it makes policing and services much easier.

There is no sense of urgency. This drives me crazy. Sitting in meeting and listening to the "powers-that-be", there is never an sense of urgency regarding the homeless. Homelessness is a slow moving disaster, not unlike a train wreck, a commuter ferry colliding with a cargo ship, a sinking or burning cruise ship, or an earthquake. The disaster leaves people injured, sick, in need of immediate help. This is how I see our homeless, yet nothing is done to address the "entire" disaster - the "entire" homeless population. At best, our programs nibble around the edges, but do not provide solutions for the vast majority of our homeless.

Who deserves to be homeless? This is a question for those in the "they deserve to be homeless because they are bad people and made bad decisions" camp. Yes, I get it - many people do not like the homeless, but that doesn't mean that they deserve to be homeless. Let's take a careful look at the various categories of homeless people to "pick" which we should leave to their own devices to live their beleaguered existence in our streets.

Do people who work (full or part time) deserve to be homeless? Many homeless work part for full time. Surprised? Their jobs that do not pay well enough or provide enough hours to afford to rent a place to live or pay for a car to commute back and forth to work. Should a person willing to work full time (i.e., not a bum) still have to live in the creek beds? How about part time workers? Also, some people are not physically or mentally able to work 40 hours per work, though they might want to do so. I know many of the unhoused wh are in this exact situation.

Do the truly disabled deserve to be homeless? Sadly, the bulk of the disabled homeless are mentally ill. The rest have what we would consider more "traditional" disabilities. These include sensory degradation issues (blind, deaf, etc.), common physical disabilities (carpal tunnel syndrome, degenerative spinal injuries, arthritis, etc.), common birth defects (down's syndrome, spina bifida, congenital heart defects, etc.). So we have 2 camps in the "disabled homeless" category: the mentally ill, and those with traditional disabilities.

Do the Mentally Ill deserve to be homeless? I'll just answer that one. No, they don't. Society (that's us) should make sure they get treatment for their mental illnesses. You can't treat a person for mental illness while they are unhoused, so they must be housed first, then treated for their mental illness. Yes, state and federal laws prevent the mentally ill from being "forced" to receive treatment. That is often a problem. I don't know how to get around this problem, but I bet professionals in this field "have their ways". That leaves the mentally ill who do want to receive treatment - let's start with those. Society has a responsibility to house and treat the mentally ill that want treatment.

Do those with "Traditional Disabilities" deserve to be homeless? Most or all of those with traditional disabilities want to work but are not able to do so. However, if they became housed, they are often able to work part time, depending on their disability - isn't this better than living on the street? Those with traditional disabilities also have a harder than average time with the harsh life that living in the streets entails.

Do our American Service Veterans deserve to be homeless? They served our country. Often put their life on the line. Voluntarily. Combat vets in particular have more than their share of mental and physical disabilities. In almost every state except California, we make sure our veterans are housed. Not California. Our record is abysmal. We have more homeless veterans in SLO County than in 41 other entire states in the union. Yes, it's true. Shameful.

Do our Senior Citizens deserve to be homeless?

Do we have an answer to the question: where can I go right now?

There is no sense of urgency.

Thanks to my "select" friends and family. They provided the insight into allowing me to understand the lack of support for lending a helping hand to the homeless.

A Society's worth is measured by how they treat the most vulnerable. They

Sunday, February 8, 2015

ARIZONA: May 2015 Havasupai Falls

*****UPDATE 6/4/2015: Sue and I were both struck with sudden and unexpected major illness, requiring major surgery and recovery. We were unable to go to Supai Falls, and were sad. However, we're not dead yet! We hope to get back there again someday. Stay tuned for another trip posting here for Supai Falls. We are just grateful to receive excellent medical treatment, with a good likelihood of surviving our illnesses.

*****ORIGINAL POST: Mark Mac emailed me an amazing video on you tube of Havasu Falls. It was taken by a group of cliff divers that visited all of the Supai Falls (including Avatar Falls, aka Hidden Falls). Click on this link.