McPherson Homeless Housing Campaign
Donation protected
Around Portland, various groups espouse the idea that they want to house the homeless. But currently, only a few hundred a year find housing at best, while the current housing crisis grows at a rate much faster than that. This will simply mask the problem for a while. Additionally, it will continue to exacerbate the issue of housed people blaming people on the streets, saying that they must be drug addicts or mentally ill if they do not want to live in shelters, villages, or apartments when such places are not available and new housing options are not being created fast enough to keep up with the housing crisis. Politicians are more interested in impressing their constituents by funding slowly-built standard apartments that rent at low cost and mask the problem rather than getting as many people off the streets efficiently. These currently proposed solutions can be later steps on the road to permanent housing.
What Portland and this country need is to get people into shelter as soon as possible, so those currently on the streets can get jobs and medical help. Many of us on the streets (like me) want regular hourly jobs but can't get them, because we are not able to do things like bathe every day or employers think we must be lazy, criminals and/or drug addicts. We are rejected as candidates before potential employers even check our references, because they don’t want to waste the time or money At the same time, existing housing agencies prioritize helping those who are more likely to die on the streets over those who are more likely to be able to hold down a job, because there is simply not enough housing for everyone.
My idea to help end homelessness is to privately fund large-scale temporary housing. This will ideally create enough rooms for the current homeless population in Portland. Future funds generated beyond this initial expense will be used to build standard apartments (for those who do not wish to own) and to purchase unused homes to sell (rent-to-own) at cost to those trying to get their lives back on track after being on the streets.
I intend to fund this in Oregon (and every state in which marijuana is legal) with cannabis income. My wife was an O.M.M.P. card holder for several years. Our last harvest was also the first I grew from seed. Having never seen a male plant before, I made the mistake of not killing them early. What started as 18 seeds turned into around 10,000 at harvest (split between her and the other cardholder for whom I was growing). We have over 4,000 seeds still and are waiting to get proper licensing to sell or grow them (contrary to the advice of several professional growers).. We have spent the last several years trying to obtain funding through any source we could find to start a non-profit grow operation.
The multi-million dollar a year income would be used to fund the development of several apartment complexes, styled after Japanese Capsule Hotels (10 to 12 capsule beds to a shared living room kitchen and at least two bathrooms). With this model a building that would normally fit 100 to 200 S.R.O.s, could easily fit 1000 or more residents and a new one could be built every 2 to 3 years. This would quickly house everyone currently on the street and surpass the current rate of growth in this country without needing any tax money. I also intend for there to be a fee of $1 to $5 a day per bed (this will be the same for an individual or couple that decides to share a queen or king size capsule instead of the standard of the hotels) to cover maintenance, utilities, staff and taxes. If the federal will not give this business a nonprofit status, it will still operate as one with bylaws clearly meant to keep it that way so that the farm can continue to fund new buildings until the housing crisis is over. With licensing, land, and utilities, it will cost $250,000 to $300,000 initially and a business of this type could make between 5 million and 30 million each year after expenses to produce housing. The above numbers were created using the low sale prices with 90% tax and expenses and high sales prices with 75% tax and expenses. My math was done before the Trump tax debauchery so taxes have dropped and with older sale prices, but these vary regularly and have been higher on average than they were in 2015, when I initially formulated this plan.
None of the funds donated to this campaign go to us, they will go directly to a business account as starter funding. We cover all of our expenses selling the street roots newspaper while I appeal SSI.
What Portland and this country need is to get people into shelter as soon as possible, so those currently on the streets can get jobs and medical help. Many of us on the streets (like me) want regular hourly jobs but can't get them, because we are not able to do things like bathe every day or employers think we must be lazy, criminals and/or drug addicts. We are rejected as candidates before potential employers even check our references, because they don’t want to waste the time or money At the same time, existing housing agencies prioritize helping those who are more likely to die on the streets over those who are more likely to be able to hold down a job, because there is simply not enough housing for everyone.
My idea to help end homelessness is to privately fund large-scale temporary housing. This will ideally create enough rooms for the current homeless population in Portland. Future funds generated beyond this initial expense will be used to build standard apartments (for those who do not wish to own) and to purchase unused homes to sell (rent-to-own) at cost to those trying to get their lives back on track after being on the streets.
I intend to fund this in Oregon (and every state in which marijuana is legal) with cannabis income. My wife was an O.M.M.P. card holder for several years. Our last harvest was also the first I grew from seed. Having never seen a male plant before, I made the mistake of not killing them early. What started as 18 seeds turned into around 10,000 at harvest (split between her and the other cardholder for whom I was growing). We have over 4,000 seeds still and are waiting to get proper licensing to sell or grow them (contrary to the advice of several professional growers).. We have spent the last several years trying to obtain funding through any source we could find to start a non-profit grow operation.
The multi-million dollar a year income would be used to fund the development of several apartment complexes, styled after Japanese Capsule Hotels (10 to 12 capsule beds to a shared living room kitchen and at least two bathrooms). With this model a building that would normally fit 100 to 200 S.R.O.s, could easily fit 1000 or more residents and a new one could be built every 2 to 3 years. This would quickly house everyone currently on the street and surpass the current rate of growth in this country without needing any tax money. I also intend for there to be a fee of $1 to $5 a day per bed (this will be the same for an individual or couple that decides to share a queen or king size capsule instead of the standard of the hotels) to cover maintenance, utilities, staff and taxes. If the federal will not give this business a nonprofit status, it will still operate as one with bylaws clearly meant to keep it that way so that the farm can continue to fund new buildings until the housing crisis is over. With licensing, land, and utilities, it will cost $250,000 to $300,000 initially and a business of this type could make between 5 million and 30 million each year after expenses to produce housing. The above numbers were created using the low sale prices with 90% tax and expenses and high sales prices with 75% tax and expenses. My math was done before the Trump tax debauchery so taxes have dropped and with older sale prices, but these vary regularly and have been higher on average than they were in 2015, when I initially formulated this plan.
None of the funds donated to this campaign go to us, they will go directly to a business account as starter funding. We cover all of our expenses selling the street roots newspaper while I appeal SSI.
Organizer
Aileen McPherson
Organizer
Portland, OR
