WE Labs: Pitch a Solution for Homelessness

On Tuesday. Josephine Villaseñor and I attended WE Lab's event Pitch A Solution for Homelessness. What stood out about the meeting, was it wasn't a group of residents complaining about the problem, it was concerned citizens actually attempting to pitch solutions to it. 

Homelessness is a growing problem in Long Beach. The Police Department has two Quality of Life Officers that work in tandem with Health and Human Services and are dedicated to helping the homeless get back on their feet and find shelter. However, for the growing homeless population a better solution is needed. 

Here were some of the pitches that were made. 

The ideas pitched included the need for a central tree of information, that would branch out from a single number such as 211. 211 LA County, a 501(c)3 organization, is one of the largest and most effective resource lines in the nation providing access to comprehensive social services and disaster support for L.A. County residents.

A second idea was the use of port containers in the creation of housing campuses for the homeless. Shipping container homes were okayed for the Wrigley area in 2011. You can also find one at the intersection of Ocean and Temple. Each shelter would be called a campus. Each campus would serve a specific need. For instance, one campus may be devoted to drug recovery. One campus might be reserved for families getting back on their feet. 

The containers are strong enough to resist weathering. They could also be easily stacked. Each campus could be built for around $30 a square foot, before factoring in landscaping, health services and security. There would be some challenges in finding suitable land that was hooked up to the sewer system. There are currently a lot of these crates at the port going to waste. In many cases  they are just given away.

Additional ideas included an app that would allow residents to donate their recycle goods as a source of funding for homeless related issues. The idea pitched through the organization Ashla and Monday Night Mission would create a map of those residents who agreed to donate their recyclables which would then be picked up by the homeless as a $15 an hour minimum wage job. The obvious issue is thatvtaking those recycle goods, if the idea were to take money out of the city's budget, which will already experience a deficit next year.

The final idea was the creation of a database of shelters that would remove those shelters temporarily from the listing when beds are not available. The website would also allow homeless users to make reservations through the website and screen out those shelters that could not meet their needs. The link above would require shelter buy in before it could be of anyuse. There was an issue with making too much of the shelter's information public, but in the end most in attendance agreed the app would be very beneficial to social workers, police and community service workers trying to find a path off the street

What a prefabricated container house looks like, from the Mojave Desert.