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Affordable Housing Now!

     I read a great article by  Cynthia Griffith  a freelance writer dedicated to social justice and environmental issues. The article is linked  here  for your reference. In this article Cynthia discusses the framing of the homeless problem when discussed by politicians. She cites a few specific examples in her article which I encourage you to read. I will discuss more societal misconceptions and how politicians and other government officials contribute to the disconnect in this post.       Far too often when discussing homelessness political leaders seek to blame the people impacted rather than the true problem which is a lack of affordable housing. Crime is a societal problem and occurs when there is a lack of opportunity and resources. Drug use is a mental health issue which has been around for many years but is more prevalent and visible in communities due to the housing crisis. By trying to associate homeless people with crime and drug use it enables politicians to dodge accounta
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Stop the Sweeps

     Aggressive homeless encampment sweeps have begun in Califronia on the backs of the Supreme Court ruling and Governor Newsom's executive order. In the YouTube video linked below at the 2 minute mark the Mayor of San Francisco discusses her plan for the sweeps, quoted below.  "This is not just about cleaning and clearing because these are people and they gotta go somewhere but we are going to make them so uncomfortable on the streets of San Francisco that they have to take our offer. That really is the goal of what we are trying to accomplish"       If you are a fan of Game of Thrones you will recognize this quote from Jon Snow "everything before the word but is horseshit." I don't know if you have spent times on the streets of San Francisco or not but I wouldn't use the word comfortable to describe them. It is evident to me that this approach, intentionally trying to make a vulnerable population of people more uncomfortable is inhumane. It seems like
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California to Clear Homeless Encampments

Governor Newson’s executive order today is going to have a severely negative impact on people experiencing homelessness. Living in a camp is already a stressful circumstance. Now imagine getting a notice that you have 48 hours to pack up all of your belongings and go. Where are they supposed to go? Governor Newsom doesn't provide an answer. California only has around 71,000 transitional housing beds available, and there are currently over 180,000 homeless people in the state. California has more homeless population than any other state, with over 25% of the nation's total population affected by homelessness residing there. This order doesn’t acknowledge the primary driver of becoming homeless: a lack of affordable housing. With more institutional buyers purchasing single-family homes to rent out, this problem is only going to get worse. Before 2011 no single investor owned more than 1,000 single-family homes. Now as of 2022 according to a Government Accountability Office Report
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My First Interview

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      I have been volunteering at my local homeless shelter, Hesed House, for about a year. Over that time I have gotten to know a lot of the staff and many of the guests. I was inspired by Mark Horvath, the creator of Invisible People, to document the stories of any of the guests at the shelter who would be willing to share with me. I recently conducted my first interview with a gentleman named Jeremy. I recorded the interview and it will be released in podcast format soon!     I picked Jeremy up from the shelter around 9 and we went to Society 57, a local event venue & coffee shop. We ordered drinks, I got my typical order of a hot chai latte (I always go hot even in the summer). I struggled to get the microphones and camera set up and eventually just decided to scrap the camera and record the audio. We had a really good conversation and talked for about an hour and a half. During the course of our conversation we saw many other guests at the shelter pass by on the street or stop
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Founder's Origin Story

     When I originally founded Cherry Willow Apparel I didn't know exactly how I was going to contribute towards my mission of ending homelessness. My experience in the business world enabled me to be confident in my ability to create value through apparel as it is something I have already done successfully. Beyond that I knew my mission was important enough that I had to give it my all! Before I get into my career and what led me to the point of starting my own business, I want to give you a glimpse inside my brain and how I operate.      I got my first job when I was 16. It was an awesome job! I worked in concessions at a Drive-In movie theatre. Granted I was only making $7.30 an hour as that was minimum wage (and still is 16 years later, craziness). I have always been a big fan of movies and one of the perks of the job was on my days off I could bring a carload of my friends and we would all get in for free! I worked there for 2 summers and saw every movie that came out. The sec
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We're All In This Together

       Currently there are over 12,000 Community Housing and Homeless Shelters operating in the United States according to Ibis World. Yet currently the homeless population that these organizations exist to serve is at an all time high of 653,104 people according to HUD's annual point in time report. To me this screams there is not enough collaboration and organization from these organizations, the governing bodies and the people in the communities where the shelters and homeless people reside. Housing obviously plays a very important factor and states and cities that have more expensive housing tend to have higher homeless populations. This isn't universal though as there are examples of cities that have done a good job getting people off the street that have more expensive housing. In reading about how these cities have approached tackling the issue I noticed a common theme, collaboration.      In Topeka, Kansas housing coordinators and other local officials are bringing the
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California Here I Come...

     When one door closes a new one opens. When I came to the realization that the cross country trip was a bit too impractical to pull off I started to think of another trip. Before I layout the new trip I want to elaborate on the importance of going on a bike trip to raise awareness for homeless people. When a person is homeless the main mode of transportation they rely on is public transit. However many cities and municipalities don't have adequate public transportation options that are reliable. Once homeless people are on the street this lack of transportation makes it even more difficult for them to find work due to the limited amount of places they can reasonably get to consistently. That leaves many homeless people to rely on bikes for their main form of transportation. Bikes are very helpful and if we designed more communities to be bike and walking friendly it would give more opportunities to people who can't afford cars to get around.      This brings me to my bike t
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