Elizabeth (Part 2)
THE MONEY! THE MONEY! THE MONEY!
Report after report from the Portland area documents how various governing agencies haven't spent hundreds of millions of dollars in funds earmarked to address the homeless crisis in the state's most populated county with the homeless people. These are funds raised by voters who taxed themselves because they want action. The Governor even requested some of the special monies allocated during the last legislative session returned because the county hadn't spent it all by deadline!
Elizabeth's studios are a perfect candidate for some of this unspent money. One application. One page. A visit from a county and/or county official. Approval in two weeks or less. Treat it like the emergency it is. Hire a contractor of Elizabeth's choosing. Get building!
Part of the money could also subsidize rent for the tenants. The studios could serve as transitional housing until tenants found other residences. There are dozens of models that could work. Elizabeth would choose one that best serves her clients because she knows who they are and what's best for them. A homeless industrial contractor from Los Angeles certainly does not and anyone can talk to Elizabeth anytime they have an issue or a possible placement. In Portland, the outside contractors providing much of the housing are not reachable and operate in darkness.
A construction crew working 10 hour days for a week could repair it all. That effort would house almost 15-20 people who otherwise would soon live on the streets.
Or, if it made more construction/financial sense, raze the studios and bring on the small (200-foot) manufactured home/cabins I've seen for sell along highways everywhere in Oregon. I've even stayed in one on Loon Lake and it was wonderful! No expensive and boutique tiny home featured on the television shows that cost ten times as much. You could even set up a mini RV park onsite. Just grandfather it in from land use laws. There's already a mobile court/RV park next door to the Checkered Flag!
Listening to Elizabeth narrate her story and evince her passion was incredibly inspiring to me, one of the more inspiring moments I've experienced since I started about writing the homeless crisis in Oregon.
I offered Elizabeth my services as a grant writer and/or red tape cutter on the spot. I could also serve as grant manager and PR director. Hell, I could even work as a volunteer laborer on the construction crew!
Sometimes I believe writing is not enough in support of this monumental cause. Sometimes I feel the same about assisting Mark with pep talks, corduroys, books, pipe tobacco, an occasional can of malt liquor, and rides to various appointments.
I want to get more physical on the ground but I don't want to belong to a non profit and take endless canned training sessions and swim around in mazes of molasses and mayonnaise. I want to build something!
Look at Elizabeth, a bartender, recovering addict with no formal education or training in providing homeless services. She is going at it alone.
It's called freelancing. She's just doing it. Freelancing! Making it up as she goes along, feeling her way through ideas, enlisting ad hoc help here and there. She is highly reluctant to put herself forward in this endeavor but knows that it has to happen in some fashion.
She could use some help. Her state representative and senator should learn her story. Pay a visit. Talk to her.
Our conversation was nearly over when I told Elizabeth I had a gift for her. She smiled. I ran out to the car and retrieved two copies of The Old Crow Book Club. I handed them over and gave her a brief preview of the contents and my passion for the cause.
I said it was almost cosmic we had met in her tavern. She agreed.