In this Huffington Post blog post by Joel John Roberts, an interesting solution to homelessness in L.A. is presented. Roberts reports that there are 126,000 millionaires in the Los Angeles area, living it up in their mansions and driving their Lamborghinis past the 58,000 people living on the street. What if the millionaires of L.A. took care of the homeless? Roberts suggests a “Two-for-One” program, where two millionaires can “pay for a person’s mental health care. Pay for the cost of rehab. Provide the means to get a job. Cover the tab of an apartment security deposit. And pay $1,000 per month for a tiny apartment.” Though this suggestion is not a completely serious one, it proves a point. It shows how ridiculously huge the gap is between the rich and the poor and it shows how easy it could be to solve the issue of homelessness in L.A. and other stratified cities in the U.S., if the people at the top only cared enough to do so. As Roberts states, “We [Los Angeles] are the epitome of the first world clashing with the third.” I believe that this solution could work, if only there weren’t so many stigmas against the homeless. If we could open people’s eyes and show them the reality of the homeless issue, they would understand that it can happen to anyone and that the people who live on the streets are not “lazy” or “just looking for a handout,” and they would be eager to help.
What do you think about this solution to homelessness? Would it ever happen? If it did happen, would it really work?
What are some other creative solutions to homelessness that you think would solve the problem?
That is such an interesting idea. It sounds like it would be difficult to manage a program like this. Also the accounting to make sure that this transaction is actually going on would need to be heavily monitored. It is just interesting that two millionaires have to pay for ones care when one would just suffice. I don’t understand how they would find these people either. The idea sounds nice, but when figuring out the raw numbers that come along with the concept may make it harder than it should be.
There is no solution to homelessness, no matter how any can try to handle the situation. Yet, the fact still rest that there will always be this type of gap with people due to the capitalist system we have in place. There were always be people with a lot of access and people without.
Nice!