To: Bernie Sanders, President Donald Trump, The California State House, The California State Senate, Governor Gavin Newsom, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Allocate The 18.5 Million Abandoned Properties to Initiate "An En Masse Homesteading Movement"
The purpose of authorizing "The Homestead Subsidization Act" is to implement the following plan:
1.) To allocate the 18.5 million abandoned properties first to able-bodied people committed to fixing them up and homesteading them (growing enough food to feed themselves and others); these houses can be applied for at any Department of Human Resources office as part of a 2-3 year plan for individuals to gain independence from social services such as Section 8 rental and housing assistance or SNAP benefits (aka "food stamps").
2.) To subsidize the renovation of these homes in order to hire plumbers, electricians, LEED-Certified construction crews, green energy providers (solar, wind, etc.), and so on in order to “fix our domestic infrastructure” in a way that directly benefits peoples’ lives and helps local communities lift themselves and each other out of poverty.
3.) To allocate "native and heirloom seed packets", educational materials, and the media campaign necessary to help orchestrate this movement in "a universally-beneficial, rights-respecting, ecologically-wise and socially considerate way".
Note: These houses are not to be given out as mere crash pads or to people who simply want to “fix them up and rent them out” or “fix them up and sell them”.
Why is this important?
Many people who cannot afford it -- more than anything else -- simply want a place where they can grow organic food and homestead their own property -- to have a place where they can be part of the solution and not have to cause environmental degradation by the way they are living.
Rather than having over 18 million houses either rot OR simply be purchased and rented out or sold back to the American people, let's get right to the solutions-- making sure people have food and housing and control over their own lives and destinies.
Statistics:
*** There are approximately 3.5 million homeless people.[1]
*** Approximately 50,000 veterans are homeless[2], and about ~1.4 million veterans considered "at risk of homelessness" due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.[3]
*** Since 2007, banks have foreclosed around eight million homes.
*** There are 18.5 million abandoned properties just "sitting there" throughout towns and cities of all sizes.
1 in 2 Americans have fallen into poverty or are struggling to live on low incomes.
*** The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative along with Amnesty International are asking the U.S. to step up its efforts to address the foreclosure crisis, including by giving serious consideration to the growing call for a foreclosure moratorium and other forms of relief for those at risk, and establishing a housing finance system that fulfills human rights obligations.[4]
How "The Homestead Subsidization Act" Will Help People Domestically And Abroad:
*** Immediately end homelessness with houses to spare. To create independence for people rather than dependence.
*** Greatly reduce peoples' grocery bills.
*** Greatly reduce the incessant filling of landfills AND the filling of oceans with plastic waste because "gardens aren't wrapped in garbage".
*** Greatly reduce humanity's carbon footprint (less hauling of food great distances, reduce dependence on resource-intensive animal agriculture, and so on).
*** Greatly reduce peoples' dependence upon food stamps (aka SNAP or EBT), thus saving tax dollars.
*** Help create a healthy and ecologically sustainable food supply to help replace the GMO and animal agriculture-based food supply we currently have in place, thus creating a healthier Citizenry.
*** To create a diverse organic agricultural economy with unique micro-economies.
*** Alleviate strain on communities trying to keep up with poverty in their areas.
*** Relieves people from what will become unnecessary excess labor: trucking and other forms of commercial hauling, garbage collecting and waste management, and so on) in a way which is "more beneficial to all people than the current paradigm is to anyone".
[1]: National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2007: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.html
[2]: National Alliance to End Homelessness. The State of Homelessness in America. 2015: http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/fact-sheet-veteran-homelessness
[3]: National Coalition of Homeless Veterans: http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/background_and_statistics/
National Economic and Social Rights Initiative Home Page: https://www.nesri.org/
Amnesty International Home Page: https://www.amnesty.org/en/
[4]: Article by The Mind Unleashed, “18,600,000 vacant homes in the United States. Enough for every homeless person to have six!”: http://themindunleashed.org/2014/02/18600000-vacant-homes-united-states-enough-every-homeless-person-six.html