A Solution for Low-Income Housing and Rebuilding these Communities
I have become more and more aware of the problems in low-income communities since I the day I became an insurance agent in the city of St Louis. I have had the opportunity to drive, walk, and talk to many residents that live in these communities. There are a ton of properties that are not taken care of, condemned, and are unsafe to live in. Yet, some people do not find many or any options and they feel that these are the only places for them to live.
I recently read an article that talked about how bad it is in one of our St. Louis communities. This place turned out to be so unsafe that a resident gave up her apartment for a homeless shelter. This is mind blowing to me. I will admit that before I spent more time in the city, I was completely unaware of the issues that existed.
The problem is not just the buildings or the area. The problem is that people’s needs that are not being met, and this is what drives the decline in these areas.
Safety isn’t just the quality of the residence, but also the quality of the residents.
Someone could rebuild all the buildings and renovate everything, but that alone will not solve the problems that these places are having. The residents will continue to live how they have been, and it will bring those buildings back to the state they are in. If the rent is raised and it becomes unaffordable to the residents, then people will be left with less housing options and be on the streets. This is not fixing the problem.
These communities need to be loved and given the opportunity to grow. But most of all they need to be supported, by members in and outside of the communities. By supporting each other, we expand what we do and what we think is possible. The culture needs to be led by example. The example should show the possibility of a better reality for the communities. That is the big picture of my idea.
side note: I have a folder that I keep a bunch of my ideas in that I am not able to pursue or research more immediately. This is just one of my recent added ideas.
What if there was a business that employed people to rebuild/renovate homes and a big part of their wage is rent paid for to live in the project(s) that they worked on? Basically, like working to build your own home. There would be a great sense of pride in ownership for the work done and in turn, the place would be better taken care of.
The wage could be optionally structured in a way that once someone has started working, they are immediately given a place to live, and then once place gets built up, they have an option to rent the place that they worked on. This could even be set as a rent to buy plan. Since they are building where they will eventually live, they will put in their best effort. Since the process of rebuilding takes time, it is a huge opportunity to build successful habits and values within the community, making the place ultimately nicer.
The biggest hurdle would be the skilled labor. There would need to be a strong system that trains new employees before/on the job. Also, there is a level of faith and trust that goes into this process, but it is shared between both the employee and the employer. Metrics, expectations, and rewards can be easily set to ensure that the employee performs. The biggest push would be that knowing it is their job to make the community the place that they want to live.
The business would be organized like a general contracting business that can do everything, but it specializes in creating skilled labor and rebuilding low-income communities.
This is just a quick idea. I do not have any knowledge or experience in the construction industry, so I know there are a bunch more hurdles and details to work out. But I think this serves as an example of just how people can start thinking up solutions to problems and come up with something that benefits everyone around them.
I want to end this article with one last thing, a challenge. My challenge for you is: Find something that is a problem or even a minor inconvenience, and just think for 5–10 minutes on these three things.
- Why is this a problem?
- What seems to be the root cause(s)?
- What can be done to the root cause(s) to produce a different and more desired result?
