Homeless in a Car with My Kid – One Vet’s Escape (Full)
There are 771,000 homeless Americans while we blow $20 billion a year and the problem keeps growing. Army vet and ER nurse Kara Candage hit rock bottom – sleeping in her car in El Paso with a toddler and a dog – yet still crushed nursing school. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley let Kara rip the curtain off the broken shelters, useless spending, and the real moves (like Finland’s model) that actually work.
Timestamps:
- (00:00) From Homelessness to Hope: A Mother’s Story
- (00:49) The Homelessness Crisis in America
- (02:17) Meet Kara Candage – Army vet, ER nurse, car-life survivor
- (03:48) Daily Struggles and Coping Mechanisms
- (07:41) The System’s Shortcomings and Personal Sacrifices
- (13:31) Breaking the Cycle – Education and Determination
- (14:37) Transitioning Out of Homelessness
- (15:55) The Bigger Picture – Systemic Issues
- (21:57) Debating Solutions – Legal and Ethical Considerations
- (26:17) Inpatient vs. Outpatient Therapy
- (30:09) Frequent Flyers in the ER + Shelter Addiction Nightmares
- (33:20) What Finland Gets Right on Housing
- (34:57) Redistributing the Homeless Population
- (48:00) The Role of Real Estate Investors
- (49:17) A Message to My Son
- (51:18) Conclusion and Call to Action
Connect:
- Kara Candage – https://www.instagram.com/kara_candage
Transcript
An army vet and ER nurse, Kara Candage, gets divorced overnight — husband
Speaker:bails, VA disability barely covers daycare, and boom — she and her
Speaker:infant son are living in a hot car in El Paso for eleven brutal months.
Speaker:She still showers at Planet Fitness, drops the kid at daycare, cranks
Speaker:straight A’s through an accelerated nursing program, and parks every night
Speaker:in Walmart lots just to stay alive.
Speaker:All while the system tells her she makes TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS too much a
Speaker:month to qualify for any real help.
Speaker:Jerremy and Dave sit down with Kara to ask the question nobody wants to answer — if
Speaker:America’s spending TWENTY BILLION dollars a year on homelessness and the number just
Speaker:hit an all-time high of 771,000… where the hell is the money actually going…
Speaker:Dave Conley, what are we addressing and solving today?
Speaker:In this week's episode of Solving America's Problems, we dig into a
Speaker:story that hits hard homelessness.
Speaker:It's not just numbers, it's lives turned upside down, testing, grit, and will.
Speaker:How does someone climb out?
Speaker:Our guest is Kara Candi, an army veteran and ER nurse who lived that struggle.
Speaker:She spent nearly a year in her car with her young child pushing through
Speaker:nursing school against all odds.
Speaker:Today, she channels that resilience into building hope for others.
Speaker:And that's this week on solving America's problems from Homelessness to Hope.
Speaker:A Mother Story with Kara Kage.
Speaker:The numbers do not lie.
Speaker:Tonight there will be 771,000 Americans homeless, which is the highest number
Speaker:as a nation we've ever recorded.
Speaker:We are spending $20 billion a year.
Speaker:To fix this, and it apparently is getting worse.
Speaker:But here's what's really crazy.
Speaker:We actually know what works.
Speaker:Houston cut their homeless population by 63% Finland, have
Speaker:nearly eliminated it entirely.
Speaker:why are most cities still failing?
Speaker:My name is Jerremy Alexander Newsom, alongside me is my co-host Dave Conley,
Speaker:and this is solving America's Problems.
Speaker:Today we are talking with someone who lived through this crisis firsthand.
Speaker:Kara Candage is an army veteran and an ER nurse who found herself homeless
Speaker:living in her car with a young child in El Paso now beautifully.
Speaker:She did not just survive this.
Speaker:She completed nursing school while experiencing homelessness, and
Speaker:now she is dedicated her life to building real solutions for people
Speaker:who others have written off.
Speaker:Kara, welcome to the show.
Speaker:Thank you for having me.
Speaker:It's gonna be an absolute pleasure and we're just gonna dive right in.
Speaker:What was the moment that created that homelessness for you?
Speaker:Oh man, that was, it was an instant, it wasn't a gradual
Speaker:creep down into homelessness.
Speaker:Um, I went through a terrible divorce and the instant I left
Speaker:that marriage, he abandoned my child and I, and I had no money.
Speaker:I had the VA disability.
Speaker:I had just gotten into nursing school.
Speaker:It was like that I couldn't afford the rent, and all I
Speaker:had was my car and my baby.
Speaker:And my dog
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So that was, I mean, it was, to your point, it wasn't gradual.
Speaker:As soon as that happens, boom, you have nowhere to
Speaker:incident.
Speaker:you just have to stay in your car.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:How long were you and your child in your car?
Speaker:Just under a year.
Speaker:It was about 11 months.
Speaker:Just that's such a long time.
Speaker:Just under a year,
Speaker:under,
Speaker:11 and a half months.
Speaker:It's so long.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So what's a, what's a typical day like?
Speaker:I mean, like, I, I, I think most people I don't know what's a, I mean, what,
Speaker:what happens, like, we wake up and like, what would we not be thinking about?
Speaker:well obviously I don't wake up and clean a house in that situation.
Speaker:Well, it depends if it was a school day, so I. Everybody's gonna be
Speaker:like, wow, you made VA disability.
Speaker:I literally took every penny to put my child in daycare and my dog, I
Speaker:worked out a very cheap boarding solution, um, where I volunteered time.
Speaker:So she went to boarding 'cause I couldn't get rid of my dog either.
Speaker:And so, typical day, I'd wake up, take my child to daycare.
Speaker:After we went to the gym, I showered at the gym planet Fitness
Speaker:membership, $10, shower at the gym, take my child to daycare 'cause
Speaker:he was just an infant at the time.
Speaker:And then I'd go to school.
Speaker:And either do clinicals, classwork, and then I would pick my child up and
Speaker:then I would go home, quote unquote.
Speaker:We usually would set at a park 'cause it was really hot in
Speaker:El Paso until the wintertime.
Speaker:So we'd set at the park with other homeless people.
Speaker:Surprisingly, you'd make a lot of homeless friends that way.
Speaker:Do some homework, uh, scavenge food, however that looked like.
Speaker:And then go to sleep somewhere safe.
Speaker:Usually a Walmart parking lot.
Speaker:Um, planet Fitness, the dog border that I worked with, she said I
Speaker:could park my car there some nights.
Speaker:Somewhere safe.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Saying people probably don't realize, like El Paso's definitely hot in the
Speaker:summer, but it's cold in the winter.
Speaker:Very cold in the winter it there was two Jurassic.
Speaker:You never had a happy medium.
Speaker:We went from a hundred degrees to 30 degrees and you can't pack winter
Speaker:clothes in a car, so you make it work.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Well, thank you for making it work.
Speaker:You, me, you mentioned making friends.
Speaker:Just gimme a little bit of insight of how that transpired.
Speaker:What did that look like or feel like?
Speaker:A little shameful at first 'cause you're at the park and then you
Speaker:notice other people are at the park at times they shouldn't be.
Speaker:Um, a lot of 'em didn't have kids, very fortunately for them.
Speaker:And you would kind of notice they're wearing the same clothes they wore
Speaker:yesterday and the day before and they would notice I was wearing the same stuff.
Speaker:And you kind of just mutually have a bond you know, especially as a female.
Speaker:I was a very young female.
Speaker:I was 20 at the time, turning 21.
Speaker:Very dangerous.
Speaker:It's not a very safe city.
Speaker:It's a great city.
Speaker:Love El Paso.
Speaker:Not a very safe city as a female.
Speaker:So you're kind of shameful, like admitting, Hey, I'm wearing
Speaker:the same clothes for the last three days, so sorry about that.
Speaker:But you also notice they are, and you kind of form this mutual bond of protection.
Speaker:I not like a, you're gonna go have a barbecue at their house,
Speaker:obviously, but they'll watch.
Speaker:I
Speaker:Numerous house jokes.
Speaker:This is
Speaker:you,
Speaker:it.
Speaker:oh, you have to, uh, my.
Speaker:My car broke the, uh, other month and I was like, oh, good
Speaker:thing I'm great at house repairs.
Speaker:You have to make jokes.
Speaker:Uh, but it's more of a, not a friendship as, a good bond like I have now.
Speaker:It's more of a protection.
Speaker:I scratch their back, they scratch mine.
Speaker:If they found $5, they buy a Happy meal, they would split
Speaker:it with me and vice versa.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So when you, when you mentioned protection, like what do you feel
Speaker:that you need a protection from?
Speaker:No offense, men.
Speaker:It's a, you're talking it's a very scary world.
Speaker:You're out there 20 years old, 21 years old with a baby and
Speaker:you know, can't do anything.
Speaker:You can lock your cars, but those windows break, um, you gotta be outside
Speaker:of your car 'cause you can't sit it.
Speaker:'cause I can't afford the gas to run the AC all the time.
Speaker:So men, uh, the.
Speaker:Weather.
Speaker:El Paso gets really terrible windstorms and very terrible
Speaker:thunderstorms, so it's just everything.
Speaker:Snakes, spiders, they're everywhere.
Speaker:So everything.
Speaker:Now how are you still gonna school at this time?
Speaker:Like, what did you do with your, with your child?
Speaker:He went to daycare.
Speaker:So luckily my school was strictly Monday through Friday.
Speaker:Like I said, I think I made roughly $1,700 a month in VA disability.
Speaker:And the daycare was originally a little bit more than that.
Speaker:And I had talked to the owner, I was like, here's my situation.
Speaker:I don't know what I can do.
Speaker:Can I like volunteer a couple hours a week to reduce my tuition?
Speaker:And they did.
Speaker:I would go two hours a week to help with the kids and.
Speaker:My tuition was $1,500, so I had $200 for food and gas, which does not go far.
Speaker:Were there any other programs that were available to you?
Speaker:Could any other assistance?
Speaker:So funniest story is when you make just a little bit of money, you
Speaker:make too much money for all that.
Speaker:So all the programs were basically, I was over the
Speaker:threshold by a few hundred dollars.
Speaker:And so like you can give up your VA disability and we'll
Speaker:give you all these benefits.
Speaker:You lose that VA disability and then you lose your school and you lose all this.
Speaker:So we'll give you a house, you know, section eight housing or whatever,
Speaker:or whatever the city was providing, and we'll give you food stamps.
Speaker:But right now you make just a little bit too much.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:That's kinda wild.
Speaker:I mean, there's definitely, I can see the pros and cons of having some type
Speaker:of cutoff, but like the, does it seem like there's a lot of discretionary, in
Speaker:It's kind of a donut hole, right?
Speaker:You, if you make too much, that's a problem, and if you make too
Speaker:little, that's a big problem.
Speaker:Huge problem.
Speaker:I think they went off of, they kept saying, well, here's a room to rent on
Speaker:the south side of town for $550 a month, and you and your son could live there.
Speaker:If you don't know anything about El Paso, the closer to the border,
Speaker:you get a little dangerous.
Speaker:So at that point, it wasn't worth.
Speaker:Danger of living in a house of men, I don't know, with my child.
Speaker:And so stable housing, safe housing was not affordable by any means.
Speaker:Now, was your son at the time, was he having a blast?
Speaker:Oh, he was a baby.
Speaker:He didn't even know, you know, he just was like, I'm with mom, this is great.
Speaker:We're going to the park.
Speaker:And you know, I did
Speaker:a
Speaker:I a lot.
Speaker:He's like, wow, I never got to go to the park this much.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so I really tried to shelter him, although I don't,
Speaker:he doesn't remember even know.
Speaker:We talk about it a little bit now, but he doesn't remember anything.
Speaker:Uh, and like I said, all my money, I made sure he had formula
Speaker:every month, diapers every month.
Speaker:I had, uh, I'm not gonna lie, every now and then, I stole some diapers,
Speaker:but he had to do what you have to do.
Speaker:Don't come after me.
Speaker:Yeah, there's a, there's a limitations on that I'm sure.
Speaker:State of Texas will be like the limitations.
Speaker:20 years we're coming after you.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And this is, I mean, it's such a cool story of survival and
Speaker:just kind of figuring it out.
Speaker:At any point in time did you feel excited, liberated?
Speaker:Was this fun?
Speaker:Was this en energizing in any way?
Speaker:No, but it's funny 'cause now my partner, Jerremy, also Jerremy we
Speaker:are living a very nomadic lifestyle.
Speaker:Come winter, we're gonna live out of our car and travel the country.
Speaker:'cause New York's winters are not great.
Speaker:So it's funny as I. Nomadic is what I wanna call it, is much different.
Speaker:That's fun and liberating.
Speaker:Like we don't have a house to care for in the winter.
Speaker:We don't have this, but we're making money and it's different.
Speaker:I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker:Being homeless was not fun.
Speaker:There was not one moment that I went to sleep going, wow, this is the best camping
Speaker:experience I've ever had in my life.
Speaker:Camping experience.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean that's, it's, I'm, I appreciate you telling me that
Speaker:because I noticed, and I see at least depends on where you would go.
Speaker:But there are, I. A lot of people that are perpetually homeless.
Speaker:And so I would love to know like, what's your are they having fun?
Speaker:Are they doing it because they want to, like did you, did you get
Speaker:any insight or information on that
Speaker:I, I did, I, so I met one guy, he was super nice I forget his name by
Speaker:now, but he chose to be homeless.
Speaker:And I would go to him like, why do you choose to live this life?
Speaker:Like here I am literally eating dog food.
Speaker:I'd buy canned dog food 'cause it's cheaper than ravioli.
Speaker:And I'm like, I'm eating this and you're choosing this lifestyle.
Speaker:He is like.
Speaker:Man, I don't pay taxes.
Speaker:The government doesn't control me.
Speaker:I'm on the fringes of society and I live by those laws.
Speaker:And I'm like, you know what?
Speaker:Good for you.
Speaker:So there were some people, there was definitely people that choose
Speaker:that lifestyle 'cause they don't like the, you know, constraints
Speaker:of society that we have today.
Speaker:I think a lot of people, when we first, when I first started looking at this,
Speaker:my per percept, perception is that a lot of homelessness is a lot of bad choices.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:a lot of, addiction.
Speaker:It's, uh, a lot of crime.
Speaker:It's a lot of you know, it's a lot of, a lot of different things where you
Speaker:think people could have made different choices, but turns out that most people
Speaker:who are homeless are exactly like you.
Speaker:It went from homeless, it went from being home to homeless
Speaker:and by no choice of their own.
Speaker:was your experience like?
Speaker:Did you run into a lot of that?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean there's definitely some people who made awful choices, right?
Speaker:Um, did some horrific crimes, went to jail, got out, were homeless and then
Speaker:people who had really bad addictions, mental health issues that they just
Speaker:couldn't get the help for, and they could not maintain a household or a job.
Speaker:And so you have that, and then you had, it was a lot of people like me,
Speaker:whereas, divorce was a huge thing.
Speaker:You people went from a two income household or a one income
Speaker:household to a no income household.
Speaker:And that's, and you don't have an education, you know,
Speaker:I just got the military.
Speaker:I didn't have an education, um, outside of high school and.
Speaker:I would say that was majority of the population.
Speaker:And then what happens is it leads to the addiction and the mental
Speaker:health issues on top of that.
Speaker:So I don't think they started with that necessarily majority.
Speaker:It led to that.
Speaker:That's an interesting take.
Speaker:Just meaning like it, I think a lot of people probably feel it's
Speaker:probably the other way around.
Speaker:Like the majority of
Speaker:Start as homeless start from an addiction or mental health space.
Speaker:it's probably my thesis too that it, that's probably the
Speaker:gradual effects something crazy insane happening in their life.
Speaker:And again, to your point, the educational aspect not having awesome education.
Speaker:And then at the second time sec, the same time all the income goes away through a
Speaker:loss of a job or divorce or some type of
Speaker:Have one or two incomes, now you have zero.
Speaker:And if you have zero income and bill bills are due, they're
Speaker:Bills are due.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's really, really interesting that, um, that you feel that, that
Speaker:you noticed that, that you saw that.
Speaker:And I think that that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:at what point as you're going through school, what kept you going to end up
Speaker:getting and finalizing that degree?
Speaker:As my child without my son, it would've been so easy to just be
Speaker:homeless and on those fringes of society and stay where I was at.
Speaker:But I saw this baby, right?
Speaker:So he is still a baby, and I thought if I could just make it, because if
Speaker:I drop outta school, I'm gonna get a minimum wage job, and it hasn't changed.
Speaker:$7 and 25 cents minimum wage in Texas.
Speaker:Do the math.
Speaker:It's like $1,100 a month.
Speaker:Can't do anything with that.
Speaker:And I just kept thinking I can make it a year.
Speaker:I did this accelerated nursing program.
Speaker:I can make it the year for this baby.
Speaker:And I don't know if I didn't have him, if I would be right here in this gorgeous
Speaker:little cabin excuse little fire detector.
Speaker:But you know, I. I wouldn't be here I don't think, without my child.
Speaker:That was a huge driving force for me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's good motivation and hey, congrats.
Speaker:Like well done.
Speaker:Pushing through.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:What was the moment that you became not homeless?
Speaker:Like how did that shift
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:It was funny.
Speaker:You would think it'd be the day I graduated.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, you graduate nurse.
Speaker:It wasn't.
Speaker:would think that I did.
Speaker:It wasn't.
Speaker:So when you graduate nursing school, then you have to take the nclex, which is,
Speaker:you know, this national test for nursing.
Speaker:It's by state though.
Speaker:And so it takes like a month and a half to get that testing.
Speaker:So now I graduated school, which stinks 'cause I had nothing to do during the day
Speaker:Oh
Speaker:sit around and be homeless.
Speaker:And so I had to study for this test and then I pass it and then
Speaker:I had to make that decision.
Speaker:Where am I going?
Speaker:Because now I have this nursing license and am I staying here in El Paso?
Speaker:Am I, I did make the move back home to Florida, which she would
Speaker:be like, why didn't you go to Florida in the first place?
Speaker:That's a long story.
Speaker:Couldn't really afford the gas, nor did I have that family support.
Speaker:But it was like a month and a half after graduation that I. Got off
Speaker:and uh, then you have to get a job.
Speaker:That's the hard part.
Speaker:Then it takes like a month to get hired, and then it takes, you know, a
Speaker:couple weeks for that first paycheck.
Speaker:And that first paycheck isn't enough to get rent.
Speaker:So a month and a half to test land a job about a month after
Speaker:to actually start the job.
Speaker:So it's probably a good three months from graduation to the time that
Speaker:I signed for my first apartment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I mean, here's the part that still kind of blows my mind and I
Speaker:see, or at least I feel this, I don't know what the disconnect is here,
Speaker:and I, I would love to get probably like a longer thought on yours from
Speaker:this, but you had military experience,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:you went to the Army, so you
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:trying to get help,
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:VA housing programs.
Speaker:Is there a process there?
Speaker:Is there something like how are so many?
Speaker:I feel like a lot of homeless people are veterans.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Because the VA gives you this disability and they're like, that should be enough.
Speaker:Because you should be able, like let's say at the time I was 70% disabled and they
Speaker:were like, you should be able to work at 30% capacity, so make an extra income.
Speaker:And they don't take in the factor that that's 30% at minimum wages, $300 a month.
Speaker:No, there is not much.
Speaker:They had they gave me a card for a shelter there in El Paso
Speaker:and it was a co-ed shelter.
Speaker:And I said, I am not going to be a single female with a baby sleeping in
Speaker:a dormitory style on cots with men.
Speaker:No offense again, but just not happening.
Speaker:I'm not doing it.
Speaker:And that was all they did for me.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:It just seems wild.
Speaker:It just seems strange,
Speaker:Right When you have the, when you look at the VA budget and
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:what they allocate to the veterans, and you really wonder like, I would
Speaker:love to go in the books and see where they're going because I begged for help.
Speaker:And they were just like, yeah, I got your disability and your healthcare.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:I don't know what else you want us to do.
Speaker:It's funny you say that.
Speaker:Jerremy and I keep on doing these topics and every single time we're like,
Speaker:we, we need to look at these books.
Speaker:There's so
Speaker:Going into this.
Speaker:Like I, this doesn't make any sense.
Speaker:yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:okay, so we are spending billions of dollars
Speaker:20 billion,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:2020,
Speaker:20.
Speaker:Yeah, right?
Speaker:What should the system look like?
Speaker:What, where is it missing the mark?
Speaker:I think what's occurring is the analogy I like to use when people are like,
Speaker:I wanna solve homelessness is kind of like saying I wanna cure cancer.
Speaker:Noble super awesome.
Speaker:It should be done, but I. To cure breast cancer is different than curing
Speaker:brain cancer is different than curing colon cancer and so on, so forth.
Speaker:People wanna make this blanket statement for homelessness and the
Speaker:solution for it, not realizing that you have to solve the reason and
Speaker:everybody's got a different reason.
Speaker:Um, you could probably break it down to like four or five, you
Speaker:know, loss of income, mental health, addiction stuff like that.
Speaker:And some people are multiple, they're like.
Speaker:Poly issues.
Speaker:So I think the big solution everybody has is we have all these empty houses in
Speaker:Detroit, just ship homeless people there.
Speaker:It sounds great in theory to give people houses, but people don't know how to
Speaker:live in a house and therefore they're gonna end up right back on the street.
Speaker:Some people dunno how to conform to society and it's easier for
Speaker:them to live on those outskirts.
Speaker:I don't know if there is a. Broad solution because there's too many
Speaker:avenues that lead to homelessness.
Speaker:I think when people think I wanna solve homelessness, they're like,
Speaker:you know, San Francisco, everybody's sleeping on the streets there.
Speaker:It's huge because when it's a cool climate, you know,
Speaker:it's mild and they allow it.
Speaker:And people wanna cure that homelessness because it disrupts
Speaker:the visual aesthetics of the city.
Speaker:They don't really care so much of the fact that the people are homeless,
Speaker:they just wanna make the city pretty.
Speaker:Whereas me living in a car aisles, idle site, I mind, they probably
Speaker:didn't care as much to solve that.
Speaker:No, like in the reality, I don't know, $20 billion I think is just asinine
Speaker:and there's no good solution for it.
Speaker:I think if we really wanna get down and dirty, the mental health crisis
Speaker:in America is probably a big one.
Speaker:As a nurse emergency room, I see it all the time, right?
Speaker:We have no access here in New York to good, uh, mental health
Speaker:services and they're just flooding.
Speaker:And these people are going right back to the streets.
Speaker:I. Employment.
Speaker:Right now we're just in this weird market where there's all these
Speaker:jobs, but none of them are paying.
Speaker:So what do you do there?
Speaker:I don't know, and I wish I had an answer.
Speaker:'cause if I did, I'd probably be $20 billion richer.
Speaker:Yeah, well, there's, there's always solutions to every problem.
Speaker:And, uh, and to your point, what I love is if we had to use the
Speaker:analogy of cancer, different cancers, and if we go, okay, well, which
Speaker:one is the largest and the most astronomically offensive and effective?
Speaker:And, you know, innovative or, uh, or innovative is not the right word.
Speaker:One that's affecting the most people, the most negatively impacting.
Speaker:And to your point with homelessness, if there is, let's say four or five
Speaker:major categories, if there was like, okay, let's make sure that the veterans
Speaker:just fun fact who served our country who don't wanna be homeless, let's
Speaker:make sure they're not homeless first.
Speaker:And potentially by using some type of.
Speaker:Government programming that says, Hey, this is where you can live.
Speaker:This is, we have women's shelters, we have men's shelters, we have,
Speaker:barracks, we have places that are near a military base or where you used to
Speaker:be, uh, in the military close to there.
Speaker:There's something some way.
Speaker:the people who don't wanna be homeless, I'm sure there's a much
Speaker:faster way to create that solution.
Speaker:And then you start breaking it down into the different barriers, right?
Speaker:Into the different columns or sections, if you will, of the
Speaker:individuals who don't wanna be at all.
Speaker:And the people who are and who wanna be.
Speaker:Then the people who don't know they're homeless potentially.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Because again, mental health or massive drug addictions.
Speaker:And then you start categorizing on, okay, let's fix a certain portion
Speaker:of a certain type of a certain kind.
Speaker:Uh, you're mentioning that San Francisco make it super made it legal.
Speaker:And then to your point, they just wanna have their streets clean just for
Speaker:aesthetic looks and not, they didn't wanna actually solve the problem.
Speaker:So they're kind of like putting 'em in camps and like shoving 'em into
Speaker:like a very small little area, which.
Speaker:gonna help the problem.
Speaker:I'll ask you this question.
Speaker:Do you think homelessness should be illegal?
Speaker:That's a good one.
Speaker:I we're talking legitimate, not like a nomadic living in our rv.
Speaker:We're talking legitimate on the streets.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're choosing not to have a home.
Speaker:I. Like your buddy that you mentioned earlier, like, ah,
Speaker:dog, I wanna live on the fringes.
Speaker:I don't
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:taxes.
Speaker:I just wanna eat birds and eat pigeons.
Speaker:I think, and this is a very personal opinion, I think as an American,
Speaker:we have a duty to our country to be productive to society within our
Speaker:capabilities, and that's kind of what our country is about, is this.
Speaker:You know, melting pot of people.
Speaker:I do think there should be some laws constraining that
Speaker:ability to just say, oh, deuces.
Speaker:Because what's gonna happen is that you're gonna get hurt, you're gonna
Speaker:get sick, and then you're gonna use those public services like
Speaker:hospitals or you know, you're using the public services like roads, but
Speaker:you're not contributing to them.
Speaker:And you're creating more of a problem.
Speaker:I don't think like the nomadic lifestyle, like living in a RV or a van and traveling
Speaker:and, you know, still contributing.
Speaker:Those are different.
Speaker:That's a nomadic.
Speaker:But this choosing, like that gentleman who had no problems, right?
Speaker:He just quit.
Speaker:His job might be homeless, but like if he got sick, he
Speaker:would still go to the hospital.
Speaker:And that's paid for by taxpayers.
Speaker:That's paid for by the people that are contributing to society in some form.
Speaker:And I do it, and I've always had this standpoint on any sort of
Speaker:welfare, you know, contribute to society within your capabilities.
Speaker:Doesn't mean that everybody needs to be a doctor.
Speaker:Everybody needs to be a lawyer.
Speaker:Everybody needs to be, you know, a roofer.
Speaker:But if you could sit at a desk and be hr, if you could do anything,
Speaker:work at a gas station, do.
Speaker:Something you should, because it is our duty as Americans to do that.
Speaker:Kara, I'm also hearing that.
Speaker:To be fair, your needs were very basic.
Speaker:You needed a safe roof over your head and your child and care for
Speaker:your child while you did education and food, and that we should be
Speaker:able to provide that for everyone.
Speaker:That seems like a basic human right.
Speaker:Wouldn't you say that?
Speaker:I would, I'm not saying everybody needs a mansion, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:these little tiny homes, right?
Speaker:They're so cheap to construct.
Speaker:And when you break down what it costs to actually be homeless,
Speaker:what that cost is on society.
Speaker:It probably would be cheaper to build these little tiny housing communities.
Speaker:You know, a little one bedroom, just, it doesn't have to be
Speaker:anything big, but that was my thing.
Speaker:It was a safe place and I didn't have that.
Speaker:And you know, with food stamps I made just a little bit too much for that.
Speaker:And so I had to live off that $200.
Speaker:I had to cover, gas and diapers and formula and whatever left I had was food.
Speaker:What do you think, Dave?
Speaker:Legal or legal?
Speaker:I think it's tremendously cruel to let anybody sleep
Speaker:on the street for any reason.
Speaker:I think we don't treat people like that.
Speaker:I think it's inhumane.
Speaker:So illegal, or not illegal, I don't know.
Speaker:Uh, that, you know, sort of classifying it like that doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker:I think it's just like, no, like people aren't going in my
Speaker:America, one sleeps on the street.
Speaker:that's, yeah.
Speaker:That's a hard no for me.
Speaker:Even if they want to though, like I wanna see on the street, they like the street.
Speaker:The street's nice.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:That affects other people though.
Speaker:You know, like once you start like, like doing that to communities, it's
Speaker:you can go camping, but, you know, sleeping on the street, by choice.
Speaker:I don't get it.
Speaker:You know, so it's, it's just not, that's not the place, right?
Speaker:You know, like people, I mean, people want to be naked in the
Speaker:street too, but that doesn't happen.
Speaker:You.
Speaker:Yeah, that's a very valid point.
Speaker:Very, very valid point.
Speaker:To your, uh, to your thought process on, you mentioned mental health a
Speaker:couple times, Kara, what's for that?
Speaker:Like, when do you think that starts becoming an obvious challenge and
Speaker:situational awareness piece for either the American public or for
Speaker:the local counties to step in?
Speaker:What do you think we should do from the homelessness aspect
Speaker:to the mental health aspect and figure out a way to bridge this?
Speaker:that look like?
Speaker:I.
Speaker:Ooh.
Speaker:I have seen some really awesome programs in different cities I've lived in.
Speaker:So now I've been traveling and living in different cities and I've seen a
Speaker:whole bunch of different mental health facilities, not as a personal, but
Speaker:as a nurse and everything like that.
Speaker:And one thing that's really good are these pseudo inpatient, outpatient.
Speaker:They're neither inpatient nor outpatient.
Speaker:Um, I think people, when they.
Speaker:Do an inpatient therapy session.
Speaker:It can be very institutionalized.
Speaker:And then they leave and they lose that structure.
Speaker:I think if we have a setup where it's like a couple hours a day,
Speaker:you go to a facility, it's safe.
Speaker:You can, get your basic needs met a meal, a shower, get the mental health treatment,
Speaker:go back to where you were from, and keep doing that, and then they can you know,
Speaker:incorporate themselves into a living situation of like an indoor facility
Speaker:where they have that structure of food.
Speaker:I don't think doing these like group therapies on the street,
Speaker:which also happens, or you know, once a month meetings.
Speaker:I definitely think that structured inpatient outpatient situation would
Speaker:be very ideal for people like that.
Speaker:I,
Speaker:No, go ahead.
Speaker:Go ahead Dave.
Speaker:I'm just kind of curious did people know you were homeless?
Speaker:Like your friends, your family, your teachers, your like, I'm,
Speaker:I'm wondering about sort of like the community around this.
Speaker:So I did inform my instructor, instructors that I was homeless.
Speaker:I let them know because I was like, Hey, I may need to come in a little
Speaker:late 'cause of whatever situation and.
Speaker:At one point they noticed that like things just weren't adding up.
Speaker:And, you know, and I was like, Hey, yeah, I am homeless.
Speaker:I really tried to hide it from my classmates.
Speaker:I was excelling in school.
Speaker:I made straight A's.
Speaker:And that's not a humble brag.
Speaker:That's, you know, I will brag about that.
Speaker:That was very hard and my situation to do.
Speaker:But I didn't want them to pity me.
Speaker:I didn't also want them to think she is not, you know, worthy of
Speaker:my company because she's homeless.
Speaker:'cause that does have a dirty con, like a stigma around it, of being homeless.
Speaker:I did ask a classmate one time, I was like, Hey, could you buy me some food?
Speaker:I left my wallet and she went to go buy me frozen chicken breasts and veggies.
Speaker:And I was like.
Speaker:Oh, could we get like canned food instead?
Speaker:And she asked why, and I was like, my stove's broken.
Speaker:So I really did hide it from my peers and let just only a
Speaker:certain amount of people know.
Speaker:Fair.
Speaker:I mean, it's probably.
Speaker:think we can all kind of understand why humanistically.
Speaker:And you mentioned the word cycling an ER nurse a couple times or
Speaker:just, you know, being in the er.
Speaker:What's one breakdown that you see continually I. Fuels homelessness because
Speaker:my my story recognition that I am aware of, I've had a few clients that were or
Speaker:are er doctors and they mentioned that they start to see us, a certain clientele
Speaker:kind of frequent over and over and over.
Speaker:What's, what do you see?
Speaker:What do you witness?
Speaker:What's one breakdown that you see often?
Speaker:There are two frequent flyers on the homeless side.
Speaker:Those that have severe mental disorders.
Speaker:I'm talking true psychosis, very severe schizophrenia, not the,
Speaker:I'm depressed every now and then, which is also very significant.
Speaker:Disorder that needs treatment.
Speaker:But these are true psychosis.
Speaker:They cannot depict reality from what they're seeing.
Speaker:And you have those, and then addicts.
Speaker:And I know, like right now in Central New York, the big thing is this fentanyl meth.
Speaker:So they're getting into these, you're just these two big building blocks that
Speaker:severe psychosis and severe addiction, and we are just cycling through the
Speaker:same, you know, community of people every single day in the emergency room.
Speaker:Yeah, that's.
Speaker:What do you do with 'em?
Speaker:I, I mean, you treat them like are
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:to do something specific?
Speaker:Are you allowed to tell them or do you call, uh, is there a center
Speaker:that you can call that would take those individuals on and kind of
Speaker:pour into them that you're aware of?
Speaker:So a lot of the shelters, you cannot be actively using drugs
Speaker:or drinking, so that eliminates half the population right there.
Speaker:Half the homeless population cannot go there because they're
Speaker:addicts or they're drunks.
Speaker:Which is a shame, right?
Speaker:Because I feel like they could get over their addiction.
Speaker:They had a roofer over their head.
Speaker:We could basically just set 'em up with a addiction line and
Speaker:it's a one 800 number and they.
Speaker:Never call it in terms of the psych, like the psychosis.
Speaker:We set 'em up with an inpatient therapist.
Speaker:They maybe stay 24 hours unless they deny suicidal ideation or homicide ideation.
Speaker:Then we just kick 'em to the street.
Speaker:That's, it's, there's a huge pitfall into what we do after we've
Speaker:initially treated these patients.
Speaker:And it, it really is expenses, right?
Speaker:Because it's,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:know, like, like an addiction.
Speaker:You know, like, I don't know if you're gonna get anywhere without a 30,
Speaker:60, 90 day, like in-house, in, you know, like you're not going anywhere.
Speaker:Treatment program and for severe mental illness, you know, like it
Speaker:takes a while to figure out what cocktail of drugs might make somebody.
Speaker:Here, and maybe even then, right?
Speaker:Like, they may not be in a situation they might need, a
Speaker:lifetime of some sort of care.
Speaker:It's just
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Hey, uh, we're, we're just saying we're not willing to spend the money on this.
Speaker:I think until they hit a certain threshold, right?
Speaker:So when these people come to the emergency room, it's several thousand dollars.
Speaker:'cause we have to treat 'em as if they have a real emergency.
Speaker:We can't just be like, we know your addict, Joe, and you know this is just
Speaker:you trying to get somewhere dry to sleep.
Speaker:If we have to run the whole test, if they say their chest hurts, you're
Speaker:getting a whole chest pain protocol and.
Speaker:It's not them paying for it, unfortunately.
Speaker:And so I think it's once they, once they hit a certain threshold, then society,
Speaker:like the community, the hospital's like, you know what, maybe we will pay for
Speaker:inpatient because they've already racked up $150,000, $200,000 worth of bills.
Speaker:And that's not an exaggeration.
Speaker:That's what some of these people we're seeing 'em two times a
Speaker:day every single day for months.
Speaker:And it's not until they hit that threshold, it's like you
Speaker:could have saved yourself.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So much money.
Speaker:If you would've just saw the problem in the beginning, knew the solution
Speaker:and just went directly to the solution instead of beating around the bushes
Speaker:because you're hoping maybe something happens, whether that's they die on
Speaker:the street and that's very unfortunate, or they spontaneously cure themselves
Speaker:of addiction or mental health illness.
Speaker:It's if somebody spontaneously cures themselves, come
Speaker:find me 'cause I need them.
Speaker:I, I don't think we've heard these stories where, you know,
Speaker:Deep in addiction and somebody who has severe mental illness, like
Speaker:magically makes their way out of it.
Speaker:It's rare, right?
Speaker:Very rare.
Speaker:I mean, very rare.
Speaker:Uh, I have yet to see it, to where they didn't require some sort of
Speaker:outside therapeutic assistance.
Speaker:Yeah, looking at the numbers, so 717,000 may sound like a
Speaker:lot, but that's also 0.002%.
Speaker:Of our nation is homeless.
Speaker:And again, I don't know what percentage of that, probably say
Speaker:30% or less are those who are like, I really don't wanna be homeless.
Speaker:And those who really don't wanna be homeless like you were
Speaker:eventually become not homeless.
Speaker:I would say again, probably a lot.
Speaker:earlier in the show, I mentioned at the very beginning that Finland
Speaker:kind of solved homelessness.
Speaker:And the way they did it is to make sure that every single person had a home.
Speaker:So they essentially built homes for every single person said, listen, you have a
Speaker:house, doesn't matter how old you are.
Speaker:No sobriety requirements, no employment prerequisites.
Speaker:So you got safe, permanent housing.
Speaker:And you mentioned the word tiny houses earlier.
Speaker:Kara, do you think that would work in the us?
Speaker:And if not, why?
Speaker:It would work if our social construct of.
Speaker:Society changed a bit because right now it's expected you have a house,
Speaker:you gotta work, you gotta pay your bills, you gotta pay your taxes.
Speaker:Nobody wants a handout for free.
Speaker:I mean, some people probably would want that, but um, society
Speaker:doesn't wanna pay for handouts.
Speaker:I would like to see Finland's numbers on what their minimum wage is,
Speaker:what it's required to live there.
Speaker:Because I can say right now, if you just gave somebody a house with
Speaker:no education and said, here are the three jobs you can pick, a gas
Speaker:station clerk, you know, retail, whatever, they're all minimum wage.
Speaker:Good luck.
Speaker:You would have to raise that threshold of assistance.
Speaker:'cause right now the assistance thresholds below that minimum wage.
Speaker:I think just giving houses wouldn't work just because of how our society
Speaker:is based on employment taxes, what it's costing, inflation, all that.
Speaker:I also know in San Francisco, they wouldn't put homeless shelters in
Speaker:where the, where the jobs were.
Speaker:It's like, so there was a big, there was a big distance.
Speaker:And if
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:any public transportation, like how are you gonna get someplace?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think I. You would have to move 'em out of these big cities.
Speaker:I know everybody wants, that's San Francisco.
Speaker:It's a, it's a beautiful city.
Speaker:I've been there a couple times.
Speaker:Um, the climate's mild.
Speaker:It's easy to be homeless there and you build this thing, but look at the Midwest
Speaker:and they have a population crisis, right?
Speaker:Nobody wants to move there.
Speaker:Nobody wants to work there.
Speaker:Nobody wants to stay there.
Speaker:I think if we're gonna look at moving the homeless population into housing,
Speaker:we need to push 'em to where there's these population crisis where nobody's
Speaker:living, but there's jobs that are needed.
Speaker:You have like these industries, these warehouses and you know,
Speaker:you can't be like, okay, it's not a glorious job, right?
Speaker:It's a night shift in a warehouse, but it's a job.
Speaker:It's a job you're capable of.
Speaker:I think if you, it'd be naive to be like, you could live in New York
Speaker:City, LA San Fran, Miami, these.
Speaker:Cities that cost money.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And they should it.
Speaker:There should be a privilege, and I hate to say that, but there should be a privilege
Speaker:to live in nicer areas, to work hard for that income to be able to afford it.
Speaker:But take these homeless people like Kansas, no offense, I was stationed there.
Speaker:I. I
Speaker:Put him
Speaker:know.
Speaker:May
Speaker:That's what
Speaker:don't,
Speaker:saying.
Speaker:I'm ready for it.
Speaker:I don't know how many people are like, I'm leaving Miami, Florida
Speaker:to go live in Wichita, Kansas.
Speaker:Nobody, nobody
Speaker:that.
Speaker:I've never heard one human.
Speaker:not.
Speaker:If that's you out, they're good for you.
Speaker:But I can tell you right now, Kansas was desolate.
Speaker:But that may be where we need to start looking at these little communities
Speaker:and building up those areas.
Speaker:'cause California.
Speaker:They got enough population Florida, they got enough population New
Speaker:York, we got enough population.
Speaker:It's these areas that really need people.
Speaker:I think that's where the solution would lie.
Speaker:I kind of like that idea.
Speaker:I like that idea.
Speaker:Jerremy Newsome, tiny Homes in Wichita, Kansas.
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:don't you think we.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:there's a lot of places, not just Wichita, but
Speaker:but yeah,
Speaker:Arkansas,
Speaker:Nebraska.
Speaker:Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma.
Speaker:There's a lot of places
Speaker:it is.
Speaker:the flyover states and there's tons of room.
Speaker:And
Speaker:There are.
Speaker:man, 1700 thou, you know, 1700, 20,000 individuals are homeless, and you go out
Speaker:and build a apartment complexes or tiny homes or places that again need jobs.
Speaker:And your point earlier, okay, you live here.
Speaker:And while you live here in the, in a 30 mile square radius, also need to get a
Speaker:job and to work at the grocery store or to work at the facilities that are there,
Speaker:like the loca, the post office, like whatever, like you have, you get a job.
Speaker:Um, you don't have to pay for the home, it's yours, but the
Speaker:requirement is you need a job.
Speaker:And if we did that.
Speaker:a smart way, and you had a feasibility understanding that there's also easy ways
Speaker:that real estate, companies, developers, contractors, investors could also
Speaker:contribute to that as well so that they, because we don't want the government
Speaker:to build those houses, I don't think.
Speaker:Want some really fun, useful, creative, thoughtful individuals
Speaker:to put these together to so that it's also beautiful and stunning.
Speaker:'cause right now we know what government housing is.
Speaker:We know what Section eight housing is like.
Speaker:We know those.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Cara is a veteran.
Speaker:She knows exactly
Speaker:You know.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which is crazy.
Speaker:We also know they don't work.
Speaker:They're ugly and they, they probably create more because you also have this.
Speaker:Essentially you have this, uh, fear, right?
Speaker:You have, you have a lot of contention in these localized areas
Speaker:because you are your environment.
Speaker:So if you are around 48 other individuals that want to be or are
Speaker:currently homeless and you're currently homeless and you don't really wanna
Speaker:be homeless, it's gonna be very hard to kind of break free from that cycle.
Speaker:But if we found 700,000 small cities in the US put.
Speaker:50 homes up sprinkled around the city and then made it illegal
Speaker:to be homeless voluntarily.
Speaker:Again, maybe to Dave's point, we don't frame it as legal or illegal,
Speaker:but we said, listen, not allowed to sleep on the streets 'cause we don't
Speaker:want you to sleep on the streets.
Speaker:It just shouldn't be done like you need a house.
Speaker:So poof we go and put that person in that home and kinda redistribute the homeless
Speaker:population either in the US or maybe somewhere else that needs more population.
Speaker:Have like a. SA program, be like, we have able-bodied people and you need people.
Speaker:And, um, I think your point about the environment, um, that's a big thing.
Speaker:If you've ever toured section eight housing it's in shambles.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And I think people would care for their homes better if it looked stunning.
Speaker:It's just like me for this podcast, right?
Speaker:You're not gonna see me.
Speaker:But I still took a shower, did my hair, makeup, put on a nice
Speaker:outfit because it made me feel good if people went to their house.
Speaker:And Dave, I take it, you did not shower.
Speaker:No,
Speaker:I
Speaker:did.
Speaker:You know, and I think if people had, and it doesn't have to be an extravagant, they
Speaker:don't need marble countertops or these Italian tile stone, but if it looked.
Speaker:Decent like a modern house, which isn't very expensive to do nowadays.
Speaker:Yeah, it doesn't
Speaker:would care.
Speaker:for something to look good.
Speaker:They would care for it.
Speaker:They would care for it and they would be proud of it.
Speaker:Whereas right now they're not proud of that home.
Speaker:It's leaking, it's the paint's falling off.
Speaker:It's probably got lead in asbestos.
Speaker:I don't, you know, it's, but, and it would also be cool to see like what
Speaker:countries would be willing to take, like if we vetted these people and be like,
Speaker:listen, this person was educated, right?
Speaker:So this person has military background.
Speaker:They have a high school education, which is worth something.
Speaker:They have a clean criminal background.
Speaker:Could you use this person in your country?
Speaker:Let's give them a five-year trial visa.
Speaker:And if they pass it, then you'd give them the option to become a citizen there.
Speaker:Or they can come back and maybe if they had that structure coming
Speaker:back, they'd be much more, you know, apt to being not homeless.
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And then also for medical students who are working, tirelessly in jobs for 60 hours.
Speaker:Every three week, every three days,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:know, and during residency, it's like potentially for those who are affected
Speaker:negatively by, addictions or mental health those can be the individuals that
Speaker:the doctors who are training can also be overseeing, You build facilities or
Speaker:centers and say, Hey, instead of just.
Speaker:Making rounds to make rounds to just try to kill yourself, because
Speaker:we're trying to create an endurance athlete that's also a doctor.
Speaker:Give them time and energy and effort to increase their skills and to also care
Speaker:for other people who need it and place them over those individuals, right?
Speaker:Have them
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:give guidance and attention to the individuals that do need
Speaker:medical treatment through.
Speaker:Through people that actually care for her who need it, who want that experience,
Speaker:And that could even be balanced by residents make almost no money.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So, fun fact, I got to med school recently dropped out because the whole
Speaker:structure of med school and residency and at my advanced age just didn't align
Speaker:with my purpose in life anymore, but.
Speaker:The residents make no money.
Speaker:They're, you know, they, they make like $50,000, but after you break
Speaker:down the hours they're working, it's less than minimum wage.
Speaker:If you could be like, listen, we'll give you an extra $20 an hour on top
Speaker:of your thing to go give four hours, they would be happier than pie.
Speaker:They, or be like, we would knock off some of your student loans.
Speaker:Like if this is a state funded program,
Speaker:Off some of those student loans and it would be beneficial to all parties.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And I really like the idea of the, uh, hey, this is a, this is someone
Speaker:that doesn't have a criminal record.
Speaker:Or, or maybe a light criminal record, misdemeanors or something.
Speaker:But uh, and has the, the drive, has the excitement.
Speaker:Would like to travel.
Speaker:I mean, there's a, probably, off the top of my head, at least 30 countries, New
Speaker:Zealand, Madagascar, there's probably some places like, man, we'd love some.
Speaker:people to come in to some Americans that would love to be here, to just
Speaker:to help, to learn new culture, to be here, to work here, to energize
Speaker:us, to excite us to whatever, right?
Speaker:And we put it on and make the onus of those countries to
Speaker:to help with this situation.
Speaker:A possibility.
Speaker:Dave has a really weird looking face, but,
Speaker:I gotta think about that one.
Speaker:We're talking about exporting our homeless people.
Speaker:I, I don't know, man.
Speaker:It's a big country.
Speaker:We got a lot of.
Speaker:Opportunities
Speaker:Tons.
Speaker:places that,
Speaker:We have tons.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:And I think you also get a bit of a nimbyism, right?
Speaker:Like, it's like, are people in Wichita gonna wanna accept
Speaker:homeless people like this?
Speaker:Are people gonna wanna live in, like there's a reason why people wanna
Speaker:live in these beautiful cities.
Speaker:And so I, I don't know.
Speaker:I, those are tricky.
Speaker:I mean, I, I like the idea of, of, placing people where, where they're needed,
Speaker:if you go around and go, Hey, who, what countries or what?
Speaker:Cities need jobs
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:need able bodies give them jobs, give them people.
Speaker:it should be easy to, for somebody to get from one place to another, be like,
Speaker:okay, hey, look this isn't working here.
Speaker:It's too expensive here.
Speaker:There isn't the job it's gonna pay.
Speaker:Let's go back to this, uh, the, the math seems absolutely wicked, right?
Speaker:If
Speaker:Still trying to figure out where it's going.
Speaker:As usual.
Speaker:there's that and there's that donut hole.
Speaker:you get rid of like these minimums and maximums and can
Speaker:you get rid of that piece?
Speaker:Here's also this wild man.
Speaker:I mean, again, to break down the numbers I'm sure there's massive
Speaker:inefficiencies here, but 20 billion at 1700, 17,000 individuals, that's each
Speaker:person's getting about $28,000 a year of whatever it is, assistance or help.
Speaker:So in employee costs factor in.
Speaker:Government costs factor in some other things.
Speaker:That's also not that much for the individual either.
Speaker:And again, I don't know where it's going.
Speaker:No one does.
Speaker:And it's definitely not going to the people, right?
Speaker:It's not going to those who are affected by homelessness.
Speaker:But if you figure out a way to carve out that budget and go, okay,
Speaker:listen, out of this 20 billion, 10 billion does go to those who really,
Speaker:really do not wanna be homeless.
Speaker:Like Kara, she signs a thing like, listen, here it is.
Speaker:I don't want this situation.
Speaker:me get on some type of.
Speaker:Government program where I do, I will, I'll pay it back.
Speaker:me a house, give me a place to live.
Speaker:Gimme a 10 year 0% interest or 5% interest loan term.
Speaker:I'll take care of it.
Speaker:It's like that would, I am sure solve 85,000 of that 717,000 uh, individuals.
Speaker:I mean that two grand, what?
Speaker:That's like about a little, about two grand a month, right?
Speaker:grand a month would've made all the difference in the world for you.
Speaker:Oh, I would've been living in an apartment.
Speaker:I mean, I would've had a very nice apartment, but I would've had an
Speaker:apartment and would've eaten human food,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:dog food.
Speaker:And it, it would've been life changing.
Speaker:I do think, and a little sidebar here, if I. People in Wichita, don't.
Speaker:People in Wichita gonna listen to this and be like, Kara, stop saying the city.
Speaker:We don't want 'em.
Speaker:Stop saying what To
Speaker:Stop saying Wichita.
Speaker:But Wichita, you're on my radar and I know some real estate people, so we're gonna
Speaker:Figuring this out.
Speaker:But, I think you have to almost sell it as like this grand social project.
Speaker:Not we're bringing homeless people.
Speaker:'cause they're not gonna be homeless when they get to you.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:and you'd have to, you'd have to present the math, be like, as a nation, these
Speaker:people in San Francisco, you think you're not affecting, you listen to
Speaker:what it costs on a federal budget.
Speaker:What homelessness costs and then on a state budget and what it's
Speaker:costing, what would it save us if these people had a job and a home
Speaker:and could contribute to the economy?
Speaker:So it's not, and people get so mad, and I used to be like this.
Speaker:I grew up in Naples, Florida.
Speaker:If you have no idea where that's at, look it up, it's affluent.
Speaker:I had a very negative view on homelessness.
Speaker:I thought nobody should get free handouts.
Speaker:Nobody should.
Speaker:The government should just let 'em be.
Speaker:Until I was in that situation, I was like, no, government help me.
Speaker:But if you present it as
Speaker:They can now contribute.
Speaker:'cause they're gonna spend their money, right?
Speaker:They're that that $10 they get on their first paycheck is gonna burn a hole
Speaker:in their pocket and they're gonna go to the store and spend it and they're
Speaker:gonna keep doing that and they're just gonna keep contributing back to society.
Speaker:So I think we would have to spin it as this social project, present the
Speaker:numbers of here's what's costing you now versus here's the net.
Speaker:Oh, she might have froze.
Speaker:You cut out for 20 seconds.
Speaker:Kara, you
Speaker:Oh no,
Speaker:it's okay.
Speaker:Uh, you said here's the net, like looking at the numbers, presenting the best case,
Speaker:making it a, a really powerful experiment.
Speaker:that's where I left off.
Speaker:Oh no.
Speaker:See, my brain goes.
Speaker:Oh, that's okay.
Speaker:know, but I'm just.
Speaker:downloading.
Speaker:I was, what I was hearing, Kara, is that we're paying for
Speaker:it one way or another, right?
Speaker:A hundred percent and I think we're paying for it more.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:being homeless then, and 'cause you're paying for them, but they are not
Speaker:contributing to us, not at their fault or whatever, but if we could pay a little
Speaker:bit for them and they can contribute a little bit more to society, then
Speaker:that balance flips to the positive and it's actually a positive turn for the
Speaker:economy and for that neighborhood that they're in or their community or Wichita.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:That's a really cool way to spin it.
Speaker:And I think that there's definitely something there.
Speaker:And in our last five minutes remaining care, I'll ask you two other questions.
Speaker:So, question one, do you think a individual individuals, call them
Speaker:real estate investors, would have the ability to pull their resources,
Speaker:time, talent, and treasure?
Speaker:And create a solution for anyone who wanted not be homeless.
Speaker:1000%. I know a few.
Speaker:I know you.
Speaker:I know a few others that are out there doing great things in real estate
Speaker:and others that repurpose people.
Speaker:And that's just the same thing.
Speaker:These people need repurposing,
Speaker:And if you give 'em a place to go and have it set up.
Speaker:For that.
Speaker:I'm not saying it's gonna cure everything, right?
Speaker:There's definitely some extremes, but it would take a huge chunk.
Speaker:It would take a huge chunk, I think.
Speaker:And like you said, if you did a 5% interest rate and then you get to,
Speaker:you know, have a chunk of ownership of this, it gives them a sense of pride.
Speaker:But then you also get a little bit of change back, right?
Speaker:Because you know, as an individual real estate person, you need a little bit.
Speaker:Kicked back too in whatever way.
Speaker:So if you could do a 5% interest rate and you're contributing to
Speaker:society and you're getting a little bit, you know, on the backend, I
Speaker:think it's a win-win win community person and the real estate investor.
Speaker:Agree.
Speaker:Glad that we're aligned on that last question.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So what would you, what do you want your son to hear you say about
Speaker:that moment and that time while you were homeless in your car?
Speaker:What do you want him to know?
Speaker:Oh, that's, that's thought provoking.
Speaker:I one would want him to know it was not his fault.
Speaker:And we have talked about, he's now a teenager and he asked me about it.
Speaker:'cause I have brought it up.
Speaker:I. Let him know that in life you're going to have struggles and
Speaker:you're going to have downfalls.
Speaker:It's inevitable.
Speaker:But as long as you have that mindset and that grit and that determination you are
Speaker:going to get out of it, whatever, however deep that hole is, you can get out of it.
Speaker:'cause God's not gonna put you in a hole too deep, even though it may
Speaker:seem like that, but to also then have compassion for other people.
Speaker:It's very easy for you to look through those rose colored glasses
Speaker:and be like, I will never be in that situation, or shame on those
Speaker:people, or how do they get in there?
Speaker:And just, just know you have determination, but also have a
Speaker:lot of compassion for people.
Speaker:And don't say anything unless you have a solution.
Speaker:If you cannot offer a solution, just keep your opinion then to
Speaker:yourself because it does no good.
Speaker:I feel like we got a lot of good solutions and feedback and takeaway from
Speaker:today's call and podcast and discussion.
Speaker:So, Kara, thank you
Speaker:You're welcome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Poor Wichita
Speaker:don't.
Speaker:Hey,
Speaker:they're,
Speaker:certain people are like, Hey, thanks man.
Speaker:Bring us some people.
Speaker:We need people
Speaker:yes,
Speaker:on farms.
Speaker:We need people to work on our roads.
Speaker:We need people to work on our roofs.
Speaker:absolutely.
Speaker:Every single place gets bigger through the, uh, impact of Americans.
Speaker:'cause, like you said, I think also as our virtue, as Americans living the greatest
Speaker:country in the world to a, a net positive.
Speaker:To really por into this country and say, Hey, wherever I'm at,
Speaker:I'm gonna be a net positive.
Speaker:I'm gonna add real value to the world.
Speaker:I'm gonna add a real impact.
Speaker:I'm gonna really create something that's inspiring and useful for the future.
Speaker:So for those of you who are listening, I want that to continue to be you.
Speaker:Make sure I. That you reach out to us solving America's Problems
Speaker:podcast on Instagram, or perhaps solve USA Pod on X. Let us know
Speaker:your thoughts about homelessness.
Speaker:What would you do?
Speaker:What stood out to you in this conversation today?
Speaker:What would you like to see really be created in the future?
Speaker:And most importantly, feel free to share this podcast episode with someone that you
Speaker:know who was affected by homelessness or.
Speaker:Is in the midst of creating true change and true solutions
Speaker:for this global problem.
Speaker:Thank you.
