So Tired Of Posting About Housing Shit Lol I Feel Like If I Rot Into The Earth It Is What It Is. But

so tired of posting about housing shit lol i feel like if i rot into the earth it is what it is. but i don’t have a place to stay past thursday again. going to a youth resource center to do a screening but i feel like nothing’s gonna happen in time and that my option is just gonna be shelters for the night and wandering during the day.

still having a chronic illness flare up. meds i was on was causing horrible side effects so my doctor told me to stop taking it and i have to wait until my appointment with a derm next week to start treatment, long process.

i feel so hopeless and alone and tired. i just want housing and i hate that this is so hard. i literally just want to work and have a place to sleep. and i don’t have the money for anything, let alone a hotel again. i don’t even have money for my chronic pain meds when i see my doctor because i’ve been out of work for the week and will probably have to be out this week as well.

why does it have to be so hard? i didn’t ask for chronic illness. i just want to live a normal life. i don’t have the support team or anything to have stability if i started the process of applying for disability if i stopped working. but i like my job, a lot. my body just hates me and i hate it.

anyways. venmo chaseallxn paypal.me/chxseallen whatever whatever i don’t think i’m gonna make it out of this one alive folks

Drawing inspired by « Espresso » by Sabrina Carpenter ☕️🤎💭

Homesteading for the Homeless:

How Converting Empty Commercial Spaces into Indoor Farms Can Address Food Insecurity and Unemployment

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to high vacancy rates for commercial spaces in metropolitan areas, especially malls and skyscrapers. At the same time, homelessness remains a significant issue, especially in coastal cities. One solution to address both these problems is to convert empty commercial spaces into indoor farms and communal living areas for homeless Americans, owned and operated by their workers.

Indoor farming has emerged as a sustainable and efficient method for producing high yields of crops in a small space, regardless of weather or climate conditions. Vertical farming, a method of growing crops in vertically stacked layers, has gained popularity in recent years as a way to maximize space and improve efficiency. Repurposing vacant commercial buildings could create a new industry that addresses food insecurity while providing employment for the homeless.

According to a report from CBRE, the United States had a 16.4% office space vacancy rate at the end of 2020, the highest it has been since 2011. The retail sector was also struggling, with a national vacancy rate of 10.5% in the first quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, homelessness remains a significant issue in coastal cities, with an estimated 580,466 people experiencing homelessness in January 2020, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Startups in the vertical farming industry have been on the rise in recent years. According to AgFunder, an online platform that connects investors with agtech startups, there were over 60 vertical farming startups that raised over $1.2 billion in funding in 2020. These startups are using innovative techniques to grow crops in urban areas, close to consumers, and reduce transportation costs and emissions.

Converting vacant commercial buildings into indoor farms using vertical farming techniques would provide employment for the homeless and communal living spaces. However, these indoor farms could also be operated as worker-owned commercial enterprises. Communal living spaces for homeless individuals would provide a sense of community and stability, as well as a chance to learn valuable skills through participation in the farming process. By operating the indoor farms as worker-owned enterprises, homeless individuals could take ownership of their work and have a say in the direction of the business.

Homesteading using vertical farming is an opportunity to work with individuals who share the same interests and values. For young people, WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) provides opportunities to travel around the world and learn about sustainable agriculture practices. Similarly, converting commercial spaces into worker-owned indoor farms could create new opportunities for homeless individuals to participate in the farming process and learn valuable skills, while also taking ownership of their work.

While there are challenges to converting commercial buildings into worker-owned indoor farms, such as significant investment and expertise, the benefits are significant for those experiencing homelessness and the wider community. By creating worker-owned indoor farms, we could create a new industry that provides stability, food security, and employment opportunities, while building a stronger sense of community.

The conversion of vacant commercial buildings into worker-owned indoor farms using vertical farming techniques and communal living spaces for the homeless could address the challenges facing our society. We have the potential to create a new industry that provides stability, food security, and employment opportunities, while building a stronger sense of community. Let us consider homesteading with worker-owned indoor farming as a solution for the future.

Meet my new friend Ben.

You see it’s actually a pretty strange coincidence how Alex and I met up with Ben in Amsterdam. Alex, who is from Germany, first encountered Ben in Paris at a couch surfing hangout. For those of you who do not know, couchsurfing is a site which connects travelers to locals or to other travelers. One may stay at a person’s home and or they may just meet up with others.

Anyways, Alex and I decided to have a reunion in Amsterdam. We both were searching for a couchsurfing host and lo and behold Ben, who is originally from the U.S., showed up. She didn’t even remember that he was living in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a hold of him in time, so we opted to book a hostel. We ended up booking seperate hostels that were thirty minutes apart due to availability.

Surprisingly, we actually did end up staying at Ben’s lovely home. We decided to meet up with him Saturday night and he offered for us to stay there since it would be way more convient. So yup, we paid for our hostels and ended up not even staying the night in them. Instead we were hosted by the amazing Ben and had a wonderful time.

The above photo is the brunch Ben whipped up. It’s definitely funny how somethings work out. Spontaneous meetups with people who have the same passion of culture exchange always makes for a memorable time.

Hey, I am just wondering if anyone has some advice or resources for me and my friend.

A friend of mine has been kicked out by her guardians (she's 18). She's coming to stay with us for an unspecified amount of time. We aren't very close, but my family is willing to do what we can to help.

Are there any resources for her? What should I know living with a new person? How can we support her? How do we communicate with her? How do I cope as someone who gets overwhelmed by being around people too much and struggles with change?

Any help would be appreciated

Some info about Point In Time counts and statistics around homelessness in the United States!

[ID: Slide 1 of 9, White text on a grey background reads: "Any statistics around homelessness are greatly under-represented, here's why" next to an arrow directing to the next slide, at the bottom, it reads "chronically couchbound"

Slide 2 of 9, in the same style, reads "The numbers that tell how many unhoused people are in the United States are done using something called Point In Time (PIT) counts." the bullet point below it reads: "PIT numbers are used to identify needs for services, and help shelters qualify for funding." The last bullet point reads: "PIT numbers only count people who are legally considered homeless (couch surfing isn’t considered homelessness, legally) This means PIT counts are only counting people in shelter beds, and those visibly sleeping outside."

Slide 3 of 9, in the same style, bullet points read: "Pit counts are the only required count of unhoused people in the US across the country." the next reads: "Every other year, official PIT counts include people not living in shelters, however, many communities try to count both sheltered and unsheltered people every year." The final bullet point reads: "These counts are the closest to an accurate representation of homelessness we have in the united states, and still is lacking."

Slide 4 of 9 reads: "Why?" at the top of the page, below reads bullet points: "PIT counts are done on a random night in January every year." the other bullet point reads: "On this random night in January, it’s often freezing. When I was unhoused in New England winters, I can tell you I wasn’t sleeping outside. I’d stay up and walk around if I couldn’t find a place to crash, and sleep in the daytime. I knew sleep meant death. Most people who do sleep outdoors are usually hidden well because that means warmth and safety."

Slide 5 of 9, in the same theme, bullet points read: "Most shelters simply do not have the funding to staff outreach workers to go out to do full PIT counts. Even if they have the funding, it’s hard to find unhoused people, so staying out the whole night as an outreach worker is difficult." the next bullet point says: "From unofficial counts done similarly to PIT counts in warmer months, it’s easy to see booming numbers of unhoused people. More people aren’t unhoused in the summer, it’s just less dangerous to sleep outdoors."

Slide 6 of 9, in the same style, bullet points read "PIT counts especially misrepresent unaccompanied youth, disabled people, and other marginalized people, because they’re often couch surfing or more hidden from the public while homeless. Couch surfing is not legally considered homelessness." The next bullet point reads "Many communities report zero unaccompanied unsheltered youth, which is often inaccurate in reality." The final bullet point reads: "Lack of youth shelters, and beds in youth shelters, play a huge part of this discrepancy."

Slide 7 of 9, in the same style, bullet points read: "The lack of knowledge, safety, and support in accessing services makes it harder for youth to be connected with service providers and less likely to be counted in PIT numbers." The next bullet point reads "Increasing awareness of PIT counts, and local service providers could help give more accurate counts, but we need more youth-based services that have active outreach teams in order to achieve better (and more accurate) counts of unhoused youth."

Slide 8 of 9 reads: "What can you do to help?" at the top of the page, below reads three bullet points: "Share this post & comment to spread awareness" The next bullet point reads: "Volunteer with a local homeless service provider, such as a shelter, nonprofit, or soup kitchen to help with PIT counts" The final bullet point reads: "Share, contribute to, or create local resource guides, or add or verify information for resources online (such as on Google or the shelter app) to ensure they're up to date."

Slide 9 of 9, the text reads : "Follow for more: Chronically Couchbound" Below the text is the logo, a white silhouette of a house, in front of it, a black silhouette of the disability symbol, and behind it, a light grey "prohibited" sign. The logo is on a black square background. End ID.]