Probably not. After a long family meeting in the flowerbox on Ernie’s windowsill, the Twiddlebugs finally figured out that taking the car to the zoo would be the best way to get there. However, instead of driving it, they picked it up and carried it. Silliness aside, we're in deep trouble if we continue to carry the car to the zoo when we should climb inside and put the pedal to the metal when it comes to solving problems, particularly helping people find a place to live?
Sometimes a simple solution to the problem is right in front of us but we’ve been conditioned to believe that we always need a more complicated one that involves legislation, public private partnerships, grants, subsidies or other funded programs. I understand the spectrum of folks needing housing is wide – ranging from drug addicted men and women living on the street to those coming out of incarceration to people who are employed but can’t qualify for a lease even though they can afford the market rent without assistance. Some solutions do indeed require more complexity than others.
That said, I’ve been gifted to see several simple housing solutions and I’m going to share one of them here. This idea can be used by individuals or scaled up and implemented by a church, nonprofit or any like-minded social or political group and with none of the previously mentioned complicating factors.
This solution calls for a shout out to Oxford Homes, a national corporation specializing in sober living homes. I’m not typically a fan of the government or corporations, but in this case, I want to hug this enterprise for blazing the trail and setting legal precedent in Colorado for homeowners to invite people into our home with the ability to remove them without calling the sheriff or going through the eviction process. Gone are the days when we temporarily brought someone out of their car and into our home only to surrender our private property rights to squatter laws when they’ve overstayed their welcome. Here’s the blueprint.
Oxford Homes uses a Housing Contribution contract in which the two parties (business and home guest) acknowledge house rules along with an amount that the guest will contribute to the home. The secret sauce is that they both renounce their tenant/landlord relationship; thus, nullifying their rights in that position. Additionally, the contract lays out the consequence of breaching the terms of the contract and the method in which the guest and their belongings will be removed – and let me tell you, it’s swift.
Of course, there are more details to this than I’ve laid out. Regardless, this is the blueprint for commoners like you and me to immediately reduce a portion of the unhoused and provide supplemental income for those with a home to share. The answer has always been Covenant not Government.
“You have circled this mountain long enough; now turn North.” – Deuteronomy 2:3
If you’d like more information about this solution as an individual or an organization, or if you’d like to be part of a zero-government pilot group to prove this concept on a larger scale, contact Darryl Glenn, J.D., USAF Lt. Col. (Ret) and Jane Northrup Glenn at Second Heaven Strategies.
Second Heaven Strategies specializes in Mediation, Personal Coaching & Problem Solving in the areas of Family, Work, and Private Property.
Comments