Reasons Why We Should Help The Homeless Within Interest Groups

An interest group is a group of citizens that all share something in common. This could be a whole variety of things such as an objective or goal that they are trying to achieve, a political opinion or even something religiously binding. The members of the group then try to impact public policy which will help benefit the group. It is my job to come up with policies that help our association and all of our supporters to reach our goals and targets.

My fellow policy advisors and I have decided to come up with a new policy that will go into effect in the year 2020. The new policy that we have come up with is a house the homeless project in San Francisco. A lot was taken into consideration when making this decision. As soon as chose San Francisco, we as an association, flew out there and had a town hall meeting with residents, business owners, and local officials to answer any questions or concerns that they may have with regards to our new project. The concerns that they had ranged from how many people are going to be housed, where they will be housed/sheltered, and how will we be funding this operation. All of these concerns were answered swiftly and to the point during the meeting. That meeting would kickstart the beginning of our new project. The fact that there is an outrageous amount of homeless people in San Francisco and it is starting to ruin the streets and sidewalks in the city, as well as the landscape, is ultimately, the reason why we have chosen San Francisco to be the home of our next project. According to a business related article, “San Francisco has turned into something akin to a nightmare. It’s homeless population has risen to nearly 10,000 residents, its rents have climbed to nearly $1,900 per month, and parts of its downtown are now littered with used needles, trash, and human poop.” San Francisco is one of the many cities that has a large population of homeless people. As of right now, there are nearly ten thousand homeless people within the city. Some of these are families who have been kicked out of their previous living situation and some of them are veterans who have mental illnesses or specific disabilities. Another percent of the homeless are elderly people who worked very low wage jobs who ultimately couldn't afford to live where they were living, thus leading to them having nowhere to turn to beside the streets. Their wages couldn’t match and keep up with the new cost of living. According to a journalist from fox news, “San Francisco's own definition widens the category to people without a permanent address who are in prison, rehab or hospitalized.” This objective is quite crucial and vital to our association because we know that there is a big problem with homelessness in America. It is up to us to help find and provide housing for those in need. After seeing all of the success from all of our previous projects all throughout the United States, we only hope that this project can also be just as successful. All of the policy advisors and I have been working very hard and long to come up with a very meticulous and detailed strategy on how to make this project the best it can possibly be.

We plan on completing our goal, which is to get as many homeless people off the street as possible by giving them housing. This will also make the streets of San Francisco more clean and presentable. In order for us to achieve this, we will need federal, local and state grants. We will also be accepting independent donations solicited through social media and television. After we receive a sufficient amount of funding through donations and grants, we will begin to build and maintain various homeless shelters and navigation centers. A navigation center is basically the same as a homeless shelter, but it allows for the people being housed to keep all of their stuff from being stolen by giving them a place to lock their belongings. A navigation center also offers medical assistance and job training. The job training will allow them to become successful and productive citizens who can provide for themselves. This is one of the problems that we have had in the past with homeless shelters. The homeless are always losing their belongings because when they move away from their stuff or when they go to sleep, other people being housed are stealing the vulnerable supplies. This has always been a problem that we have tried to solve for a long time. According to a Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing article, “Through improved coordination city-wide and the development of Navigation Centers, existing Temporary Shelters and SAFE Navigation Centers, we are having a significant impact in our ability to bring our unhoused neighbors indoors. We know that the dignity and safety of every San Franciscan improves when everyone has a place to sleep inside.” Depending on the funding that we are going to receive, we could move away from shelters and move towards navigation centers. Funding is vital to this project because it is undeniable that these navigation centers are more beneficial than the shelters, but they don’t house as many people and they cost a lot more to build. The homeless association intends on building navigation centers in various vacant parking lots, and turning abandoned buildings and warehouses into other navigation centers. We are also considering to add stackable modulars which are suitable for homeless families. A stackable modular is a small movable home almost like a smaller trailer. These will give families the privacy that they so desperately deserve. Another advantage that comes from these stackable modulars are that they are prebuilt and can be brought to the designated safe area that is being preserved for the project. The vacant parking lots will be purely preserved for the stackable modulars while the abandoned warehouses will be designated for navigation centers and homeless shelters. The warehouses will be completely renovated so that they are suitable living quarters for the homeless. A portion of the funding that we receive will go towards the contractors that will be renovating the warehouses. Another portion will be used for purchasing the stackable homes. This objective would be best achieved at the local level. Locally, we believe that business owners would come together to help our association because it is currently harming their profits and keeping people out of the city. Also, residents of San Francisco will appreciate that we are trying to clean up their city so they will join in and support our cause.

Our association has always had opponents, who are against us and all of our missions. Not all of them, but numerous local residents have been opponents of ours because of where we have decided to build the homeless shelters and navigation centers. The fear of crime going up and the fear of housing values going down are some of the reasons as to why these local residents are against our association. Some of the local businesses within the cities and states that we have based our projects on have been opponents of ours. These businesses are opponents of ours because people who could be potential customers of theirs, could be put off coming into the city by seeing all of the homeless shelters and centers.

This policy, if pulled off and handled correctly, would strengthen our associations reputation indefinitely. All of our members and stakeholders involved in this association will benefit greatly. This project might be considered the most important project that this association has ever been a part of. Our previous projects in New York and Texas, although they did need help, they didn’t need it as badly as San Francisco needs it now. All of the residents of California and especially San Francisco and its nearby towns, know that this is a big problem that needs solving. When we, the homeless association, successfully reach our goal in 2020, this will hopefully green light other future projects that will allow us to continue to help other cities with homeless problems.