I have been meaning to summarize my thoughts on the homeless project since Dec 31st. After the year ended, it was strange for me not to have a $20 in my pocket at all times just in case I came upon a homeless person who I think would be interesting to talk to. I am saddened by the plight of the homeless. My views of the homeless have changed from a year ago and they also changed during the year long project. My conclusions follow.

I ended the year with $540 I did not give away. My goal was to give away $20 per week if an only if I could have a conversation with the recipient. So over the course of the year, I had twenty five conversations with the homeless. The homeless I spoke to had the following profile. They all live in La Jolla, California, an affluent area in San Diego County. They are the chronic homeless, men and women, and fifty years old or more. They are generally alcoholics. Some are mentally unstable, but stable enough that I did not feel threatened. They are nice, polite and gracious. They are filthy, weathered and wear pitiful clothes. They smell like alcohol at times. At other times, they smell nauseating.

And of course, they are real people. They are our brothers and sisters, our nephews and nieces. They are our moms and dads, our aunts and uncles. They are our children. They are our neighbors. They laugh. They cry. They bleed. They die. They are you and me.

Over the year as people have followed this project, some have told me that the homeless don’t deserve compassion or help. They tell me that the homeless are lazy. They are drunks and drug addicts. They tell me that to help a lazy drunk drug addict only perpetuates that lifestyle. I can certainly understand that point of view. Clearly there are many homeless who are alcoholics and drug addicts and some forms of help do perpetuate their lifestyle. However, what I found in my year long project is that these chronic homeless, these substance abusers are real people with life stories. So to not help them in inhumane. Please note here that there are many categories of homeless and I am dealing with just one category, the chronic homeless and substance abuser. An often misunderstood category are the homeless who just can’t afford rent for a few months and are evicted. These are often families.

Back to the chronic, substance abuse category, where we are faced with a dilemma. Help them and potentially perpetuate their behavior or don’t help them and loose a bit of our humanity.

How do we show our humanity and help them? I believe the best way is to support homeless is to support the charities that serve them. The homeless need professional help. They need medical attention, substance abuse counseling, job training, food, shelter, legal help and countless other services. If you are in San Diego, I would suggest you donate money to Community Resource Center or Corporation for Supportive Housing. San Diego Social Venture Partners (SDSVP) has vetted and supported both these non-profits. SDSVP considers them top notch organizations that help the homeless. Since I am Chairman of the Board of SDSVP, I decided to give my extra $540 to SDSVP. I like leveraging my charity donations and SDSVP has leveraged my gift for help for the homeless.

I would suggest two other things we can do for the homeless. If you feel safe, say hello to a homeless person. Again, if you feel safe, engage in a conversation. Ask them where they were born. Ask them what their favorite food is. Ask them about their family or where they went to high school. Help them feel like a human being. Be their friend just for the moment. That does not perpetuate an addictive behavior. That perpetuates love and kindness.

1) If you are worried about an action that has to be taken, you have already waited too long so do it now.
2) Partnerships are tough. Consider owning the business yourself.
3) Tragedy happens. Grieve and move on.
4) Passion for business and life comes and goes. If you are down, you will be up again.
5) Do not forget to work on yourself. Though fixing yourself is hard work, it makes fixing the business easier.

1 - Congress and the President encourage expanded home ownership via the Community Reinvestment Act
2 - Banks are pressured by government to make loans to many people who can’t afford homes
3 - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy these risky loans
4 - Wall Street firms then buy the risky loans in huge deals and repackage them into investment opportunities
5 - Rating companies rate these new opportunities as a good investment
6 - Insurance companies insure these new opportunities
7 - Wall Street firms sell these repackaged risky loans as good investments
8 - Housing prices collapse, banks foreclose on homes, the repackaged risky loan investments go south and the economy has a meltdown
9 - Congress and the President borrow money by selling Treasury bonds to bailout Wall Street and insurance companies
10 - Congress and the President chastise Wall Street and the insurance companies for the meltdown and unscrupulous practices

In each of the first 7 steps, there was an opportunity to avert the meltdown.

1 - Congress and the President should not have pressured banks to make loans to people who could not afford them
2 -Banks should not have made the loans and people should not have borrowed money
3 - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should not have bought these risky loans from the banks
4 - Wall Street should not have bought these loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
5 - The rating companies should have rated them as risky
6 - Insurance companies should not have insured them
7 - Wall Street should not have sold the risky loans

The economic meltdown would not have occurred if ANYONE in the 7 steps had refused to participate in this debacle! That would have broken the chain, broken the process.

This week the culprit in step 1 (our government) is grilling the culprit in step 7 (Wall Street). Certainly Wall Street deserves to be grilled. Certainly Wall Street should apologize. Certainly some changes are necessary in enforcement of current regulations or some new regulations need to be enacted.

But who grills the government? We do. We the people. We the voters. We grill the government and then decide if they should be elected again. I was always taught if you want to fix a problem start at the source and follow the process. Let’s not forget to start at the beginning.

Wouldn’t it be great if the leaders of our government apologized for their role in this debacle? I might even vote for someone who has the guts to apologize.

I gave a cell phone to a local homeless guy who I have been helping for the past year. He had asked if he could borrow my cell phone to make a call. I put 60 minutes of time on his new cell phone. Wonder how it will affect his life? I also had to go back to the store to buy him reading glasses as the print was too small for him and me to read the directions on how to get the phone initialized.

Later that night, a friend of mine sent me an email that follows. I am glad others are evaluating their views as I am evaluating mine. There is the email:

Hi Mark,

I thought you should know that your continuous posts about your homeless friend has significantly impacted my view of the homeless.

A few years back I had had a number of negative run-ins over a short period of time with homeless people, usually involving them yelling things at me and my wife as we walked by or watching them behave in a confrontational way with other strangers. I also read a few articles about issues with homeless people, with one particularly horrific story about a guy, father of 2 young kids, who had just yelled at a homeless guy for peeing on his neighbor’s garage and was subsequently stabbed to death. I found myself loathing anyone homeless I came across. It was not a good feeling. I started losing all sympathy and pity and just felt hate.

I’ve seen your posts about your homeless friend and how worried you were for a time when he disappeared. It got me thinking. Here is a man whom I look up to and respect. A man who has so many blessings in his life, two boys of his own to worry about, TKF, Vistage, etc., and the number one thing on his mind (or significant enough to post about) for days was the well-being of a homeless guy. That struck me as significant and it got me thinking. I could use about 30 pages explaining the many trains of thought I went through. I’ll summarize by saying that the conclusion I came to was rather than dwell on the negative impact of homelessness, I would be better off using my brain power to figure out some sort of solution that helps all involved. The basic question I asked my self was why isn’t there more help for homeless people in this country? And why does most of the help come from Churches and the like? The answer I came up with is there’s no money in it. There are a lot of causes that can have a residual payday, whether it be in hard currency or political clout or the like, but the financial investment required to make a dramatic impact on homelessness is huge with no payoff. So I began thinking of how one would attract investors/philanthropists. How do you make getting homeless people off the street profitable, or at least sustainable? I first thought about the people themselves (the obvious starting place). Who are they? What can they do? How did they become homeless in the first place? I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that a majority of homeless people have some sort of mental illness. Not that they’re all crazy, but something. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll include drug and alcohol addiction in this category. What do people with mental health/addictions need to become productive members of society again? Medical care. Medical care costs money. A place to live. Places to live usually cost money. A job. Usually used to make money, but if they are too sick or destitute or whatever else to work, it makes the rest difficult.

The conclusion I came to was creating some sort of working camp/hospital. There would need to be three basic principals to it. Participates would need safe, secure housing. They would need proper medical care. And there would have to be some sort of occupation for them either on site or close by that would involve creating an actual, marketable product that can generate enough revenue to sustain the camp and all of its resources. I know that’s a tall order. And probably naive in several ways, but my central theme to all of this is that it was your posts and the impact they had on me that have helped me re-evaluate how I view that particular part of society. I no longer feel contempt or disgust when I encounter someone who is homeless. And for that, I thank you!

=======================================================

Dear Trustees of TKF:

As Principal of Correia Middle School (CMS) a comprehensive middle school for 7th – 8th graders in one of our nation’s largest urban districts, I have an opportunity to interact daily with youngsters between the ages of 11-14 years of age. According to many expert opinions, this stage of life is one of the most challenging. In fact, I have yet to meet any adult who would choose to relive this “coming of age” chapter in their life. For this single reason, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the work all of you do on behalf of everyone – young or old. On January 13, 2010, the Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF) brought their “Violence Impact Forum” program to CMS. Over 830 young adolescents, their teachers, counselors, and administrators listened with the utmost respect to the powerful messages delivered by Azim Khamisa, Ples Felix, and other panelists from the program. It is with extreme gratitude that I communicate with you the impact that the TKF had upon lives that day alone at CMS.

One day earlier, two of our students bullied and punched another student. Their motive remains unclear to any of the students, which is not altogether unusual at this age. Power and dominance over others equates to respect and survival for some. My Vice-Principals and I were outraged at this act of violence, and left the campus on the evening of January 12th with heavy hearts. The next morning, we met with the assailants and issued consequences, including: suspension, letters of apology, and verbal public apologies to peers. However, our attention was also drawn to the panelists from TKF who were arriving on campus. I hurried over to our library to greet the panelists, including our own student ambassadors, and momentarily forgot about the violent act that had taken place less than 24 hours on my own campus. Mr. Ples Felix’s genuine warmth and sincerity filled the room, and although moments earlier I had been troubled, I suddenly felt calm. Once I knew that our guests had the refreshments we’d ordered, I returned to the office to resume my interactions with our two assailants.

I do not want to downplay what took place next. Whatever happened in the brief moments I had spent in the presence of the TKF members allowed me to think more clearly about how to support, rather than to simply punish, the two adolescents who had hurt another adolescent. It became crystal clear to me that these two youngsters needed to hear the messages about to be delivered by the members of the “Violence Impact Forum.” Know that I had never attended any programs sponsored by TKF; I was simply responding to the calm feeling I had received moments earlier while in the presence of a few of the panelists. Therefore, much to the surprise of both boys, I told them they would be attending the assembly. Their assignment was to take notes in order to write a reflective response, which I would personally read.

Both boys were seated in the back of the auditorium, seats and rows apart from one another and their classmates. They were the only students mandated to take notes, so they had paper and pencils in hand. Once the presentation started, I was so focused on the speakers that I didn’t turn to check on “my boys” until almost mid-way through the program. As I approached each of them to check on their progress, their countenance gave me my first clue that something was taking hold within their hearts. Their previously tough demeanor was replaced by an innocent and childlike expression. Instead of asking them for evidence that they were taking notes, each boy quietly held out his notebook, and I saw clearly that their eyes were moist with tears. I respectfully thanked them for their attentiveness and quietly returned my attention to the presentation.

Once back from the presentation, a guest presenter, Jesus Gonzalez, Jr., a former gang member who survived a violent gang attack, came to the office to meet with both boys. They held a private 45-minute session behind closed doors, and it’s clear that Mr. Gonzalez left the boys with contact information should they need/want to call upon him for support. Jesus also met with me briefly, and I thanked him for the work he is doing.

Both boys wrote pages in response to the TKF presentation. They both admitted that their own anger had robbed them of their ability to think—a lesson they learned from the presentation. Now I know that my counselors and staff can build upon this one learned lesson and empower more and more youngsters to learn how to calm down and think before taking action.

On a personal note, at the end of the presentation, I had the opportunity to hug both Azim Khamisa and Ples Felix. Until January 13, 2010, we had never met. How is it that I feel so connected to both of them and to their son and grandson? As a foundation, that is the power of your energies—you are connecting complete strangers. You are connecting people who hold different religious beliefs, who have different skin color, and who don’t appear to have much in common, at all. Words elude me as to how to express my deepest appreciation and respect for the work you do. I also thank your sponsors and salute their wisdom to fund TKF.

I acknowledge that your salutations include: “In Peace,” and “With Kindest Regards of Peace.” You made a difference in at least two lives ( and I know many others) on January 13, 2010, and I THANK YOU for your work.

Putting Children First,

Patricia Ladd
Principal
Correia Middle School

I have taken a different approach with Ron in the last few weeks. Since he says he spends most of his cash on booze and tobacco and gets most of his food for free, I have decided to only give him non-cash donations.

Last week, I saw him before I went into the local drug store. I told him I had some extra money and that I would be happy to buy him something from the store. First he asked for shampoo. He did not want a large bottle, something more medium he said. Then he asked for a comb. Not an expensive one he said, but the cheap ones you carry in your back pocket. I said I had more money and he could go on. He thought for a bit and asked for some socks.

I told him that would be no problem and started to walk away. He yelled out to me with a smile on his face that he would like some cigarettes. He quickly said he was just kidding since he knows that I would not buy them for him.

I got everything he was asking for and went back to give them to him. He was extremely grateful and gracious. The more I get to know Ron, the more I see him as a typical guy except he is stuck living on the streets. He drinks too much and has no support system. He knows he is an alcoholic. He says he wants to get off the street. I will keep befriending him. Maybe that will help.

One day, Alan came upon a very busy man in the kingdom on San Diego named Mark. Mark was an important and well know executive. Mark had many people working for him and was very busy building his kingdom. Mark was also very involved in philanthropy. He supported many wonderful charities in the kingdom of San Diego. Mark would be a classic SDSVP Partner who already believed in the power of giving, the power of good. Mark was an excellent dragon slayer.

Alan being on a mission asked Mark, “Would you join SDSVP? We grow philanthropists. We make a difference in the community. We can help you and you can help us. Slaying dragons is so much easier as part of a team.” Mark being a very important executive, who already had a giving nature, did not feel that SDSVP would be for him. SDSVP must be for executives who don’t understand the nature of philanthropy. SDSVP was not for Mark.

Well for Alan a true evangelist, Mark’s no was just the beginning of the road of sowing seeds. Eventually Mark retired from business and got more involved in charity. Alan continued to see Mark at functions around the kingdom and continued to ask Mark to join SDSVP. “But Alan, I already am involved, why should I join SDSVP?”

Alan smiled a crooked smile just on one side of his cheek and pulled out a special seed, a special bean, you know, one of those beanstalk seeds. Alan said it would grow faster than anything in the kingdom including Jack’s very own beanstalk. Alan said it would grow better, faster, stronger, smarter philanthropists. Alan said that if I watered the seed with a $5000 donation to SDSVP that it would grow with the help of other SDSVPers to $45,000 of gifts in the kingdom of San Diego. Alan said that all the fully committed philanthropists could climb that beanstalk and work with other committed philanthropists to find the goose that lays the golden egg.

Well Mark finally decided to join and Alan was right. With other SDSVPers, Mark learned. He rolled up his sleeves. He joined other SDSVPers in their causes. Mark learned about scalable impact, about slaying ten dragons at a time, not just one. This scalability is the goose that lays the golden egg for non-profits. Within a year, Mark realized that to be part of SDSVP was to be part of the most powerful force for good in the kingdom.

And now Mark’s pocket is full of appleseeds and one very special bean.

I finally have a short video of Ron from Ft. Worth. Ron From Ft. Worth Unfortunately my video recorder ran out of space a few minutes into the interview. Here are some of the comments that I got from Ron

I have asked Ron a few times, where he sleeps. He finally confided that homeless people never tell anyone were they sleep. They fear harassment, bodily harm and theft of their possessions.

I asked Ron how much he makes in donations every day. He says that in La Jolla he receives about $20 and he generally uses the money for tobacco and alcohol. I asked him about food. He says he does buy food if necessary, but generally he gets food donations or eats at churches or other homeless outreach organizations. I am going to have to rethink my opinion on giving money to the homeless. I will finish up this year’s $20 a week project, but I might start giving them food and other items they might need.

He had a sign today that was requesting blue jeans, a big backpack, a medium duffle bag, a windbreaker, sunglasses and a battery operated radio. If he got these items he would be able to enter a detox center for 15 days and get cleaned up. I asked why a radio and he said they don’t have radios so he wanted to sneak one in. I told him I would get him everything but the radio. Ten minutes later, I returned with all the things he wanted except the radio. I was amazed at how genuinely happy he seemed to get the duffle bag and backpack. He kept telling me how he would be able to pack away all his possessions and get rid of his shopping cart. (Note: In actuality, the backpack is now sitting in shopping cart and the duffle bag his hanging off the side.)

Earlier in the year, Ron used to sit on the wall by Vons, one of our local grocery stores. Now he sits on the curb by CVS, a local drug store. Jane, who I have blogged about before, used to sit on this curb. He says Jane is now in a board and care facility. I asked him if wanted to be in a board and care. He said yes, but I did not sense any conviction in his voice.

He is 56 years old. He was in the army from 1972 to 1975. He started his heavy drinking in the army and had some decent jobs afterwards. He has been an alcoholic and homeless for 20 plus years.

While talking with Ron, a well dressed lady came by with a bag of groceries. She knew Ron’s name. I guess she had seen him earlier in the week and was heartbroken by his appearance. In the grocery bag, she had a large sandwich, some water, a juice drink and a bag of peanuts. Ron was gracious in receiving the items and politely declined the peanuts since his teeth are so deteriorated that he can’t chew peanuts. She looked over to me and asked a few times if I wanted them. I pretty sure she thought I was homeless also.

When I asked Ron if I could make a video and post it on my website, he said sure, but wanted to shave first. I find it interesting that he was concerned about his appearance.

Hope you enjoy the video. Ron From Ft. Worth

In the last couple of weeks I have seen more homeless back in my neighborhood in La Jolla. I saw Ron from Ft. Worth twice this week. He looks better than earlier in the year. I did not have time to talk with him, but he is tops on my list to get reacquainted with.

I did talk with Debra from Eureka today. She remembered me. Well, actually she remembered me by my bike that I park at Starbucks. I asked her what my name was and she looked at my bike and said Gary Fisher. That is the brand of my bike. It was interesting talking with her. She is a bit crazy. I am sorry that I can’t be more technical in my description. She had a form from the San Diego Sheriff’s Department that had something to do with tracking personal articles in the arrest process. She showed it to me and started talking about DNA injections and the space station monitoring her movements. I let her talk for a bit and describe this DNA injection process in more detail. Then I asked her to read the top two lines of the form she was showing me. I was wondering if she was capable. She read them perfectly and then got back to her DNA story. I gave her $20 and moved on.

I really want to reconnect with Ron. Talking with Debra is not really satisfying my desire to understand the homeless from their point of view. If I can sit down with a sober Ron, I will learn more. I really want to video tape him so I can show you all.

Today, I am going to take a stab at Social Security. My parents have passed away, but during their years of retirement, Social Security helped them. They did not need much as they led simple lives. The first home I grew up in, they owned for 25 years. The second home they owned for 30+ years and paid off the mortgage. They had a dog, actually many dogs. They were married 51 years. They drank cheap wine bought in gallon bottles. They clipped coupons. They watched their weight. They had their ailments, but they did not complain too much. They smoked. They went to church and gave to charity. Upon retirement, they lived off of a small pension, an IRA and Social Security. Social Security played a role in their American dream.

So how do we fix Social Security so older Americans can benefit the way my parents benefited? I am not going to quote statistics as I don’t want to get in a battle of numbers. We all can agree that under the current system and in some years to come, the Social Security system will be paying more money out than it takes in. Simply put, money out will be greater than money in. Simply put again, Social Security is going broke. This is bad. This needs to be fixed. Ignoring it is irresponsible, for time alone will not fix this problem.

Our politicians must develop a solution and we must demand so. There are three components to the solution: 1) raise taxes 2) lower benefits 3) assist and create incentives for citizens to save for their own retirement. The ultimate solution will be a combination of these three components. I absolutely understand that the concept of raising taxes or lowering benefits or encouraging citizens to fend for themselves is controversial, emotionally charged and a political time bomb. It’s no wonder that the Republicans and Democrats can’t agree.

If the Democrats even make a whisper about fixing Social Security with some sort of a tax increase, the Republicans will attack full force. Likewise, if the Republicans even make a whisper about privatization of Social Security or lowering of benefits, the Democrats will attack full force. This deadlock has been in play since as early as the 1980’s. I say let’s stop this deadlock. I say let’s create a new a powerful voice that demands that both parties work out a solution that is acceptable to all. I say let’s create an America fix, not a Republican or Democrat fix, but an American fix.

Here is how we make this happen. We must get Democrats and Republicans in a room with a handful of experts to hash out a workable long term solution. Both parties must agree to vote for the solution. Both parties must refrain from using the solution as a way to attack the other party. The president must agree to sign the bill. This process is viable, if we add one ingredient that has never been available. That ingredient is millions of Americans voices demanding this.

My voice is one. 1 voice gives us a start. 1,000 voices will give us an indication that success is possible. 100,000 voices will give us momentum. 1,000,000 voices will give us the necessary visibility in the media. 10,000,000 voices will get the politicians’ attention. 100,000,000 will guarantee success. Don’t you think that 100,000,000 Americans want Social Security fixed? I do!

Join me in creating our strong voice that will finally force our politicians to fix Social Security. Send me an email at ourstrongvoice@gmail.com with your support or with reasons not to support or with your questions. Then send this blog posting to everyone you know so we can get more feedback.