Connect The Dots

My vision is to bring communities together to help homeless individuals with permanent and replicable solutions. I want to crowd-source the best ideas and practices. The goal is to build a movement, an infrastructure that will survive long after any one individual’s involvement.

People will continue to become homeless. They just don’t need to stay that way.

I have been asked if I was starting a nonprofit. My reply is always, “Nope! I want to start a revolution.”

One final note. Homeless initiatives have been a passion of mine for some time. This project also has a second aspect. I hope my journey inspires YOU to “do something” concerning whatever you are passionate about; to look for new ways to solve old problems.

What's My Goal?

We don’t need to find a “cure” to homelessness. This isn’t a disease that requires millions of dollars and decades of research. Housing is a basic human right that should be available to everyone today. 

I want to discover the best ways to help those in need on the local level, then get them access to services that already exist. If a service doesn’t exist locally, what will it take to make it available?

On one side we have those in need. On the other side is that help. My goal…is simply to figure out the best way to, “Connect the Dots”.

I don’t have the answers, but they are out there! Here’s my plan.

Continue

Latest Blog Posts

Here’s Your Proof

Earlier this year I wrote about how we need to focus on specific individuals and get them whatever they need to help get them off the street and stay housed. It's too overwhelming if you obsess about all the 650,000+ people who are experiencing homelessness in the U.S.. On Thanksgiving I read this article about a man, Patrick Fealey, who has been experiencing homelessness for years.
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The Blame Game

As I get ready to move to Denver, I wanted to give an update on my initiative. I’ve learned a lot. I learned that a lot of people are set in their ways, and no I am NOT talking about those experiencing homelessness. Some individuals believe people are homeless because they choose to be or because they made bad decisions (drugs or alcohol). The amount of patience I’ve exhibited when dealing with these idiots should have resulted in some award.
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Why My Plan Is So Important

A couple recent articles crystallize why my plan is so important to help the homeless. The first one is something you see and hear almost daily, the Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) crowd. However this time it became absurd. A local non-profit teamed with with City of Tulsa to use a former nursing home as a shelter for between 50 and 75 households who are on a waiting list for permanent housing.
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Literally Connecting the Dots

There are reasons you see and hear about the need to build more housing for those experiencing homelessness, it’s easier to provide services to a group of people in the same location, hence the idea of transitional housing. We need to do more Scattered Housing. To do that we need to cover transportation needs. There’s a challenge though in having people spread all over town. It’s a problem, but one that has a simple answer; provide the transportation. It’s literally that simple….and it isn’t. Let me explain.
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Poverty Porn

"Poverty porn"...I had never heard that term until earlier this month. A social worker mentioned the term when I was talking to them about highlighting specific individuals experiencing homelessness and how a people could help them. Later that day I looked up the meaning of that phrase. Here is Cy Alcala's definition from an Medium article a couple years ago... Poverty porn is a concept used to refer to sensational media content, typically using a voyeuristic, schadenfreude-style viewpoint when portraying poverty to generate controversy and traffic and it is exploited by filmmakers, advertisers, and others for profit.
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My Superpower & My Crappy Tuesday

In my career as a salesperson, I had a motto that went like this: "I don't sell anything, "I figure $*&% out." What I meant by that is I don't have all the answers, but I will go get whatever is needed. I was tenacious, persistent, and creative. That’s a hell of a combination. I call it my superpower.
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