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Solving Homelessness in a Lifetime
A Glance at the Challenge
The Kindness Conspiracy
A Story to Call Your Own
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A Story to Call Your Own

How I turned my consciousness for others into a plan of action.
With a never-ending amount of unfortunate possibilities waiting around life’s corners, there is no single story to speak to the full experience of being with out a home. This is a tragedy with many avenues leading to its center. It is innumerable the unique variety of circumstances that can end up costing someone the right to their property or even prevent them from having that opportunity in the first place. This, fundamentally, makes homelessness a very personal issue, affecting individuals and families in drastically different ways. When it is understood that a collective story about homelessness cannot be told, a path toward eradicating the want of needs in regards to these basic human rights may be realized and, with further action, implemented to solve homelessness in a lifetime.
Fortunately, my story and first twenty-two years of life have been overwhelmed by life’s rewarding possibilities. With great blessings, I am able to say that I have never had to plan ahead or risk missing my next meal, nor have I had to worry about if I would have somewhere safe to sleep for the night. Instead, I was born into a comfortably middle-class family with two college-educated parents. My first experience with poverty that was close to me was through volunteer work with my mom. At a very young age, my mother taught me the importance of gratitude and how I should pay for my blessings through gracious acts I could do to help my community. What started as helping my mom with meals on wheels turned into a life-time commitment to earn my good fortunes. Throughout middle school and high school, I was heavily involved in student government and helped to organize yearly food and clothing drives. When I started college, I joined the fraternity on campus with the most volunteering experience. The picture above is our pledge class at our first service event in LA.
Choosing from a wide array of domestic issues in America, I focus specifically on the challenges cities will face in the near future if housing remains not to be considered a human right. I settled on hypothesizing ways urban planning can be manipulated to better the chances of a more efficient housing market. During my research, I found exciting new possibilities on the horizon that have the potential to revolutionize the construction industry as a whole. The basic process by which houses or offices are built has not gone through the same modernization process as has other industries like medicine. Companies like Icon in Austin, TX are engineering 3D printers capable of constructing single story structures in a matter of hours. The opportunities this door provides are virtually infinite, but at the very least, this is an indication that new practices in construction can permit foundational shifts in the way we traditionally think about meeting demands for housing in a quickly expanding city.
Though new building techniques are less of a focus in this project, I believe there is value in mentioning the added benefits it could have on homelessness. More on to the emphasis of this proposal, I have decided to focus my attention on the conversations I have had with my friends and family following interactions with homeless individuals. Even coming from those closest to me who have taught me the most about sacrifice, I have had upsetting dialogues that, I believe, mischaracterize the issue of homelessness to a severely detrimental effect. It is my attempt to absolve these differences of opinion that have brought me to this point. There is a substantial school of thought in America that posits the main reason for homelessness to be personal choice. A common example of this is the belief that most people end up on the street because they were unable to keep a job due to personal struggles they should sort out themselves. I believe this could not be further from the truth, and in fact, the real reason is an incomplete understanding of human rights as a society. If it is not hard for you to convince yourself of this plausibility, your story might be similar to mine, but either way, I could sure use you help.

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