By David Stephen
Ending Saturday, November 16 – 22 was the Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week for 2025. There are federal budget cuts against houseless programs as well as criminalization chatter in some cities against the unhoused. In what directions can efforts be explored to solve the problem?
There are a few central necessities to reduce the magnitude of being unhoused: where to sleep at night, where to go or pass the day, where to maintain basic hygiene, where to keep larger bags or possessions and a fair mental health. How can these be provided at scale, starting from a city or a state, to the rest of the United States and beyond?
Recent
There is a recent [November 18, 2025] press release, Governor Katie Hobbs Announces $750,000 to Support Arizona Veterans through Homes for Heroes, stating that, “In addition to the grant program, the Governor’s Homes for Heroes initiative includes $750,000 to support veterans treatment courts for Veterans struggling with substance use disorders, mental health conditions, and other challenges stemming from military service that increase risk of homelessness. It also includes $500,000 to plan and coordinate the state’s ongoing efforts to reduce Veteran homelessness.”
There is a recent [November 20, 2025] story, on CPR News, Church gets probation, $1,000 fine over unhoused camp, stating that, “The city’s efforts to disband the camp became a flashpoint for unhoused policy in Montrose. Church leaders say the camp formed after the city strengthened its camping ban heading into last winter. City leaders said the church was violating zoning ordinances and creating a nuisance. At one point, the city was issuing daily citations to the church, sought an emergency order to have the camp disbanded, and attempted to take the matter to district court.”
Houseless
There are people in different situational strata of homelessness. Some require heavier interventions, while some would be fine with modest intervention.
For some, homelessness is coupled with need for meal support, for others there is need for something to do to at least earn or keep busy, then for some there is a drug addiction and sometimes, self-care deterioration.
The goal is to have an approach that can scale, where there are so many options that being unhoused is not as impossible as it currently is, for many people in a city and across the United States.
Because of the complexity of the problem, the first segment to solve the problem would be those on the minimal intervention curve. The reason is so that it is easier to make a certain state a standard, towards how to try a bit, while getting help to return to the labor force. Simply, the first set to help will be those that are reachable at a self-care range, such that getting shelter is a track — to get back into society.
Although, there would be possibilities for those on the far end of the problem, it will depend on locations that accept them, how much they are willing to adjust, part programs they may participate in to reduce some of the major problems and who is willing to put up funds for them.
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Scale Locations
What places are common everywhere? What places can have parts of their spaces adjusted for the possibility to accommodate a few people, for a few hours? How will it be possible that whatever will required will be made available, for a capped capacity? Also, since there would be various alternatives around, it is possible to make this for fewer people, per location, on certain days a week.
Churches are common, schools, gas stations, libraries, social or cultural centers and so forth. Schools and libraries are busy during the day. Gas stations work round the clock. Churches and other religious centers have routine worship hours.
There are at least four needs they can fill, where people should sleep at night, where people can go during the day, where they can keep their larger stuff and where they can maintain hygiene for the day. They will also be told to only come with a smaller bag, for the night, not a lot of stuff, to avoid too much packing and unpacking within a short interval. For now, the program will be for adults, mostly. Family homelessness can be partially subsumed.
Libraries already make day stay possible, but the goal is to expand options. So, some places can have daily mini-libraries. Others can have partitions in some of their places where valuable facilities are at least barricaded properly, and the other side is provided for rest and sleep at night or during day relaxation.
Some can allow storages for possessions, where stuff can only be collected once a week. Others can have showers, as well, to be useful by night and morning only.
There are some Churches or schools that may not be able to participate in some, due to inability to retrofit certain areas, and ensure the safety of their facilities, but others, in some form might be possible. It is expected that some may be able to take around 5 people, at least, per night or a little less.
The goal here is to, say provide at most 10 — rest and sleep — spaces on certain days of the week, per location. [Where they are able to solve a part of the problem]. For others, they may provide a sort of library area or knowledge resource area for autodidactism.
The location should be open at least from 1900 hours, across seasons and then should close at 0700 hours the next morning. So, it is just for sleep and people can leave early to ensure cleanup, by those in charge, as well as to get going and face the day.
Not all the centers will have proper bunks or beds. Some may have just mattresses. Others may not, if the carpet is good enough. Some places will make do with what is possible, at least for people to manage. [The solution can take some inconvenience as well, since the understanding is that it is some support, away from the streets, not exactly to have everything to make it proper, per se.]
The Setup
This would be a centrally organized solution, where there would be a coordination source. It also would ensure to address the zoning issues, permits and so forth. Those who want to sleep must register and give some personal data. Locations that want to participate will have to indicate their interest and what is possible for them. There would be local coordination centers too across cities so that there can be manual information provision, to ensure inclusiveness, with assessments and ways to answer questions, as well as ensuring the reach is broad, for people without devices, internet or the know-how.
The service will not be free. The unhoused, depending on their distance from entry into society would be given credits, which they would spend each night and can be expected to pay back when they get any form of work later. Those that are working are expected to pay. There may also be services that they may affiliate or attach with, where they can provide services, which will in turn give them rest credits.
For the plain credit to the unhoused, it won’t be debt in the sense of loans, but a responsibility plug, so that it is like this is a channel to get back to society and some of the credit can be an extension of how long the person would need and the possibility to pay back.
It is not to add to pressure or anxiety of eviction, but a sense of a regular life in an irregular setting, with an expectation of an outcome to bounce back. Also, there are jobs in counties no one wants to do that can be identified, so that if they are done, the council can find a way to pay for it, with the work of those that participate.
Mental Health
One of the other reasons to have this program, coordinated and at scale is to provide mental health pamphlets to the people at the locations.
Because the reality is quite bad, it is possible that the mind might be collapsing more than usual. There could be lots of negative thoughts, anxieties and dips in the will to hope, on the mind.
The solution will not just be basic cognitive reframing or restructuring from cognitive distortion, as some of them may have heard some of the lines or the possibility that what resulted in the situation remains and no number of regular tips might change much.
So, the pamphlets would pursue the provisions for clarity of mind, using a sketch of how the human mind works, with its stations and relays.
Simply, this is how the mind works. This is how reality relays. These are intrusive thoughts. These are the certain relays whose risks are that they get prioritized if persisted with or lingered on, more than usual. This is the destination the mind is that result in cynicism and this is how to explore the mind with some reframing to add the likelihood for change. There would be questions about happiness, what is a safe [no harm, reachable and non-addictive] experience that the person should list, how can those be goals for the next week, or beyond, just to ensure that even if things external are tough to get, how about certain things that may induce some happiness and say beneficial growth in the near term?
[While the objective is not to discriminate, there will be a sense that some of the people that want change should also give some try, to meet at the point where the help provided might feel significant. The reason is because even if the new solution scales, the spaces would still be finite – if people are not graduating back into society. So, there would be disclaimers as well, that this is an attempt at help, but there must be the will to look at the future afresh than to be distraught by the past]
The mental health solution can be paid for by the city, as well as with other public or private collaborations.
AI
Artificial intelligence will be integral to making this solution work at scale. It would be useful in providing dynamic help across many of the segments, especially to look for work, move to new cities, spot business opportunities, learn and much else.
For places to go during the day, there might be computers that would have consumer AI shape how they understand how to rebuild, including suggestions about what they want, what is possible and how to find a meeting point.
For example, there can be large language models [LLMs] for marketplaces, such that it has information on where to sell and can guide how to sell at the location and get there. This information can be consulted, looking in-state and out, for the possibility to estimate where to go and what to do, after the phase.
There can also be small businesses who would be willing to hire on tier, say three people in the same role, but paying below minimum wage, if they can work for capped hours, say two on a stretch, at most. There can also be a library program where they go and flip books, noting what is important, to get some credit as well.
Lots of things can be provided in a way to make this not feel like some shelter option but a possible test bed for society at large as AI starts to threaten jobs and livelihoods.
This can become a business plan as well towards Small Business Workforce Growth, with solutions to make changes across society.
If the plan accelerates fast enough, it can kick off by January, 12 2026, while the business growth lab to shape the credit system to sustain it, can kick off earlier by December 15, 2025.
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