The Vegas Voice February 2020

Affordable Housing
By: Dan Hyde / Call to Action
Last month, I suggested a solution to getting
the homeless off the streets by converting
railroad box cars into livable and affordable
transitional housing units. This was not my idea but one championed
by a true visionary, Arnold Stalk.
This “Veteran’s Village” concept has proven to be very effective and
yet, has not been broadly applied to remediate our growing homeless
population. Part of the problem has to do with the word “transitional”
i.e. NOT permanent!
No one really wants to have temporary housing. Everyone wants to
varying degrees a place to call HOME.
Since “affordable housing” has become the oxymoron of today, the
question becomes: “Is anything affordable ever going to occur?” I say
YES and here’s how!
Developers are not in the business to lose money no matter how
altruistic their intent may be. Since land costs are at the heart of the
accelerating cost of housing, why not build on land that is donated free
and clear?
Since 80-90% of the vacant land in this state is owned by the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), why not allocate 10-40 acres of
land adjacent to the local entities and earmark that land for housing
development for the homeless?
Give the developers tax benefits for building rental and condominium
units for purchase by the homeless and you have affordable housing.
Free Money
By: Don C. Whitaker / Guest Column
Sounds too good to most of us who have either
been swindled or scammed about some long
lost relative. But the truth is there are millions of
dollars out there waiting for citizens to claim.
Most of the funds are from closed bank accounts, refunds from
various vendors and wrong addresses. All 50 states have an unclaimed
property website. Nevada’s https://claims.nevadaunclaimedproperty.
gov/Property/SearchIndex.
I became interested because I wanted to make certain the charities I
support are good stewards of the money that is intended for them. You
will find that most charities are good at fund raising but not at getting
funds from these sites.
The units would be separated to house single women, single men and
families.
Since virtually all homeless have some income and to insure that they
have “buy-in”, earmark 20% of their monthly income into an “Escrow
lock-box” that can’t be touched except for housing. If they abandon
their commitment, the funds revert back to the entities managing the
programs to be re-allocated to others in need.
As the money increases in their designated accounts, charitable
organizations and/or the local governing bodies themselves can match
their “investment” up to an established limit. I think it is worthy of
public debate!
Dan Hyde is a passionate and effective advocate for the senior
community. He can be reached at: dhyde9@cox.net.
It becomes ludicrous when the various states can’t get funds to their
own cities. Case in point: if you put in City of Las Vegas in the Nevada
website, there are 20 entries for this city. Wouldn’t you think someone at
the state level could find the City to return the funds to them?
Lived in California? Have some fun with that site https://ucpi.sco.
ca.gov/UCP/Default.aspx
What I find amazing in the California site is there are entries that
make one cringe with the thought of big government. There are 3,479
listings where the State of California can’t find itself and 149 for the
Franchise Tax Board, their taxing body.
When I get calls from my alma mater (USC) asking for money, I
ask the fund raiser: “Could you explain the 2,136 entries for money for
USC at this site along with 253 for University of Southern California?”
There are 700 entries for UCLA, 391 for American Red Cross and 47 for
Red Cross.
The list goes on and on. I have contacted many charities that I like to
support and told them about their money sitting there and asked them
to call me back in six months to see if they have done anything about
this before I contemplate another gift.
If you lived in other states, it is easy to find such a site from your
previous domicile. It’s like a treasure hunt for you (and your family)
with no cost - but possibly a pot of gold in return. Happy hunting.
32
February 2020