The leaders of the Lotus Campaign met with two dozen community leaders this morning as a follow-up to last night’s CivicCon event.
The Lotus Campaign is an “economically driven” model to connect the non-profits who help homeless people find housing and landlords. The program celebrates its third anniversary in Charlotte, NC in July. Over that period the 501(c)3 has helped 325 people find apartments.
The charity focuses on removing barriers that make it difficult for the homeless to rent. It guarantees the rent and pays landlords $1000 a year in lieu of a deposit.
Service providers identify the best prospects for the program and provide the case workers to help families. Lotus vets the providers and the landlords. It also provides funds to help with utility deposits and other fees.
How much would cost to start the program in Escambia County? It will depend who will be local champion for the landlord initiative and how the program wants to help on an annual basis. Lotus founder Philip Payne estimated it would cost as much as $250,000 to launch it here.
I’m assuming thats a private building Mr. Houston owns. Spending $80,000 of taxpayer funds for a major life safety system in a private facility, and then taking on a huge chunk of liability, would not be wise at all.
Or the City could cough up the measly 80K Caleb Houston needs for the sprinkler system on a 200-bed homeless facility that could be sleeping everybody under the bridge and then some. But that wouldn’t satisfy all of the special interests attached to the new homeless models.
This Lotus approach does at least seem better than the backroom, punitive, Marbuttian atrocities some power brokers can’t seem to wait to unleash.
But the idea “all you had to do was ask”? Please.
HOMELESS ADVOCATES ARE ASKING!! LANDLORDS, PLEASE FUND THE 80k FOR CALEB HOUSTON’S SPRINKLER SYSTEM.