I find myself in need of a house, minus
those elemented required for a home. However, if I am going to get an
apartment, I might as well make some good of it by openning it up to
other uses.
I am very interested in cooperative housing situations and openning
new avenues of personal improvement for people, particularly those
disenfranchized by society. I'd like to offer homeless people in the
Central Square/Cambridgeport area a deal: a place to live (a bed and
general use of the apartment space and its collectively-owned
resources) in exchange for 2 hours of their work a day. That work
might take the form of community service, craft work, menial chores,
or working for pay for another organization, or it may be for skill
development and the later use of those skills. Hopefully it would be
a combination of all of these. That time could also be spent doing
household chores, like cooking and cleaning, building furniture,
making warm clothing, or tending a community garden. For an
additional 2 hours of work a day, I may be able to offer my boarders
full food.
Legally, I might be able to combine a contract for subletting the
apartment with the legal setup of a program called Timedollar which
allows people to "exchange" hours of each others' work through a
deposit and withdrawl "hour-for-an-hour" banking system.
I would start the first month by offering the deal to a single
homeless person, selected I-don't-know-how. I would conduct an
interview and background check to see what chores and directions for
training would make sense. Then I would sign a one-month contract
with that person. By the next month, I think I could have saved
enough money (from my own job) to buy another bed and expand the
program.
Flier advertising and recruiting for
helpers on the Gumption Center: Without Tear-offs and With Tear-Off Tabs.
