The greatest threat facing humanity is homelessness/poverty. It divides us as a people, prevents talented people from achieving their full potential and places an undue strain on the economy, health care and other aspects of daily life. Homelessness/Poverty is a senseless act of cruelty tolerated by the fortunate and that is wrong. We have the power, the money and the means to end homelessness/poverty and it is my hope we can start doing just that right here in Colorado!
I envision a Self-Sustaining, Self-Governed (Board of Trustees) Community complete with schools, hospital, stores, entertainment venues and more. A community comprised mainly of handicapped, disabled and formerly homeless people from all walks of life, sexual and religious beliefs. A community where there is no money, no forced labor to provide for yourself or your family, no taxes and where Freedom (as in the United States Constitution) reigns supreme and is vigorously abided by. The plan is fairly simple.
Once adequate funding is secured it will be placed into a Trust with a Board of Trustees that oversee the Trust. Initially there will be 2 Board members (Myself and my sister) but once the community has 100 residents three more trustees will be appointed. Then once the community reaches 1000 residents yearly elections will be held to elect a board member each year for a term of 5 years. Thereby ensuring continuity in governance as there will always be 4 experienced board members. So how can such a community be built? Well it only takes money and planning. Below is my plan (complete with estimated costs).
Phase 1: Acquire necessary funding
The acquisition of funding will be the hardest part. Due to the nature of the community a Not-For-Profit Organization will not work, as will become obvious as you keep reading. That makes acquiring funding more difficult as it will have to be generosity driven fund raising with no tax-break incentives. My idea is to have someone create some Concept Renderings of the community to use as marketing tools to assist in fundraising.
Phase 2: Acquire property for community
Ideally we would acquire 100+ acres deep in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. This community needs to house 10,000 people total and be fully off-grid, self sufficient and self sustaining and that is the minimum amount of property needed to achieve such a lofty goal. The property needs to be mountainous with full water/mineral rights so that we can utilize every inch of the property; on the surface and below.
Estimated cost $1 Million USD
Phase 3: Initial Construction
The initial construction on the property would include:
- 1 million gallon underground water storage tank - hopefully built into the side of a mountain complete with water filtration into and out of water storage tank. Water would come from streams/creeks/rivers, snow melt, rain water collection and grey water processing.
Estimated cost $2 million USD.
- 1 million gallon underground black water septic system. This would be built at the lowest point on the property and would process all the biowaste from the community.
Estimated cost $2 million USD.
- Power storage battery bank - this would also be built into the side of a mountain and would have a capacity of no less than 100,000 Ah (Amp Hours).
Estimated cost $5 million USD.
- Power production systems - this would consist of a mixture of Hydroelectric, Solar and Wind systems that would all provide power to the Power storage battery bank. Due to the fact the community will be built with all low-energy lights and appliances a total of 10kwh of power production (at 20% efficiency) should be plenty.
Estimated cost $5 million USD.
- Underground Storage Facilities - this would be built into the side of a mountain and contain Dry Goods Storage, Frozen/Refrigerated Storage, Fuel Storage and Equipment Storage. This is where all the surplus and/or unused items will reside until they are needed.
Estimated cost $5 million USD.
- Food Grow/Production Facilities - these would be Greenhouse buildings. There would be 20 greenhouses that are 100' long, 20' wide and 20' tall at lowest point with a sloped flat roof. They would be built from North to South with the high point of the roof on the eastern side to maximize mid day and afternoon sunlight into greenhouses. There would be 5 additional greenhouses of same size and shape built as Food Processing, Canning, Bottling facilities to preserve 20% of the foods produced to be stored in the Underground Storage Facilities. An Additional 20% of foods produced would be sold to outside sources and the remainder of the food produced (60%) would be distributed to the community via the onsite Grocery Store (see below).
Estimated cost $2 million USD.
- Onsite Grocery Store - this would be something like a Walmart Supercenter and everything in the store would be FREE to Residents of the community. The store would also be open to Non-Residents at 5% over cost for any items in the store. This is how the 20% of food produced will be sold to outside sources as there will be a Non-Resident Food Market in the store as well as a Resident Food Market.
Estimated cost $1 million USD.
- Housing - As part of Phase 3 there will be approximately 100 tiny homes built capable of housing up to 400 people. These will be 2 story tiny homes with dual bedrooms on second floor.
Estimated cost $3 million USD.
- Police/Fire Station - this would be a combination building housing the communities entire police force and fire squadron. It would be minimally staffed until the completion of Stage 4 and only fully staffed once Stage 5 construction is under way.
Estimated cost $2 million USD.
Phase 4: Quality of Life Expansion
In Phase 4 we will focus on Quality of Life projects for the community. Things that will improve the lives of the residents and encourage the handicapped, disabled and homeless of Colorado to relocate to the community.
- Indoor/Outdoor Recreation Complex - this would include Basketball Courts, Tennis Courts, Swimming Pools, Sauna, Jacuzzi's, a full gym as well as a multiscreen movie theater.
Estimated cost $3 million USD.
- Medical Facilities - This would include a fully equipped 1000 bed hospital with 100 bed Emergency Room that would provide FREE medical care, dental care, vision care to all residents and also be open to the public for patients with Medicare/Medicaid/Insurance. There would be a full suite of medical staff and equipment onsite at all times.
Estimated cost $10 million USD.
- Obtain Colorado Licensing to Grow/Process/Produce/Distribute Cannabis Products. This is for dual purposes. One is to improve quality of life to residents by providing FREE cannabis products for Pain, PTSD, Insomnia, ADHD, etc. and two to sell to other Licensed Dispensaries in Colorado. There would also be a fully stocked Dispensary in the community that is open to the public at State Mandated pricing/taxes to help make the community self sustaining.
Estimated cost $5 million USD.
- Cannabis Production Facilities - this would consist of 20 greenhouses like the ones used for food production to grow various strains of cannabis plants. It would also include 5 additional greenhouses for processing harvested plants into sellable products.
Estimated cost $4 million USD.
Phase 5: Community Expansion
It is my hope/belief that if we can raise the funds for Phase 1,2,3, & 4 that the community will be able to fund itself for the remainder of the Phases listed below as well as maintain itself once fully built and inhabited.
The idea is to provide enough housing for every single person in Colorado who is handicapped, disabled or homeless; lacking the ability to provide adequate food/housing/medical care for themselves or their families. In order to achieve this we will need to:
- Build School/Trade School - this would consist of two campuses. One serving as a K-12 school with a capacity of 1,000 students. Second would be a Trade School where residents can learn anything from Gardening to Engineering to Medicine; it would be FREE to residents and open to the public via Online Classes at a reduced tuition over other schools.
Estimated cost $20 million USD.
- Build 5,000 more 2 story tiny homes like were built in Phase 3.
Estimated cost $150 million USD.
- Build a Fully Fledged Year Round Recreational Activity Resort complete with 1,000 hotel rooms, ski slopes/lifts, horseback rides, ATV trails, hiking trails, water park and more! It would also include multiple restaurants, movie theater, conference rooms, a gym and so forth. This would be an Open To The Public Resort and would generate additional income to sustain the community, fund new communities, etc. As part of the resort there would also be a full Livestock Farm complete with petting zoo that generates income as well as meat for the community.
Estimated cost $100 million USD.
Total cost to begin Phase 1-4 is: $50 million within 1 year of completing Phase 4 the community should be in a position to begin Phase 5 completely self-funded. Once Stage 5 is completed the Trust will begin looking at building other communities around the USA. The additional communities will be entirely funded by this first community until they are completely self sufficient and self sustaining at which point their profits will go to the trust to maintain all the communities and build new communities.
My projections are:
- 5 years after securing the $50 million initial investment into the Trust the first community will be fully built, self sufficient, self sustaining and will have generated $300 million in profits back into the Trust.
- 5 years after securing the $50 million initial investment into the Trust construction will begin on 5 additional communities in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Utah.
- Within 10 years of beginning construction on the first community there will be 6 communities completed and 10 more being built in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Kansas.
- Within 20 years of beginning construction on the first community there will be a community in all 50 US States housing 500,000 handicapped, disabled or formerly homeless Human Beings.
- Within 50 years every country on Earth will have similar communities, homelessness/poverty will be eradicated. Wars will no longer exist on Earth and there will be similar colonies in Space, on the Moon, on Mars and beyond.