The recent prisoner exchange for money between Iran and the USA cost six billion American dollars to conclude. Frozen Iranian oil revenue was released by the American government in return for five Americans from Iranian jail – not quite the death sentence. Today, an estimated 600,000 homeless people live in the USA, one of the world’s most developed democracies. Given this enormous number, we would assume this to be a national priority. However, upon further research, homelessness is not a federal or state priority in the USA.
Let us imagine a scenario. Six hundred thousand people risk potential harm, exploitation, violence, and even death each day. Recently, a Canadian experiment showed some promising results. Several homeless people in Canada were awarded 7,500 Canadian dollars. The purpose was to study their actions and how they spent their money. A great majority reversed their troubles, quickly finding a job and housing. They got off the streets, found shelter, and improved their lives. Canada and the USA are neighboring nations with very similar organizational and cultural social settings. If we extend the practice to the US, we may be able to consider the required funding to minimize American homelessness. Sadly, in some states, half of the homeless population are children. If we use a measure of 5,000 American dollars (based on a current currency exchange rate between the two national dollars) to support each of the 600,000 homeless people in the USA, we would require three billion American dollars to give every homeless person in USA the opportunity to reverse their plight. However, we would require significantly less than this amount considering some minors are with guardians and entire families are wandering the streets together. In effect, we could allocate two billion American dollars to significantly reduce homelessness throughout the nation. If the US could show the same statistical results as Canada, we would be well on the way to minimizing or even ending homelessness, such as Finland recently achieved. The population of approximately 600,000 could become purposeful and resourceful.
The two billion American dollars needed to hopefully minimize homelessness in USA is about a third of the funds considered for release in exchange for the safe return of five Americans. The Canadian experiment was well documented and its findings published across media outlets. Surely, we should optimistically attempt this on a larger scale. After all, the only downside of this is some money being lost if it does not work as intended. There is risk to every plan; the five Americans could have died on the way home upon release. The funds would have been lost to Iran and the prisoner swap would have been a multi-tiered disaster. Thankfully, everyone received their demands and the Americans were greeted by family on US soil, while the Iranian government received access to the six billion American dollars withheld.
Politics aside, human life should be priceless and even incalculable at staggering values of billions of dollars per life. Can we even consider such values to support the homeless when they do not represent any part of a political national policy or, equally valuable, any financially profitable purpose? Well, we can technically suggest that a homeless person off the street supports at the very least rent, food, and minimal sustenance needs that are unfortunately generally a private or personal responsibility, hardly ever a government or universal grant.
But it does not have to be so pessimistic. The government may not care as it should; however, the good news is that Americans are some of the most charitable people on the planet! We can either develop a national campaign to raise the required two billion dollars to attempt this fix or ask Elon Musk to donate about one percent of his net worth to the experiment. After all, it seems many billionaires are vocal about pledging all their wealth to charity. The US government can fund the project, even if Elon Musk and the public cannot, for whatever reason. By calculating the cost of homelessness to city, state, and federal governments, we can purpose the saved budget (being that there will be a minimal homeless population with negligible cost) to benefit other urgent needs such as disaster relief, climate change reversal, and medical and transportation infrastructure. This would essentially raise the much-needed two billion dollars easily. The upfront cost to fight homelessness nationally can be raised through a one-time fixed donation to taxpayers. Nearly one hundred million Americans pay taxes annually. This segment would be required to donate twenty dollars of their 2023 taxes to end homelessness. I doubt tax payers would protest an extra twenty-dollar donation.
Solutions offered need not be perfect in order to start a discussion. They have to be purposeful. Homelessness is a societal problem and a global concern. We must only seek to begin the process with a starting effort and push. Tying the American-Iranian prisoner release for a record sum is not about the suggestion that these five individuals should never have been saved. That is a discussion which needs to analyze why the five Americans were imprisoned originally and understand what Iran will do with an extra six billion dollars. It is silly and premature to suggest that the US paid extortion money to release the prisoners because we already know the money belonged to the Iranian government and was frozen by the order of the US. However, we will always know the sanction could have remained to block the value of six billion dollars. The political discourse around the event is not as important to me, and surely not to the majority of Americans or Iranians, as ending homelessness would be. It is certainly not meant to argue the position of the US government in this diplomatic exercise. It is however, precisely aimed at reminding us that on the larger scale of national and global fundraising for causes, resolving homelessness is indeed a rational and likely successful exercise.
The true cost of such tragic circumstances and their effects, such as homelessness, is lifelong and at times a generational trouble and suffering. Often, it occurs through no fault of the individual. It begs the question to us as a population able to activate and unite to offer solutions, act on them, and influence positive results: Does the capable population truly seek an end to homelessness as a national, continental, and global priority? Is there compassion among humans to activate? The benefits to improving security, health, economy, education, and community while reducing crime, violence, and exploitation are financially incalculable. The sheer happiness of families moving into abodes and building forever homes is unimaginably euphoric and yet should naturally and innately be a trait of human compassion. Let us love!
