You might be interested in the story of Tengelo Park.

Harris Rosen went from a childhood in a rough New York City neighborhood to becoming a millionaire whose company owns seven hotels in Orlando, but his self-made success is not his proudest achievement.

Twenty years ago, the Orlando, Fla. neighborhood of Tangelo Park was a crime-infested place where people were afraid to walk down the street. The graduation rate at the local high school was 25 percent. Having amassed a fortune from his success in the hotel business, Rosen decided Tangelo Park needed some hospitality of its own.

“Hospitality really is appreciating a fellow human being,” Rosen told Gabe Gutierrez in a segment that aired on TODAY Wednesday. “I came to the realization that I really had to now say, ‘Thank you.’’’

Rosen, 73, began his philanthropic efforts by paying for day care for parents in Tangelo Park, a community of about 3,000 people. When those children reached high school, he created a scholarship program in which he offered to pay free tuition to Florida state colleges for any students in the neighborhood.

In the two decades since starting the programs, Rosen has donated nearly $10 million, and the results have been remarkable. The high school graduation rate is now nearly 100 percent, and some property values have quadrupled. The crime rate has been cut in half, according to a study by the University of Central Florida.

"We've given them hope,’’ Rosen said. “We've given these kids hope, and given the families hope. And hope is an amazing thing."

So this guy shouldn't be news, this should be the standard, it's scary that the one good guy with enough money to do something like this is the exception and not the norm.

We all evolved to live in tribes; we have to work together as people.

Yo

Idea

What if ALL the houses we build are for reducing homelessness?

At least think about it

Just want to remind everyone that we don’t have a housing shortage, we have a cost of living crisis. Everyone deserves a place to live and we have plenty. The will is the only thing. Fight YIMBY traitors. We can do it!

Do they pay him rent now?

Fight against homelessness shall not be charity driven.

Someone took 99 families off the streets? Wow fuck that asshole, how dare she have enough money to do that. How dare she not give up her home and make it 100 families off the streets, not good enough!

-Half this website, angry 99 families now have a place to live who didn't before this event

Nice!

Now, it would be good not to rely on good will of some individuals and actually enforce this for all the rich.

But still mad respect for the man.

A lot of people talk about taxing folks like this and then using the money to supply the housing.

The thing is, given the money, few people could pull this off well. The site isn't just being plopped down; from the sound of the article in the comments it's being actively developed as a community with other safeguards and support, by someone who sunk a lot of time into finding out what would work to help people rather than just appear to help.

A scheme like this is hard to replicate because, in addition to money, it needs a core team with a clear vision and the time to really make it a focus of their lives. It also needs a community that will embrace it - for example it would likely work in the town I grew up in, but the town I work in (and am sadly forced to live in) now would likely drive such a project to failure.

It's a good idea that worked against the odds, and should be celebrated for that alone.

Where are they built in relation to necessary services, and what other services are available?

Is there on site support for drugs and mental health issues?

Is anybody's stuff going to be safe there? Or are they dumped out of sight and mind?

You have to 'invest' in preventing the causes of homelessness in the first place, which has proved impossible under capitalism. I doubt corrupt dictatorships of the proletariat such as the Soviet Union did any better.

that sounds an awful lot like communism to me. We can't have that.

Here's a decent article

There's a lot of negativity from armchair experts in this thread but this seems like a genuine case of somebody putting a lot of thought and a lot of effort into actually helping the homeless. It's not just dropping a bunch of tiny houses and saying "job done".

I like this because it is both a good story about an individual helping their community and it is proof individual action alone is not enough to rely on to solve social problems.

Good for him, but this is pretty much an Orphan-Crushing Machine moment.

Now imagine if billionaires did it with their infinite wealth......sad. humanity and capitalism is just cancer.

And why were they homeless?

Why were they homeless???