Blogger Carlos Gasca Yanez has proposed an innovative solution to this nation’s looming social blight: housing markets in crises. The idea championed in a post titled Subprime Crises calling for Social Entrepreneurs is to partner nonprofit initiative with corporate enterprise. Carlos envisions a real estate model that embraces a marriage of compassionate sensitivity to the profit motive. Essentially, cooperative education would occur at every level beginning with professional development and the implementation of best practices. Businesses and nonprofits would then endeavor to protect and inform borrowers likely to be victimized by predatory lenders.
A ridiculous proposition? I think not.
Years ago, I participated in a social experiment with a nonprofit named People’s Homesteading Group. To make a long story short: homes were awarded to participants based on an equation that favored need over financial qualifications. My company facilitated thirty or more closings and the quasi-governmental funding that served as the financial mantle of the project. While it might be said that corporate resources could have been used more profitably from the perspective of balance sheets, it could also be said that my horizons grew in ways that transcended dollars and cents. The homesteading project was successful overall.
Don’t miss the comment thread on Carlos’ post. Chris describes personal experiences with a radical and remarkable housing initiative unfolding in Scotland and Norway. Cheryl gives an incredible dissertation on the importance of teaching credit fundamentals.
I left the post with a realization that housing is possibly the paramount global issue.
Relevant quotes to ponder:
James P. Danky - It is ironic that virtually every Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in America is a street of abandoned buildings, abandoned businesses, abandoned people, abandoned dreams. Those who honor King's name need to think about fulfilling the promise of his dream to those who have been forsaken in our inner cities.
Carlos Gasca Yanez - Capital is mobile and has no heart; communities on the other hand are not mobile and are on their own when it comes to determining their future.
Myrlie Evers-Williams - It is you - if you will summon the courage - who will forge new initiatives in finance, technology, medicine, and management that will put all Americans back to work and the the same time give America a better shot at feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, healing the sick, and caring for the children.
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