July 6, 2018; Washington Post
Last month, writing for Business Insider, Leanna Garfield noted that, โHundreds of malls and thousands of mall-based stores have shuttered in the past two decades, and many more may close within the next 10 years.โ
Meanwhile, homelessness, which had been declining as the Great Recession faded, has started to rise again. The federal government in 2017 reported that there were 554,000 homeless nationwide, including nearly 58,000 families with children.
In Arlington, Virginia, a nonprofit asked if a recently shuttered mall might provide shelter for those who needed it.
As Terrence McCoy writes in the Washington Post, the transformation of Alexandriaโs Landmark Mall into a homeless shelter is representative of โa new way of thinking that is bringing together three economic phenomena: the collapse of the brick-and-mortar retail industry, the disappearance of affordable housing in Americaโs boom towns, and the struggle to reduce homelessness.โ
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Cities need to re-purpose our shuttered Malls into affordable housing, on bus lines, and create jobs.
Many of these eye sores are all across America.
Large parking lots that could be sectioned off for RV's to get homeless off the streets and a place to park for those down on their luck.
To live there they must participate in programs to search for work or job training and perhaps mandatory 4 hours a week to clean up the grounds. One parent can work days and one parent can work nights, get to work!
Strip malls have smaller stores that can be used for laundry, daycare, internet access, a food bank pantry, etc.
The City can start a GoFundMe. People will donate.
FEMA trailers are set up during disasters with pipes for water and sewage. It can be done.
Social services and job services offices must be on the property. Get the Church involved.
Politicians are really good and throwing billions of dollars at problems with zero results.
Do a pilot program in one City to measure the success.
