Letters

  The good people of Boca Raton are in position to build the first homeless kibbutz in the USA. The United States’ shelter system for homeless people is a failed system. It makes nothing better, it only makes the situation worse.
    It is time to re-homestead our homeless people on small portions of land that they own in common. A small, working, agricultural kibbutz. A social experiment consisting of 25 homeless people, or 25 homeless American veterans, can be built on 1 acre of land. They could do this along with the right to erect shelter for the purpose of survival in 25 tents that may evolve into 25 tiny houses. Empty land above an abandoned septic tank or two portable toilets would be required.
    Over time, homeless people will come and homeless people will go, and a kibbutz could include many homeless people on the way to a more constructive life. Should the experiment work well for the city, then the city can build a second, third or fourth kibbutz, each on 1 acre of land. The city can increase or decrease the land leases as needed.
    I read the article by Sallie James, “Homeless in East Boca.” It is a well-written, unbiased explanation of the situation that the city finds itself locked into forever. A homeless person has lost more than the lawful right to enter and remain in a building; a homeless person has lost the right to land, altogether. The Industrial Revolution is over in the Western World; it is no longer necessary to force people off of the land into the cities to provide labor for industry. Industry is now a Rust Belt. It is time to re-homestead our homeless people on land that they own in common. Three million to 4 million homeless people in America exist on the land without a lawful place to be, and some of them end up in Boca Raton.
    Soon, about 15 million to 20 million American families that have lost their mortgages will spill out onto the land. Being forced to live without shelter causes the natural consequence of unnatural death. Homeless people exist on the land; it is the responsibility of society to organize this basic fact of life.
    In 2014, I went before the Boca Raton City Council and pleaded with them for this social experiment. I was ignored. The combined wealth and intelligence of this community can find every answer that we need to build the first homeless kibbutz in America. We know it works in Israel. Please visit the website homelesslandmodel.com and Facebook.com/American Homeless Land Model or send an email to american_homeless@yahoo.com.  
— Ken Churchill
Boca Raton