NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As much as society moves forward with each passing year, the issue of homelessness remains unsolved, with no solution in sight.
Until now.
Roy Englebrecht, one of Newport Beach’s most respected citizens, who has made a name for himself over several decades as an elite fight promoter, is gearing up for his most important fight: to not just wipe out homelessness, but to give those who have suffered an opportunity to start a new life in their own communities and find a permanent place they can call their own.
“No one ever plans on being homeless, and we often forget that life can throw curveballs where anyone may be one paycheck or family emergency away from being out on the street with nowhere to go and no one to turn to,” said Englebrecht, who is CEO of The Englebrecht Company, a California corporation. “My idea of Homeless Parents / Homeless Homes will provide the means for these men and women to get on their feet again and get a fresh start. In the process, we will make our communities stronger and be a shining light for the rest of the nation to show that there is a way to eradicate homelessness once and for all.”
The concept of Homeless Parents / Homeless Homes is a simple one. In this country we have foster parents and foster homes; why not provide those same services for those who are homeless? And instead of spending hundreds of millions on housing and all the associated costs that go into it, such as staffing, utilities, cleaning, security, cities or counties can spend this money to develop the Homeless Parents / Homeless Homes program, which would work like this:
A comprehensive computer program will be developed and a large number of staff members, equipped with iPads, will go into the community and explain the concept to homeless men and women they encounter. If interested, the potential guest will give detailed information on themselves to the staffer, who will then input this information and create a wide-ranging profile for each homeless person interested and perform the necessary background checks. The extensive Homeless Parents / Homeless Homes website will house these profiles.
When the website is ready to launch in a particular community, a major marketing campaign will be undertaken to find interested Homeless Parents who will also need to qualify for the program and meet an established set of requirements (including a private room and bathroom, clean bed linens, no criminal record, willingness to cook two meals a day and provide transportation for their client three times a week). Homeless Parents interested in hosting a guest will have the opportunity to view hundreds of profiles and choose to set up a meeting at the Homeless Parents / Homeless Homes office with the selected guest.
It will be the city or county that decides what to pay Homeless Parents per month to house and feed their homeless guest or guests, but usually will start at $2,500 a month. “I just feel that there are thousands and thousands of good people with an extra bedroom or two, where this extra income would really be of great help to them,” said Englebrecht. “It is really like that old saying…have fun, make money, do good.”
Once settled in with their host, the guest will begin the training process to develop a skill that will take them to the goal of becoming their own boss, and this is where the Homeless Parents concept gets very creative. Initially, this process will focus on training guests to become Uber / Lyft drivers so they will own their own business. City or county homeless funds will be used to fund driver training, the purchase of used vehicles from major car rental companies, as well as the establishment of bank accounts that will kickstart a new life for those who often had no hope of escaping from a seemingly inescapable situation. To ensure that a guest is able to get on their feet and have financial stability once a guest begins their Uber business, 75% of each of their Uber rides goes into a savings account that the guest cannot touch. The remaining 25% goes into the guest’s checking account to be used as they want. Once a guest’s saving account gets to $5,000 that amount is turned over to the guest, who must use it to secure their own housing, being able for the first time to have funds for a first and last month’s deposit and for apartment furnishing.
Plus, with millions going to Homeless Parents for providing a Homeless Home on a monthly basis, these millions would now be spent in the local community, delivering a tremendous economic impact there. So instead of homelessness costing a city or county tens of millions of dollars with very little impact on homelessness, tens of millions would be spent in the local community, impacting businesses in a positive way and reducing homelessness by up to 30 percent.
“I am asking for California or even a California county, to allocate some of their homeless funding to assist me in developing the website and to institute a pilot program in a chosen community. If the Homeless Parents/Homeless Homes program takes 30% of the homeless population off the streets it is a huge success,” said Englebrecht. “More importantly, this program provides hope and a positive solution to an issue few have had answers for.”
For more information on the groundbreaking Homeless Parents / Homeless Homes program, go to www.homelessparents.com or contact Roy Englebrecht at boxing77@aol.com or 949-235-6155.