Lotfi Zadeh Foundation: It’s Time For an Ultra-Low-Cost Approach to End Homelessness

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The following is a statement from Norman Zadeh, president of the Lotfi Zadeh Foundation:

Despite billions of dollars spent on homelessness, the problem is growing.¹ We need a new approach -- an ultra-low-cost solution. Surprisingly, there is one.

How about: Anyone who is sleeping on the street or in a tent should be given the opportunity to move into their own room in a facility that offers full medical and dental care, a cafeteria, online learning, hands-on courses in carpentry, plumbing, auto shop, game rooms, movie studios, a gym, pools, tennis, music and art studios --- the works. They can move in temporarily until they can get back on their feet, or permanently. No more desperate, miserable souls sleeping in tents or on the cold sidewalk.

That’s what this country should be doing – fully caring for its own. The price tag? It could be surprisingly low, a mere $5,000/unit! How is this possible?

We need to adopt a large-scale, organized approach. Consider California, which has the worst homeless problem, with approximately 180,000 homeless. The governor could push the state legislature to allow rezoning of small amounts of farmland near populated areas like Bakersfield to enable the construction of 5,000-room facilities, each on a 100-acre lot. Using prefabricated structures, the total cost to construct such a community, which would include an on-site hospital, cafeteria, online classrooms, a gym, a pool, tennis courts, game rooms, movie rooms, cultivatable farmland, etc., would be a mere $5,000/unit! Because of all the efficiencies achieved by having an in-house medical center and cafeteria, the cost of fully caring for each resident would be a mere $10,000/year!²

Answers to potential concerns

What about drug addiction? There would be separate facilities with specially trained doctors to deal with drug addicts. There could also be separate facilities for veterans, artists, etc. who may prefer to be with like-minded individuals. The facilities for artists would have more resources devoted to music recording, painting, sculpture, a performance hall, etc.

How is this not coercion? The program is completely optional. The plan is to make life in our communities so delightful that all in need will flock to the centers. If someone wants to leave for any reason, including because they have sufficiently improved their skills, we will bus them back and help them get a job.

Wouldn’t this encourage people just to stop working and be supported by the state? The program would be administered based on need. We would give preference to those who are living on the street and in tents first. However, the government is already spending more than a trillion dollars each year supporting needy individuals.³ This would be a much less expensive way to add hundreds of thousands of sorely needed units to our housing supply. Treating the homeless in a civilized, fully supportive, and respectful way, while giving them an opportunity to learn and grow and clearing our streets of tents and misery, is a win-win for all.

Can the residents make any money? Yes, residents who volunteer to cook, clean, maintain the premises, farm, etc., will earn between $10,000 and $20,000/year.

What effect would this have on local communities? Residents would not have a practical way to reach nearby communities except via our buses. Any such excursions would be controlled. Nearby communities would benefit, as the center would purchase its food and other supplies from them.

How many facilities would the US need to build for its 750,000 homeless? One hundred fifty 5,000-room facilities, each occupying 100 acres, for a total cost of $3.75 billion. The cost of fully taking care of our homeless each year? $7.5 billion. This is peanuts compared to what we are spending now.⁴

The centers can be built very quickly

Once a state like California or New York, or the Federal Government, gets behind this project, the centers can be built very quickly. Flat land can be quickly graded, and prefabricated materials quickly assembled. It’s time to end the unnecessary suffering of hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens and the unnecessary waste of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds.

Norman Zadeh is president of the Lotfi Zadeh Foundation (see lotfi-zadeh.com), which seeks to help the homeless and is promoting the above solution. He taught Operations Research as a consulting associate professor at Stanford and also taught at UCLA, UC Irvine, and Columbia. He managed hedge funds from 1991 to 2012.

¹ Between 2013 and 2025, US homelessness increased by 27%, while chronic homelessness increased by 81%. https://www.hud.gov/news/hud-no-26-037
² See Lotfi-Zadeh.com for a breakdown of the costs. For example, each 8x20 brand-new prefabricated room can be purchased, shipped, assembled, and furnished for less than $4,000/unit. The communal facilities, such as the on-site hospital, are inexpensive prefabricated warehouses that cost $12/square foot.
³ https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go
⁴ https://www.hoover.org/research/despite-california-spending-24-billion-it-2019-homelessness-increased-what-happened