Homelessness in Wealthy America: What About Deep Pockets Funding Vans and Paying Consulting Fees to Champion of Survivors Bob Wells

 "Seattle's rents are crazy. My daughter is living in her van. She learned all about that from a guy called Bob Wells."

That's what a client for my coaching practice confided to me - with both relief and anxiety. 

The exhale was from the reality that she wasn't like the more than 650,000 in America - homeless. Recently, the US Supreme Court, reports AP, looked at the legality of banning their sleeping outside. That case began in the Grants Pass jurisdiction which fined those sleeping outside $295. The San Francisco US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck that down.  

The source of my client's fear was that his own daughter felt compelled to learn "survival skills" from someone he didn't know. She had gone to college. She had marketable skills and actually was holding a job. Had he gone wrong with his parenting skills? Or was America becoming a Third World Nation?

I delivered a short backgrounder on Bob Wells. Featured as himself in the blockbuster hit film "Nomadland," Wells went through his own darkness. A divorce knocked him out financially. His son's suicide did the same kind of thing emotionally. 

As so many who find their purpose from adversity Wells made it his mission to tutor survival. His focus is on those who struggle to make it in RVs or, like Fern in "Nomadland," a converted van. However, the Wells model can be applied to many other modes of becoming self-sufficient without much income. 

Maybe the solution to managing homelessness shouldn't be pushed into court. There could be deep-pocketed versions of Wells out there who fund pilot programs such as purchasing low-cost vans and parachuting in Wells and other survival experts. Then let's see if there can be new beginnings for those without traditional shelter. 

Fern hit the road when the plant shut down. Along the way she picked up contract work at, among others, an Amazon fulfillment center. A number of my own clients, mostly over-60, had lost their jobs or couldn't endure their jobs, sold everything, bought a used RV and make it their business to map out where they could get work (along with where they could park for a low cost). They are out there on their own terms. 

There are plenty of social-justice advocates who also have access to the kinds of financial resources which can fund The Van experiment. 

For example, there are the progressive large law firms ranging from Kirkland & Ellis to Paul, Weiss. Everday their lawyers in their New York City offices encounter homelessness on their way to work. 

Billionaires known for their philantrophy include Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg. 

Women like MacKenzie Scott and Melinda Gates are changing the philantrophy game. 

How about those venture capitalists who want to change things?

As for logistics, those in non-profits could volunteer to structure and oversee these initiatives. They have the organizational know-how. 

I would pitch in pro bono with work-search tutoring. Even for gigs, you better know how to apply in this generative AI era, be it the resume or the interviewing process (which could be through HireVue).

Before "Nomadland" there was a provocative depiction of life off the grid. It had been the 2007 book "Stuart: A Life Backwards" by Alexander Masters. That was a real-life story of a man in extreme emotional pain who didn't fit in with what society had in mind for him. Later the book was made into versions of performance art. "Stuart" delivered the message that outliers such as the homeless are unique individuals, not "problems." 

Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com)