Let’s End Homelessness in America

It is time to address the the issue of unhoused Americans. Our country is capable of great things when we work together. Homelessness is not partisan. It affects everyone, of every skin color, religion, political belief or culture.

The unhoused are just like you and me. Less than 10% are undocumented immigrants. Clearly, this is not an immigration problem, it’s an American Problem.

Our current federal administration has decided to change directions for long-term housing. Funding for support services is also at an all-time low. As convenient as it may be to blame the politicians, this is not a partisan issue… politicians have failed at every opportunity. It is painfully obvious that the government is never going to solve this problem, but we are confident that we, every-day, regular Americans, can…and will.

We have self-driving cars and Ai that can hold a conversation, but we can’t solve this problem? That’s ridiculous. Of course we can solve this problem. Ai can help, crypto can help, as can social media and fintech. We just need to connect humans towards a common goal.

Our solution for ending homelessness has three driving approaches:

• Prevention. Helping people, women especially, get into apartments through downpayment assistance. A lot of people become homeless because they can’t cough up the extra deposit and moving expenses. Single women with children are some of the most common victims, and they end up staying in extended stay hotels which cost more than apartments due to credit and downpayment issues. We know this could be a logistical challenge, so we think the best thing would be for HandUp to pay the down-payment directly to the landlord. People in this position typically have declining credit but not terrible credit. That’s why we want to help them before things get out of control. Often, $1500 is the difference between living with a roof and living without one.
• Support. Hand Up Cards (the first product to market) are one-time use and refillable credit cards that non-unhoused people can give to unhoused folks. For the first run, they’ll be one-time use, but I want to build a website where you can sponsor an unhoused person and communicate with them through the site (or app). This idea came to me when I was living downtown and became friends with some homeless folks, all of whom had smartphones…prepaid, but older, cheaper versions of Android and Apple phones. We are considering making it possible to communicate with sponsored Americans anonymously.
• Housing. The third wave of HandUp Org would be to actually acquire real estate to be used for temporary housing – up to 12 months rent free for deserving families & individuals, who help pay for their stay through care & maintenance of the property. These homes would have mental health & addiction treatment professionals on-site for those that need it.

There are thousands of non-profits dedicated to this cause. Rather than competing with them, want to support them and help them reach more people.

This is also something that Churches and other non-profit groups could participate in, and I’d like to have businesses help out through official sponsorships – and involvement. Like Circle K offering discounts for people using Hand Up Cards, or Goodwill offering work clothes and shoes for free to card holders so they can interview for work. I have already spoken to representatives at those companies over the last few years and they were interested – unofficially.

I have thought about this for almost a decade, but I’ve been helping the unhoused since the 1990s. When I was in college, I became good friends with a homeless woman whose life was turned upside down when her husband tragically killed himself and her children. If not for this tragic event, I am certain that she would have become a famous folk singer. Carol would sing on street corners for donations – an angelic voice. She passed away from pneumonia, as many unhoused do every winter. It’s time to help our fellow Americans and end this completely preventable nightmare.

In the next 6-8 weeks, we will be launching a new website, slowly rolling out more information and products. We need to raise enough money to order the cards so we can resell them, currently the minimum order is about $500,000…but as soon as we hit that number, we’ll begin shipping as soon as they are created.

James Webb
November 17th, 2025