| Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Part V of the “How to Solve the PTSD Scandal” Series
As discussed in Part IV of this series, Neighborhood “FRED” chapters could save fire victims and reduce, if not mitigate, damages. However, cities and counties must persuade families affected by the conflagration-caused disaster to rebuild by joining cooperatives to own multistory condominium buildings. As explained earlier, new high-tech cement and treated steel can last at least 80 years or longer with minor retrofitting at the end of the time frame. Very few detached homes built often with plywood and shingles can last 40 years without major repairs done on the houses. The bottom line is that houses cannot usually survive brush fires.
There are many social benefits that communities can achieve by building vertically. The first is that tall tenement housing can also house the homeless, especially military veterans who often have PTSD. This suggested move will solve the perennial problem of homelessness, which costs the taxpayers (paying city, county, state, and federal taxes) nearly $100,000 per year per homeless person. This arrived figure — per official studies — includes the cost of emergency hospital visits and corresponding healthcare requirements like treatment for addiction, police-and-firefighting assistance, and other law-enforcement needs.
The tenement-housing co-ops can operate the condos as dormitories and earn income from housing people experiencing homelessness safely. Some condo buildings can house stores and urgent-care units besides a mini-library, book store, postal unit, senior-and-toddler care centers, and other community needs. More importantly, the condo buildings –with modern inside and outside water-sprinkler systems — can have trained personnel to man the Neighborhood FRED (First Responders for Emergencies and Disasters) units.
The second benefit is occupants of condo units can have better good-neighbor ties and help each other solve common social problems. Their children can also have opportunities to learn to live and study together and play in sporting activities as teams. Or form choirs or even youth symphony orchestras. Or even just musical or marching bands. Life in modern suburbs often leads to neighbors not knowing each other, as they usually meet only in infrequent group celebrations- that is, if they have a neighborhood association.
Another possible benefit is organizing a cooperative car rental firm that will operate electronic or hybrid vans as carpools for going to and from work and long commutes on weekends and holidays. Thus, co-op members can save on car insurance. Instead of buying vehicles, they purchase equity in the said cooperative, owning and operating cars for rent or even sharing leasing among family members. Thus, this suggestion will also generate more part-time employment for co-op members. Or full-time work for some qualified members — since the combined car-rental firms in the previously burned down will have their co-op auto shop for maintenance and regular repairs.
” … cities and counties must persuade families affected by the conflagration-caused disaster to rebuild by joining cooperatives to own multistory condominium buildings.”
The third benefit is that fire insurance premiums are going sky high, with some insurance companies stating that new yearly premiums will likely amount to 20% of the value of the dwellings insured. It means that individual homeowners will have to pay in 5-to-6 years the amount that might equal the cost of constructing the rebuilt house. Living condominium-style can mean (as earlier suggested) pooled insurance coverage. Residents in the burnt areas (of about 16,000 homes in the recent County of Los Angeles brush fires) can set up a cooperative-owned insurance company that provides auto-and-condo coverage aside from life and healthcare insurance to lower all the members’ premiums. At the end of the calendar year, co-op members can receive dividends instead of their premiums going into the pockets of top insurance executives who are paid tens of millions of greenbacks in salary and perks.
The fourth benefit is that by going vertical (where new buildings are designed to be earthquake and fire-resistant), more open spaces can be devoted to community gardening activities or be turned into more mini-parks that can be planted with vegetation that are hard to burn, like cacti and specifically the dragon-fruit cactus that also prevent the spread of weeds, which in summer wilt and efficiently serve as fire accelerants. City and county architects and engineers can make this suggestion state-of-the-art and turn it into evacuation areas in calamities or even when the forecast Magnitude 7-to-9 earthquake happens.
The fifth benefit is that due to the proximity of the rebuilt housing vertical units, many workers do not have to commute hours to and from their place of work. Because of the high rental or cost of detached homes, more families are forced to live in San Bernardino County (a distance of some 50-to-100 miles from the Cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, Los Beach, and neighboring metro areas) or another equally distant county. Even if they commute by metro train or bus and automobile, they spend four to six hours each working day (depending on traffic congestion levels). Think of fewer commuting hours eliminated, which can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and extend one’s life span.
Community organizers can add more social benefits to this list. Community organizations are respectfully suggested to join a lobby asking the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County to initiate the suggestions—as presented and explained in this column.
