Ryan Donais started building the small modular homes this summer as he watched the city’s housing crisis becoming more dire. He said he didn’t want to go through another winter seeing people living on the streets, so he put his background in construction to use.

“I just don’t see any changes. It’s been many years with people outside and it’s not changing. I couldn’t imagine being outside for years, you know?”

Since then, Donais has built three homes at a cost of about $10,000 each, most of which has been paid for through donations to his GoFundMe page.

  • Voroxpete
    11·
    5 days ago

    I think you’ve missed the fact that he’s crowdsourcing the $10,000/home cost through a GoFundMe. He has the money in hand, and that money could be applied in other ways than the one he’s chosen. That’s where my criticism comes from. He’s actively choosing to focus on his preferred solution when that money could easily be used in other, more effective ways, if he wasn’t blinkered by the paternalistic way that we talk about homelessness.

    And I have absolutely bent over backwards to make it clear that I don’t hold any personal ill will towards this man for what he’s doing. I respect him as a person, my only argument is with his choice of solution, because it is emblematic of a much deeper societal problem that he is no way personally responsible for. I’m not going to go back and start quoting my own previous comments in this thread, because even the most cursory read of them would make it clear that this “chip on my shoulder” only exists in your imagination.