Sustainable Villages to Help the Homeless
Part of the Right to Homestead Act
by Sondra Wilson. Updated July 13, 2025.
At some point, as a society, we need to face it: not everyone fits perfectly into the business community. Many simply don’t have the wherewithal to hold a steady job and make ends meet. It becomes exhausting for Iowa’s homeless population and nonprofits trying to keep up with Iowa’s growing homeless population. Modeled in part after Joppa’s proposed village, sustainable village will use cob housing, papercrete using recycled paper, and be outfitted by Solar Solvers. CRC’s Gardens Across Iowa! teams will install the gardens, and Master Gardeners will help tend them.
Above image by Joppa used for First Amendment purposes in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Office’s Fair Use Policy and the Fair Use Doctrine.
Compassion, Healing, and Ingenuity to Uplift Lives
Here are services that will be provided to residents:
– Optional access to mental health services to help provide stability as best we can;
– Tier One healthcare through SondraCare.
– Vocational classes to help with reading and writing, or in helping with the gardens. This could lead into a future job helping to maintain gardens through Gardens Across Iowa!.
– Assistance in finding jobs, either through the private sector or through Civilian Restoration Corps.
– Case workers to determine exactly what is going on with each individual, and what they need to get on their feet. Maybe they have a great business idea, but bad credit. That’s one place Iowa’s new state-owned public credit union will come in, enabling funds to be allocated once their business plan is fleshed out. We have brilliant minds popping out ISU’s Ivy College of Business, and many other colleges and universities throughout the state. Therefore, students within these colleges will be able to assisting these persons as a form of service project.
“Although I firmly believe in the separation of church and state due to human rights violations which often occur when the two are mixed, my belief in the teachings of Jesus are the rock this part of the plan is built on.
As someone who remained homeless most of my adult life due to circumstances beyond my control, I’m aware that many homeless people aren’t crazy. Oftentimes, they’re simply good people who life happened to. We are called to be like the Good Samaritan, and lift people up — not kick them down.
My heart goes out to Iowa’s homeless population who have been having the little property they own bulldozed to due bad policy caused by old, outdated modes of doing things. My heart also goes out to Iowa’s police officers and Sheriff’s deputies, who should never be put in the position to have to punish these people when they have done no wrong. We can’t change the past, but we certainly can learn from it.“