when I was a little kid I took talkative
to a whole new level
it didn’t matter who was having the
conversation or even what it was about I
always wanted to join in and ask
questions
well my parents loved this and me every
now and again they would need a break
and that’s when my mom would pick me up
and park me right next to my grandma and
there I would sit all day talking to her
the only thing was several years prior
my grandma had had a stroke
which resulted in her inability to walk
and talk so quite literally I grew up
with a captive audience even so I still
remembered asking her questions and her
inability to respond with anything but a
smile and nod taught me that sometimes I
would need to answer my own questions I
would need to find my own solutions
unfortunately what was loved by my
parents and many of the adults in my
life was not very much appreciated by my
peers and growing up I was constantly
bullied it got so bad that by fifth
grade all I wanted for my birthday and
Christmas present was to transfer
schools and when that didn’t work out I
decided to change myself I figured that
if I sat in the back of the class and
stopped asking questions if I played
dumb and even purposely dropped some of
my grades then if I was still bullied it
would be for the facade I was putting up
and not who for who I really was
but what followed after this were some
of the hardest years of my life and they
continued well into high school and amid
all of the pain and awfulness at those
years brought me the thing that I regret
the most was somewhere along the way I
had lost my courage to ask questions at
some point I had become too concerned
with how I was perceived or what I was
saying I just decided not to speak up at
all and this continued until I
encountered something so big it forced
me to ask questions again while I was in
high school I went on a field trip to
San Francisco and while we were there we
spent the day working in a homeless
shelter in one of the most impoverished
regions of the city
it was there that I met a man named
Lewis Lewis was about 23 years old and
he was homeless we sat together during
lunch and quickly realized that we
actually had quite a few things in
common for instance during his time in
high school Lewis had been an
outstanding 800 meter runner
and while I was nowhere near as fast I
was gearing up for a season full of that
same two laps Prix years later I still
remember that conversation and the
commonalities that we shared but more
than anything I will always remember
when Lewis told me that many of the
people I was meeting with that day
himself included had gone days weeks and
months without hearing their own name I
thought back to the times I was being
bullied and how awful and dehumanized
I felt when people called me by things
other than my name but I could always go
home I always had a place where people
would love me care for me and call me by
name Lewis didn’t have that this
encounter forced me to reawaken my
curiosity because I realized that this
issue was bigger than me and that it is
my duty as a person to ask questions and
to contribute to the conversation
because by doing so we can get that much
closer to the solution and furthermore I
put aside my fear of being wrong because
I realized that even if I’m wrong my
incorrect solution or hypothesis would
be the foundation someone else would
build upon so I started asking questions
to anyone who would listen questions
like why in one of the most developed
nations in the world are there people
experiencing homelessness I remember the
way that Lewis and so many others had
lit up when someone finally spoke to
them listen to them and called them by
name so why do we only address housing
when dealing with the issue of
homelessness how could we as a society
ignore the plight of children veterans
and people with mental health problems
who are experiencing homelessness how
could we just accept this as our norm
and why aren’t we motivated to fix it
while I was trying to find an answer for
these solutions I started to look into
answers that already exists
and I quickly realized that we see
potential solutions to the problem of
homelessness as either expensive or
impossible
we either advocate expensive change or
say change is simply not worth the cost
I realize that no solution had yet
solved this problem because none had yet
met the equilibrium of affordability and
effectiveness so just like my grandma
had taught me when no one can answer
your questions it’s time to figure them
out for yourself
now I know trying to solve the issue of
national homelessness while still in
high school is at the very least
audacious and completely laughable I had
no idea where to start
I was getting ready to head off to
college so I just laid out everything in
my room and got ready to pack I
separated everything into three piles
take to school leave it home and donate
it was on my way back from donating some
of my belongings that inspiration struck
clutching the tax deduction receipt in
hand I realized that the only reason
some people donate their goods rather
than just throw them away is because of
the tax incentive that they receive but
because of that simple incentive quality
goods are available to those in need
so what if we use the same strategy to
not only provide goods but services as
well in its most atomic form my idea is
that we can help those in need by
providing tax incentives to those best
able to help them it has a long way to
go before being implemented and today my
hope is to simply start the conversation
the beauty of the strategy is that it
can be applied to a multitude of issues
such as health care education and many
more but to provide clarity today we’re
just going to focus on one issue it can
address and one profession that can
address it throughout this year two to
three million Americans will experience
homelessness this demographic
encompasses all age ranges backgrounds
and ethnicities to provide clarity on
who exactly this population is I’ve
included the following statistics but
please note that these statistics do not
add up to a hundred percent as an
individual may be experienced
multiple conditions meaning they’re
counted under multiple percentages we
have to remember that just like you and
I there’s many facets that make up a
homeless individual they are not just
their homelessness no reason for being
so nonetheless the following statistics
give us insight into how we can help
this population according to a poll done
by the American Psychiatric Association
38% of homeless individuals suffer from
alcoholism 26% reported some form of
drug addiction and 39% either reported
or exhibited signs of mental health
problems furthermore 13% of the homeless
population are veterans 22% of foster
children will experience homelessness
and 39% of homeless women will develop
post-traumatic stress disorder due to
victimization while homeless and lastly
40% of America’s most forgotten homeless
population homeless youth will or have
attempted to commit suicide
heartbreaking does not begin to describe
these statistics but pity is not needed
too often we use pity as an excuse for
non action action is needed change is
needed the fact that this issue exists
and that we can do something to help
alleviate it demands our attention no
longer can we accept tossing a few
dollars in a hat as penance for not
doing more so what exactly is this
needed action it’s the idea that we can
give a therapist a personal incentive to
do it was previously volunteer work this
incentive would be a tax deduction for
every therapy session perform therapists
can provide one-on-one and group therapy
they can also be positive mentors for
that large population of homeless youth
and they can help us collect data on
this population so we can figure out how
to best help them furthermore therapists
can also help train shelter staff and
how to provide a safer atmosphere which
has been shown to reduce homeless
depression rates and women by up to 40%
not only can therapists address the
mental stressors that result
in and from homelessness but they can
also provide a human connection that’s
essential for one to climb out of
homelessness when introducing this idea
I’m often met with concern that it’s
great in theory but just overly
expensive in practice this is simply
untrue in order to prove this I’d like
you to consider a hypothetical imagine
we gave every single homeless American
in the United States one therapy session
that’s about 3 million therapy sessions
I’d like you to estimate how much money
would come out of your annual taxes in
order to afford for their service the
top row in green indicates all of the
tax brackets in the United States if you
locate yours the number directly
underneath is about how much this plan
will cost you in comparison the second
number underneath is about how much
you’re already paying for chronic
homelessness chronic homelessness only
accounts for 10 percent of the homeless
population but due to their extensive
use of resources each chronically
homeless individual is estimated to cost
the United States about $40,000 a year
according to the US Department of
Housing and Urban Development now again
the first number underneath your tax
bracket is about how much will be needed
for my plan and the second number
underneath is about how much you’re
already paying now I know that one
therapy session isn’t going to make a
lot of a difference but because many
homeless individuals don’t utilize
shelters or would opt out of the service
and those who do would use it multiple
times we can estimate that this number
would not fluctuate substantially
furthermore because therapy can address
many of the things that inhibit someone
from climbing out of homelessness the
more people we help the more money we
save and the more services we can
provide in other words if this plan
becomes a reality we can effectively
meet the equilibrium of affordability
and effectiveness a second concern I’m
often met with when introducing this
idea is the fact that the IRS has deemed
volunteer hours in the past as non
tax-deductible
this is because a different value and
they’re difficult to document however
when it comes to my plan we know the
value of therapy in the
knighted States and we can document
these services as they would take place
in homeless shelters that have received
federal grants so now what as I said
earlier I’m here today to start the
conversation and this plan has a long
way to go before being implemented but
more than that I’m here because I’m that
same little girl who kept asking
questions
no one knew how to answer I’m here
because my grandma taught me to strive
to answer the impossible and Lewis
showed me that there are issues out
there bigger than me if there’s a
problem out in the world that you are
passionate about and you want to find a
solution you don’t have to be an expert
your solution does not even need to be
perfect I know that some of you may have
found fault in my plan today but the
reality is I don’t want to live in a
world where someone goes days weeks and
months without hearing their own name
and I know that if we start today by
asking questions and contributing to the
conversation we can get that much closer
to the solutions that will create a
better tomorrow thank you
[Applause] [Music]
to a whole new level
it didn’t matter who was having the
conversation or even what it was about I
always wanted to join in and ask
questions
well my parents loved this and me every
now and again they would need a break
and that’s when my mom would pick me up
and park me right next to my grandma and
there I would sit all day talking to her
the only thing was several years prior
my grandma had had a stroke
which resulted in her inability to walk
and talk so quite literally I grew up
with a captive audience even so I still
remembered asking her questions and her
inability to respond with anything but a
smile and nod taught me that sometimes I
would need to answer my own questions I
would need to find my own solutions
unfortunately what was loved by my
parents and many of the adults in my
life was not very much appreciated by my
peers and growing up I was constantly
bullied it got so bad that by fifth
grade all I wanted for my birthday and
Christmas present was to transfer
schools and when that didn’t work out I
decided to change myself I figured that
if I sat in the back of the class and
stopped asking questions if I played
dumb and even purposely dropped some of
my grades then if I was still bullied it
would be for the facade I was putting up
and not who for who I really was
but what followed after this were some
of the hardest years of my life and they
continued well into high school and amid
all of the pain and awfulness at those
years brought me the thing that I regret
the most was somewhere along the way I
had lost my courage to ask questions at
some point I had become too concerned
with how I was perceived or what I was
saying I just decided not to speak up at
all and this continued until I
encountered something so big it forced
me to ask questions again while I was in
high school I went on a field trip to
San Francisco and while we were there we
spent the day working in a homeless
shelter in one of the most impoverished
regions of the city
it was there that I met a man named
Lewis Lewis was about 23 years old and
he was homeless we sat together during
lunch and quickly realized that we
actually had quite a few things in
common for instance during his time in
high school Lewis had been an
outstanding 800 meter runner
and while I was nowhere near as fast I
was gearing up for a season full of that
same two laps Prix years later I still
remember that conversation and the
commonalities that we shared but more
than anything I will always remember
when Lewis told me that many of the
people I was meeting with that day
himself included had gone days weeks and
months without hearing their own name I
thought back to the times I was being
bullied and how awful and dehumanized
I felt when people called me by things
other than my name but I could always go
home I always had a place where people
would love me care for me and call me by
name Lewis didn’t have that this
encounter forced me to reawaken my
curiosity because I realized that this
issue was bigger than me and that it is
my duty as a person to ask questions and
to contribute to the conversation
because by doing so we can get that much
closer to the solution and furthermore I
put aside my fear of being wrong because
I realized that even if I’m wrong my
incorrect solution or hypothesis would
be the foundation someone else would
build upon so I started asking questions
to anyone who would listen questions
like why in one of the most developed
nations in the world are there people
experiencing homelessness I remember the
way that Lewis and so many others had
lit up when someone finally spoke to
them listen to them and called them by
name so why do we only address housing
when dealing with the issue of
homelessness how could we as a society
ignore the plight of children veterans
and people with mental health problems
who are experiencing homelessness how
could we just accept this as our norm
and why aren’t we motivated to fix it
while I was trying to find an answer for
these solutions I started to look into
answers that already exists
and I quickly realized that we see
potential solutions to the problem of
homelessness as either expensive or
impossible
we either advocate expensive change or
say change is simply not worth the cost
I realize that no solution had yet
solved this problem because none had yet
met the equilibrium of affordability and
effectiveness so just like my grandma
had taught me when no one can answer
your questions it’s time to figure them
out for yourself
now I know trying to solve the issue of
national homelessness while still in
high school is at the very least
audacious and completely laughable I had
no idea where to start
I was getting ready to head off to
college so I just laid out everything in
my room and got ready to pack I
separated everything into three piles
take to school leave it home and donate
it was on my way back from donating some
of my belongings that inspiration struck
clutching the tax deduction receipt in
hand I realized that the only reason
some people donate their goods rather
than just throw them away is because of
the tax incentive that they receive but
because of that simple incentive quality
goods are available to those in need
so what if we use the same strategy to
not only provide goods but services as
well in its most atomic form my idea is
that we can help those in need by
providing tax incentives to those best
able to help them it has a long way to
go before being implemented and today my
hope is to simply start the conversation
the beauty of the strategy is that it
can be applied to a multitude of issues
such as health care education and many
more but to provide clarity today we’re
just going to focus on one issue it can
address and one profession that can
address it throughout this year two to
three million Americans will experience
homelessness this demographic
encompasses all age ranges backgrounds
and ethnicities to provide clarity on
who exactly this population is I’ve
included the following statistics but
please note that these statistics do not
add up to a hundred percent as an
individual may be experienced
multiple conditions meaning they’re
counted under multiple percentages we
have to remember that just like you and
I there’s many facets that make up a
homeless individual they are not just
their homelessness no reason for being
so nonetheless the following statistics
give us insight into how we can help
this population according to a poll done
by the American Psychiatric Association
38% of homeless individuals suffer from
alcoholism 26% reported some form of
drug addiction and 39% either reported
or exhibited signs of mental health
problems furthermore 13% of the homeless
population are veterans 22% of foster
children will experience homelessness
and 39% of homeless women will develop
post-traumatic stress disorder due to
victimization while homeless and lastly
40% of America’s most forgotten homeless
population homeless youth will or have
attempted to commit suicide
heartbreaking does not begin to describe
these statistics but pity is not needed
too often we use pity as an excuse for
non action action is needed change is
needed the fact that this issue exists
and that we can do something to help
alleviate it demands our attention no
longer can we accept tossing a few
dollars in a hat as penance for not
doing more so what exactly is this
needed action it’s the idea that we can
give a therapist a personal incentive to
do it was previously volunteer work this
incentive would be a tax deduction for
every therapy session perform therapists
can provide one-on-one and group therapy
they can also be positive mentors for
that large population of homeless youth
and they can help us collect data on
this population so we can figure out how
to best help them furthermore therapists
can also help train shelter staff and
how to provide a safer atmosphere which
has been shown to reduce homeless
depression rates and women by up to 40%
not only can therapists address the
mental stressors that result
in and from homelessness but they can
also provide a human connection that’s
essential for one to climb out of
homelessness when introducing this idea
I’m often met with concern that it’s
great in theory but just overly
expensive in practice this is simply
untrue in order to prove this I’d like
you to consider a hypothetical imagine
we gave every single homeless American
in the United States one therapy session
that’s about 3 million therapy sessions
I’d like you to estimate how much money
would come out of your annual taxes in
order to afford for their service the
top row in green indicates all of the
tax brackets in the United States if you
locate yours the number directly
underneath is about how much this plan
will cost you in comparison the second
number underneath is about how much
you’re already paying for chronic
homelessness chronic homelessness only
accounts for 10 percent of the homeless
population but due to their extensive
use of resources each chronically
homeless individual is estimated to cost
the United States about $40,000 a year
according to the US Department of
Housing and Urban Development now again
the first number underneath your tax
bracket is about how much will be needed
for my plan and the second number
underneath is about how much you’re
already paying now I know that one
therapy session isn’t going to make a
lot of a difference but because many
homeless individuals don’t utilize
shelters or would opt out of the service
and those who do would use it multiple
times we can estimate that this number
would not fluctuate substantially
furthermore because therapy can address
many of the things that inhibit someone
from climbing out of homelessness the
more people we help the more money we
save and the more services we can
provide in other words if this plan
becomes a reality we can effectively
meet the equilibrium of affordability
and effectiveness a second concern I’m
often met with when introducing this
idea is the fact that the IRS has deemed
volunteer hours in the past as non
tax-deductible
this is because a different value and
they’re difficult to document however
when it comes to my plan we know the
value of therapy in the
knighted States and we can document
these services as they would take place
in homeless shelters that have received
federal grants so now what as I said
earlier I’m here today to start the
conversation and this plan has a long
way to go before being implemented but
more than that I’m here because I’m that
same little girl who kept asking
questions
no one knew how to answer I’m here
because my grandma taught me to strive
to answer the impossible and Lewis
showed me that there are issues out
there bigger than me if there’s a
problem out in the world that you are
passionate about and you want to find a
solution you don’t have to be an expert
your solution does not even need to be
perfect I know that some of you may have
found fault in my plan today but the
reality is I don’t want to live in a
world where someone goes days weeks and
months without hearing their own name
and I know that if we start today by
asking questions and contributing to the
conversation we can get that much closer
to the solutions that will create a
better tomorrow thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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