HOUSELESS | Not just “Invisible People” — but — but disappearing.  Nuthin’ to See Here? Or is there? …

 When I started the research and verification process of the multiple sources quoted below, it reminded me of writing a treatment and screenplay for a gritty, mystery, sci-fi feature film.  Having now  finished, I’ve learned it’s neither.  Indeed the truth is much stranger than fiction.

Let’s be honest with one another.  At some point in our lives we have misplaced our car keys.  Misplaced an important file or document.  Misplaced a wrench or tool.  But human beings?  Many of us might draw a line in the sand there.

Ok.  That may have sparked some attention of readers.  What you are about to read may ring a few bells over the past 5 years of “missing immigrants” — the ones that cannot be found by public employees charged with knowing where they are. 

Yes.  There is a lot of “noise” which has flooded the internet about that.  Many theories have circulated and one “thought” terminating cliche was/is  “government oversight failures”.  It may well be true — in part.

But now it’s the so-called mysterious “disappearances” of HOUSELESS people who are NOT immigrants.  It sounds like the so-called mysterious disappearance of honey bees around 2005 where the colonies collapsed (Colony Collapse Disorder CCD) because their honey gatherer’s “got lost” on their way back to the hives.  Ok.  I know that’s a bit “out there”.  Or is it?  Put a pin in that!

Let’s first ask — in respectful deference to the hard working public servants, — what is the benign, innocent answers to these simple questions regarding the HOUSELESS?

• “What’s happened to them?”;

• “Are these ‘disappearances’ isolated to just one city, just one state?”;

• “Are these ‘disappearances’ occurring recently after displacement ‘sweeps’ of HOUSELESS from encampments?

• “Are these missing  HOUSELESS people migrants who crossed over our borders during from 2020 to the present?

OR IS “SOMETHING” ELSE A REASONABLE EXPLANATION?

Those questions of the mystery surrounding HOUSELESS “disappearances” are not answered in this blog post.  What IS presented reveals a disconcerting set of anecdotal — yet factual observations — offered from interviewed HOUSELESS witnesses living on the streets.  And these are witnesses who personally “hung with” and knew for a year or more those who have “disappeared”.

Readers are of course  encouraged to use Critical Thinking skills to decide for themselves.

Homeless Man Speaks Out | Disappearance of Roundup Victims Sparks Outrage

TEAM CONNECTED has published a number of Blog Posts during the last few months. However this post may be the most disturbing for readers. It certainly has been a deeply impactful experience for myself in the research process which was required to write the post. And what is presented below merely skims the surface of the topics presented. The structure of this post is subdivided into four sections addressing:

• AI CHATbots and the Impact of PROMPT queries containing “confirmation biases”;

• AI Safety, Risks and Job Replacement Predictions;

• AI CHATbots and Nationwide Litigation involving them and the deaths of teenage users; and

• AI CHATbots and users relying upon them for religious and spiritual guidance

Ultimately, readers will be able to apply the content of this post to their own lives in the Lakes Region within multiple pathways.

PREVIOUS Blog Posts in the Lakes Region by TEAM CONNECTED

As a consequence of posting previous articles on HOUSELESSNESS in the Lakes Region, some readers responded in emails and texts. Some of those responses contained artificial intelligence (AI) generated summaries of links, and descriptions of resources currently available to the HOUSELESS. Some of those responses to the posts presented AI generated suggestions for policies to consider for addressing the challenges of HOUSELESSNESS in the Lakes Region. If nothing else, these responses launched a short experiment.

EXPERIMENT with a CHATbot

HOUSELESSNESS in the Lakes Region? TEAM CONNECTED’s Mission:  Peacemaking | Restoring the Vineyard

TRUTH TELL:  Many blog posts have been published by TEAM CONNECTED during the past few months.  The underlying subject has been HOUSELESSNESS in the Lakes Region.

Meetings with stakeholders (public and private) attended by myself — have revealed folks disagree on causes and solutions — attempted over many years.  There are evident internal conflicts over HOUSELESSNESS which inevitably grow into external conflicts over policy making.

Unless timeless wisdom and discernment from God remain a prime focus, it is easy to become distracted and drawn into those conflicts.

But becoming embroiled in conflicts and challenges to “pick a side” in any given solution offered — well — that is not TEAM CONNECTED’S Mission.

I was gently reminded of that this morning in a quiet time with the Lord — during a Bible Study on Isaiah Chapter 6. YouVersion LINK

What do the Rise and Fall of 11 Previous Empires have to do with the Lakes Region?  Turns out — Quite a Bit.

This Blog Post is a follow up to another recent post entitled: “What Does the American History of HOUSELESSNESS Have to Do With Anything in the Lakes Region?” (09.13,2025) [See also a summarized review of that post by a local Lakes Region NH Realtor: “Housing History on Repeat” by Vanessa Saunders (09.13.2025).

“The only thing we learn from history,’ it has been said, ‘is that men never learn from history’, a sweeping generalisation perhaps, but one which the chaos in the world today goes far to confirm.  What then can be the reason why, in a society which claims to probe every problem, the bases of history are still so completely unknown?”

As we pass through life, we learn by experience. We look back on our behaviour when we were young and think how foolish we were. In the same way our family, our community and our town endeavour to avoid the mistakes made by our predecessors.

The experiences of the human race have been recorded, in more or less detail, for some four thousand years. If we attempt to study such a period of time in as many countries as possible, we seem to discover the same patterns constantly repeated under widely differing conditions of climate, culture and religion. Surely, we ask ourselves, if we studied calmly and impartially the history of human institutions and development over these four thousand years, should we not reach conclusions which would assist to solve our problems today? For everything that is occurring around us has happened again and again before. — Sir John Glubb (circa 1970’s) Lengthy WIKIPEDIA Entry. 

Introduction: 

There are four parts to this post:

1. The existence and same fate of 11 empires for 4000+ years through 2025;

2. Striking similarities of every empire;

3. Signals of the fall of every empire;

4. Is there another way to approach this?  Yes!

And we begin Part 1 with a discussion of an essay entitled: “THE FATE OF EMPIRES and SEARCH FOR SURVIVAL” by Sir John Glubb. A short video explaining the significance of this essay appears beneath the following background on Sir Glubb.

OVER 20 HOUSELESS programs have been instituted since the 1850’s — and more previously — in Colonial America

Those in journalist circles speak about the “buried lead” of any reported story.  That’s the portion of an article “beneath the fold” where the relevant facts are given to support the headline.  This is a lengthy Blog Post.

That is because the subject matter requires more than a few sentences.THERE IS an American Legacy of HOUSELESS laid out in detail below. THERE IS also an American Legacy of unsustainable national, colonial and state debt (beginning in the late 1600’s. Both are part of America’s Legacy. Today policymakers continue debates over the widening gap between Americans being “Rent Burdened” — meaning a rapidly increasing GAP between incomes, rent and other daily expenses. [See our previous BLOG POST. “Rent Burdened”? | One Paycheck Away? | Already There in the Lakes Region!”]

These debates also have a long, cyclical history in our America’s Legacy — where financial difficulties of Americans (from the 1600’s) forward to today. HOUSELESSNESS and “Rent Burdens” blamed on inflation of prices and deflation of “paper currency” purchasing power. The word salads used by policymakers to define inflation and deflation are also not new; and that is presented in detail below.

These two recurring American Experiences have been interconnected since the settlement of this country.

The journalists’ “buried lead” in the American Legacy of HOUSELESSNESS is our common history and experiences with HOUSELESS community members.  Readers will learn here that HOMELESSNESS and unsustainable national debt’s recurring history — dates back to medieval England “debt peonage” — and it carries forward consistently through colonial America; and then through the Revolution, then to the pre and post Civil War era, to WW1, the Great Depression (Hoovervilles) and through the 1960’s and to our present experiences today.

Some may ask, why do I need to know this now?  ANSWER: Maybe you don’t — unless you want to address the root cause.

A local street newspaper is in discussion and under development in the Lakes Region. The “H Files©️ Stories” in “The Streets” published by TEAM CONNECTED will be a bi-weekly, 20+ pages newspaper — written by authors “grass-roots” style, hyperlocal; and focused on the HOMELESS and affordable Housing in the Lakes Region. Its editorial content will distinguish itself from other newspaper and include:

• — Interviews of HOUSELESS community members  from the 11 cities and towns of the Lakes Region:

• — Focusing on HOMELESS life experiences (successes and failures);

• — Recoveries from challenges;

• — Existing programs and services offered in the Lakes Region with QR Code links and other contact information (including a landing page for local comments from the HOUSELESS)

• — If the interview is filmed, a QR code in the newspaper (adjacent the story) will take readers to extended video coverage of the interview on a dedicated online platform (ie., YouTube);

• — An “In the News” column featuring national, state, and local stories and editorials concerning HOUSELESSNESS, affordable housing availability, temporary shelters and services, food pantries, soup kitchens, and local faith-based organizations offering beds, food and clothing; and

• — Classified ads, Services and Workshops, Jobs, and other Notices of interest to our HOUSELESS community members.

Will it Work? We Believe it Will!

What makes up our shared Legacy in America?  Repeated social patterns of thinking, behaviors, and social conditions — are one part of our Legacy. 

What we pass on to our children is part of it.  In that context, HOUSELESSNESS in America is not a new phenomena nor a new emergency. 

What about its prevalence in reported news in the Lakes Region? — well some might say … it’s just old news from our past repeating itself.

In this post, readers will learn some facts that may not have been addressed about HOUSELESSNESS in history and social studies classes attended in youth.

History may be considered to some readers to be boring — and to others it may seem irrelevant — thar is, unless Harry Truman Mark Twain, and Shakespeare were and are right:

So let’s get into the mood to enjoy a bit of American history about HOUSELESS men and women in our past; who made their homes on freight train cars — and in hobo encampments along train tracks.  As to relevance?  — That American Legacy continues today.

In a number of recent conversations I have been asked what’s “your Story”? What’s behind TEAM CONNECTED? 

Well — As Don Quixote offers in the Cervantes’ novel: “… maybe it’s a dream” — but at this point — I believe in the Lakes Region … it’s much more than a dream.

In my younger days I attended (on a scholarship) an English-style boarding school.  And in my Fifth Form (11th grade) the musical “Man of La Mancha” was playing on Broadway. 

I attended that musical; and subsequently obtained a vinyl LP version of the soundtrack, WHY? Because it moved me to tears.  In my dorm room I’d play it on a turntable over and over again … skipping to the song “The Impossible Dream”; playing and re-playing it to the jeers (at times) from my dormmates.  In their defense … it was the 60’s.

Recently the song made it’s way back to Broadway; performed by many well-known artists.  Why is this important?  I might say it’s one of several theme songs applicable to:

• Recognition of the enormity of challenges presented by HOUSELESSNESS;

• Our Calling, our Mission, and our Commitment.

It answers the initial question:  “What’s your Story?”. Is addressing HOUSELESS people with kindness “just an impossible dream”?  

Maybe for some it is; but I am called to press forward with TEAM CONNECTED on this quest where HOUSELESSNESS ends in the Lakes Region.  I welcome one and all to share this dream

There are a number of relevant TakeAways in this Blog Post including:

46.7% Of NH residents are “Rent Burdened” = Eviction Increases = HOUSELESSNESS | So Let’s Do Some Simple Math, and Between 2020 to 2024 — HOUSLESSNESS Increased 49.5%

Yesterday’s Blog Post “Dehumanizing Houseless?  — Is THIS ONLY WAY to “restore” a community in the Lakes Region?” detailed the July 24, 2025 Executive Order 2025-14391 … which stated and implied HOUSELESS increases in America are the result of illicit drug use by members of HOUSELESS in our communities.  Let’s be clear.  While some HOUSELESS in the Lakes Region may participate in illicit drug usage; not only is that same usage true for those who currently live in a house and those who distribute illicit drugs — but it is a logical fallacy of a “sweeping generalization” — to state or imply — this to be “the root cause” of HOUSELESSNESS in the Lakes Region.  WHY? 

Rent Burden (GAP between Income and Affordable Rents) + Eviction Increases + No Affordable Housing =

A National Emergency of HOUSELESSNESS

According to New Hampshire Housing, only about 24 percent (https://www.nhhfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/NHH-2024-Residential-Rental-Cost-Survey-Report.pdf#page=8 ) of rental units in 2024 were affordable to those making the renter median household income of $56,814.

Based on wage data analyzed by New Hampshire Housing, out of 11 selected high-demand occupations, only nurses had median wages sufficient to afford rent and utilities for a two-bedroom unit in the state. Further, public school teachers and electricians were the only occupations that could afford one-bedroom unit based on median wages, while all other high-demand occupations, such as nursing assistants and construction laborers, earned median monthly wages lower than the median price for a one-bedroom unit. Renters are also more likely to pay more than 30 percent of their income towards housing costs, the amount defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as being cost-burdened by housing that functions as a simple but reliable (https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Harvard_JCHS_Herbert_Hermann_McCue_measuring_housing_affordability.pdf ) measure of affordability.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data (https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2022.B25074?q=B25074&g=040XX00US33 ) from 2018 to 2022, nearly half (https://nhfpi.org/resource/nearly-half-of-new-hampshire-renters-are-cost-burdened-by-housing/ ) of renters in the Granite State were cost burdened by housing prices. Among those with a household income less than $35,000, about three out of four were paying more than 30 percent of their income towards rent.

The increase in housing costs may have some association with the rise in eviction filings across the state, as more New Hampshire families with low incomes may face difficulty paying rent.

From January 2022 to January 2023, the number of unhoused people in New Hampshire increased by about 52 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s point-in-time estimates (https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/hdx/pit-hic/#2024-pit-count-and-hic-guidance-and-training )”

https://nhfpi.org/resource/living-expenses-financial-vulnerability-and-poverty-in-new-hampshire-2/

This Blog Post is an immediate follow-up to yesterday’s post entitled: “Why we use the word “HOUSELESS” and not “HOMELESS” in Lakes Region Discussions” In that post Franklin D. Roosevelt was quoted on the subject that “WORDS MATTER” in a political policy discussion such as HOUSELESSNESS:

“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way”.

In this context, please consider the following recent Executive Order. Using the faculty of Critical Thinking skills; perhaps ask what assumptions are being made in this order? What policy solutions are being offered in this order? And — WHY? — Those are important and relevant questions. Labels such as endemic, vagrancy, emergency, disorderly, sudden, violent, long-term institutional setting, and overwhelming majority (among others) have specific meanings and — these WORDS DO MATTER.

Three TEAM CONNECTED Blogs have been posted in the last 2 weeks using the phrase HOUSELESS as a term to discuss what many have described in Lakes Region news articles in The Laconia Sun as well as Letters to the Editor authored by mayoral and councilman candidates for upcoming November 2025 elections. The current state of HOUSELESS human beings and their families (including those — one paycheck away from that condition) has been in the local news cycles and remains so. Some Lakes Region neighbors have asked WHY use HOUSELESS and not HOMELESS. The answer is simple: WORDS MATTER!

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

TEAM CONNECTED on:  “God Pods” For HOUSLESSNESS in the news in the Lakes Region | & Other Temporary Shelter Solutions to Evictions | Wearable Insulated Shelters and Rapid Deployment Shelters | WHY NOT?

In the News in the Lakes Region, The Laconia Daily Sun recently reported (Aug. 2025) on meetings between the HOMELESS SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE LACONIA HUMAN RELATIONS COMMITTEE and certain residents presenting the concept of: “God Pods” for HOUSELESSNESS.

New Hampshire counties and cities are looking for solutions for HOUSELESS shelters.  And “God Pods” is one.  And some other far less expensive temporary, insulated shelters (for winter months) are presented in this Blog Post below — after a discussion of a trend of evictions of the HOUSELESS in Manchester and Concord during the past two years. WHY? Evictions lead to a self-evident need for temporary shelters; being a challenge for many municipalities which face a lack of inventory of temporary and permanent housing solutions.

HOUSELESSNESS is in the news cycle throughout America, especially in municipalities and regions where elections are taking place. The Lakes Region in New Hampshire is no different.HOUSELESSNESS is in the newspaper again.  update 08/26/2025 So let’s consider this for a moment with this graphic.

Some say: Criminalization of HOUSELESSNESS is one solution which is suggested by a few such as the author of the Letter to the Editor recently published in The Laconia Sun (Aug. 26, 2025). The suggestion has a premise. HOUSELESSNESS is caused by drugs mental health issues, enabling gateways, etc. That may well be true for “some” HOUSELESS people. However, those conditions are shared as well by many people who live in homes in the Lakes Region. And according to DATA of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in The 2024 Annual Homeless Report to Congress (AHAR) (117 p. PDF), the primary cause of HOUSELESSNESS is the rapidly expanding GAP between income and expenses for rent, mortgages, property taxes, energy, food, and other costs common to both HOUSELESS individuals and families; also being a condition which is shared by people currently living in a home.

Yet opinions persist with the public bringing to mind the subjective aphorism:

“When you are a hammer — every problem looks like a nail.” 

Synopsis:  When we seek a Solution to the Houselessness in the Lakes Region … are we Living in the Kingdom of God?  OR Living in the Empire?  It’s a Free Will Choice…

Yesterday I became engaged in a YouVersion online  Bible study entitled “Kingdom Come”  and sent invitations to join to a number of folks.  Why?  

First, this forms a part of TEAM CONNECTED’S outreach mission to the Lakes Region community in New Hampshire.

Second, this particular bible study focuses in part on living in the Kingdom of God (within a “Connected” Worldview) versus living life in the Empire (“Separation” Worldview). These are both discussed below in the contest of one proposed solution to growing numbers of HOUSELESS people and families in the Lakes Region.

LINK to “Kingdom Come”: Bible Study.

Third, this post comes after to several months being called into researching locally the exponential rising numbers of HOUSELESS people (or one paycheck away) in the Lakes Region.  Three recent TEAM CONNECTED posts in the last week are included in this blog post today.

Houselessness:  Data Obsessed? | Date-Driven? | OR BOTH | Is the Data Accessible in the Lakes Region?  HMIS DATA Collection

When any human being commits to research and then study the growing number of HOUSELESS people and families in the Lakes Region, certain tropes will be found repeated in local news articles, posts, short form videos, and more.  In common discussions, a false premise is deployed beginning with “… All HOUSELESS people are HOUSELESS because …”.

These BECAUSEs may include one or more of these conclusory statements:

1.      The HOUSELESS live without a home by choice,

2.      The HOUSELESS live without a home due to substance abuse;

3.      The HOUSELESS live without a home due to domestic abuse;

4.      The HOUSELESS live without a home due to their criminal history;

5.      The HOUSELESS live without a home because they have failed to submit an application for housing assistance; … ant there are more  GENERALIZED premises not supported by DATA.

Each of those tropes, may indeed be true for some of the HOUSELESS and those conditions are also true for some people in the in the Lakes Region who live in either a rented or mortgages home.

In reviewing the slides below from HUD which has been studying HOUSELESS in America since 2007, the DATA which Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has gathered --  simply does not support these generalized statements about the HOUSELESS as a group, nor even as ubiquitous contributing factors to HOUSELESSNESS … that is; as outweighing one factor which is common to all: 

the growing GAP between income … and rising COSTS for:  rent, energy, food, and other expenses all households and individuals must pay in 2025.

Team Connected Blog | Four Solutions to Houselessness | But Do the Houseless Know About Them? | Is There “Public Data” to Support Successes and Failures?

This is a follow-up to a blog post on August 19, 2025: A summary of houselessness research and sharable graphics from the National Alliance for Homelessness are provided as a Team Connected outreach to the Lakes Region community.

Is There Really NOT ENOUGH? | And … Is the Another Way to Address “Houselessness”?

A good friend recently suggested to me that I was not clear where I stood on “houselessness” in the Lakes Region.  Admittedly he was correct, as I’d had faced an internal struggle with the dilemma of balancing the fiscal costs of solving this escalating challenge … amid the consistent cries from some that “we don’t have ENOUGH: money, land, buildings, staff, volunteers, and time to resolve this crisis.

A new lacto-fermentation of vegetables and fruits free WORKSHOP is being scheduled in 2025 for Fall and Winter indoor demonstrations. For more detailed information please go to our Fermentation page. The WORKSHOP is small part of ‘Team Connected’s” Lakes Region community outreach entitled “World Connected” outlined in Part 2 of our Executive Summary PDF.

In a bible study today “Confessions and Reflections of Who I AM” on the YouVersion app, I was led by Christ to comment from 1 Cor.15.50-53. And it was after Alex, a dear friend in Christ, shared with me yesterday a video from pastor Steven Furtick: “God, I’m Scared”. [see below].