April Newsletter 2024

GREAT NEWS!!

This is not an April fools joke. We got a tax exemption already. Don't ask me how. I have established a bank account and a donation button on the website. Feel free to donate. You don't have to pay the tip or the credit fee. 

The next step is to go after a small grant or sponsorship of about $10k to cover office supplies, insurance for the board and lawyers fee when we need them. We also need to go after a larger grant of about $30k euros to cover the cost of the DVA services to design the community. 

Next Wave Housing (NWH) and DVA Dementia Village® Associates (DVA) have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to jointly research the possibility to develop a real estate and care program for the realization of an Independent Living Village project for people with disabilities, their support family and friends near SW Snohomish County-WA, USA. Based on the extensive Dutch and international knowledge and experience of DVA in practicing and conducting vision, innovative business concepts, sound business cases, effective implementation and achieving integral care and services in the care sector. The Dementia Village concept, as DVA stood at the basis of, will support the Quality of Life of the residents. DVA will support NWH from the pre-project phase (a Bidbook) up to and including consultancy and implementing phases according to the Roadmap© as DVA developed to support organizations like NWH. Please refer to the website for more info.

I met the CEO of Homes and Hope Community and Land Trust at the Resource Fair this past Tuesday. They acquire land and develop to make housing affordable. One of the principal ideas is to buy land and build, and then after you sell it  the price is fixed at a lower rate to allow for more affordable housing. She seemed interested in our plan. 

This is actually what we need to do in our community to control cost over time.  My idea is for example a unit costing $200k, when the person moves out,  they will receive only the money they put into it, the $200k. It will not be an investment that grows with time.  The new owner would then be allowed to buy the unit at that price. More on this later. 

Great event where I contacted numerous other people interested in housing. I think next year it would be good to have a table set up there. 

HARDWARE

So we were talking about designing the building using the techniques from DVA services. We need to add store fronts on one side of the large community to serve the community to generate income and open up jobs as well. I envision an apartment complex that will have numerous places to explore, work, eat and entertain yourself all in a secure complex. The central meeting area would be a large commercial style kitchen and restaurant connected to the entertainment area. The entertainment area will allow residents to live and have fun at the same place. The large kitchen can supply food and bakery goods for the community and the outside community as well. Maybe we could do outreach and deliver food. We could have a couple of the store fronts operated by the community to sell food and a small café. Additional spaces will be needed to create micro businesses. These are some of the ways we can generate money to offset residents that don't make enough just on SSI to live on. These will provide work opportunities, make our community viable over time, allow residents to pretty much live out the rest of their lives in one place. 

All in all if we incorporate these practices within the community, it should lower the overall cost of living. Affordability is the key word to always remember when designing this complex. 

I know that this sounds like a wild dream. But that's how things get done. They have to start off with an idea then find people who find it a good idea to come together and do it. I have no doubt there is enough money and people interested  in this project to make it happen. 

That's all for now!!