Housing and land use in America is broken. Cities and suburban developments limit the freedom of movement and create unsafe, environmentally damaging waste and segmented off scared communities. The way homes and neighborhoods are built, financed and maintained is costly on an social, economic and ecological level. Some people have way too many other rooms, others have none, and many people are caught in a vicious cycle of spending thousands of dollars or the equivalent of 50-100 hours a work a month simply to have a safe place to live and be able to get where they need to go.

Large plots of concrete and homes built with overly complex designs, non-locally sourced materials and requiring the use of dozens of professionals, builders, financiers and agents to transact damage the environment and mental health of the people in these areas.

The land was here for us. It naturally wants to grow food. When taken care of it gushes with clean water and is soft and easy to walk on and relax on. Building durable structures for recreation and relaxation as well as work is easy and affordable – canvas, hemp, wood and clays are abundant across our planet and for millions of years no one on earth paid rent.

Almost all major faiths and reasonable people believe we are intended to be stewards and caretakers of our natural world – not passengers through it or leaches on it. Our food was meant to be grown near us and our housing made in such a way to limit the needs for work and maintenance and keep us safe, healthy and surrounded by beautiful places to be inspired and people to live and work alongside.

Spaces that are right sized for their use and created in economically and ecologically informed ways encourage peace and tranquility and when people live in places they can walk, exercise, work and feed themselves easily they feel good. When these spaces are financed affordably and able to be created and maintained with a few months or years of work upfront and a few dozen hours a month of ongoing maintenance and investment they become where our families and friends commune and grow together.

Most Americans believe and act out a play where they:

Housing consumes 10-50% of an average person and families income. About half of this goes to financial institutions that DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO IMPROVE OR STEWARD THE LAND, a tenth to fifth to taxes, a tenth to fifth to utility companies and manufacturers of machines that are not built up to the standards our technology could have for efficiency, durability and self service via replaceable parts.

Corporate housing, parking lots and retail centers and the distance between these and homes require scars upon the earth of massive concrete and asphalt and huge power, sewage and water lines with extremely high upkeep costs and increase the costs of goods for everyone and consume space that could otherwise be used for higher density and proximity to friends, natural regenerative zones to capture water and generate clean air, etc.

In money terms about $1000 to $5000 is going to housing and transit of some sort each month for an American single or family. Translated into median hours this means 40-200 hours are required each month to afford a place to live.

This is truly insane and shocking and damaging to everyone's psyche and destroys the abundance and potential in our people. It makes our kids expect to be wage slaves and is a form of rentier capitalism and feudalism that would have made the founding fathers, statesmen and philosophers and faith leaders of all time shudder.

It is time we wake up from this nightmare.

Canvas, bamboo, hemp, clay, stone and wood are abundant in nature and land is free. There is enough land in America for every person to have 6 acres to themselves. In America's most dynamic cities people can live sustainably at as many as 10,000 people per square mile and in other places the density can be much higher.

When healthy and with access to water and wind generation and shade or a source of heat humans are remarkably adaptable and can be comfortable across a range of temperature.

Houses made of wood, hemp, canvas, stone and wood can be repaired easily and built by a team of 5-10 people in as little as a few days and including sourcing of materials in a few weeks or months. The raw costs of these materials and labor – even at fair rates – is likely 1/5th to 1/10th that of the value "homes" and "apartments" are selling at. Water and energy collection devices can be as cheap as a few hundreds dollars and with proper use can provide almost all needs for a family at a maintenance and work costs of a few hours or few hundred dollars a year.

Internet can be provided via community mesh networks for a few dollars a month in maintenance. 3D printers and printers allow creation and distribution of media and creation of even complex items with relatively low shipping costs – so any specific needs can be generated with some raw materials and a well maintained printer or makerspace.

Most assets – weedwhackers, bikes, cleaning supplies, cars, scooters, pools, yards, clothes, etc. – sit unused most of the time which means that a shared asset base or a community storage shed can allow for sharing without anyone feeling a lack and reducing costs.

Ownership and financial incentives to maintain and improve properties can be created that track community input and needs and a cooperative group could work with credit unions, local authorities, faith groups, communities, business leaders and families to buy and transfer ownership away from big banks, mortgages and real estate developers and help those groups transition into a system where they can work less and have more time and assets.

It is likely true in most cases and places that intentional movement towards these goals as a community could reduce debt loads and cost of housing by 40-100% in a period of seven years and a clear plan can be outlined in partnership with Conara and Good Deals for teams across the world.

We can live in a world where people work about 50% less than they currently do and live more harmoniously with their local community. Property rights, democracy and ecological goals can all be protected and expanded and much more creativity applied to our spaces.

We call on people with financial resources to invest their money to train people to build and convert land and homes, create natural local supply chains and create shared asset libraries. We call on people who want to work with their hands and minds to assist us in building and upgrading structures, fostering density and working with existing groups to eliminate the cost and debt load of taxes, financing, utilities and more.

And we call on the children of the world and people of faith everywhere to demand their families and community leaders recognize the peace and potential that can come from reducing the costs and improving the walkability, human-nature integration and live and workability of their cities. We ask you all to use technology wisely, find ways to share and only make good deals that don't put you or others in debt or allocate ownership or value from lands to amorphous large corporations or government authorities.