A Plan to Drastically Reduce Homelessness and Despair

The Lotfi Zadeh Foundation seeks to noticeably reduce homelessness and substantially improve the lives of the people we serve. In 2024, California had roughly 171,000 homeless individuals. While the government is trying hard and making progress, more needs to be done. With your support, we will help in the following ways: 

  1.   Building Low-cost Housing Units: We will construct thousands of permanent, low-cost housing units outside of Los Angeles for approximately $8,000 per unit, including amenities -- substantially less than the costs incurred by Los Angeles County to build housing within
       Los Angeles, which have ranged from $65,000¹ to $596,000 per unit² without amenities.

  2.   Comprehensive Resident Care: We will provide for all the needs of our residents, including food,  medical care, utilities, clothing, and entertainment, for about $10,000 per year per resident -- substantially less than the $40,000 - $50,000 per year currently spent by California on each  homeless  individual.³

  3. Preventing Evictions: We will work with landlords to pay the back rent of deserving tenants in      need,keeping them from the street. That is far more efficient than returning them to an                   apartment  after they’ve reached the streets. If they still can’t make it after one or more rent         subsidies, we will offer them residency in our facility. 

  4. Supporting musicians, artists, and others deserving of support: We are particularly interested in  attracting homeless and nearly homeless artists to our facilities. We will have multiple sound studios, access to musical instruments, and art supplies. Hopefully, our center will become known as a place  where struggling musicians can thrive and create great music. 


BUILDING THOUSANDS OF UNITS FOR LESS THAN $8,000/UNIT

Substantial savings are possible by creating prefabricated residential centers with full amenities on flat land with water and power substantially outside Los Angeles.  

The first planned development will occupy between 50 and 100 acres outside Los Angeles. The development will consist of a group of main buildings surrounded by blocks of separate prefabricated residential units, as depicted in the diagram below. 

LOTFI ZADEH FOUNDATION
Preliminary Site Plan for 1000+ Units
840’ x 760’ – 14.65 ACRES
ESTIMATED COST: $8,000/RESIDENTIAL UNIT

¹ https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/boyle-heights-celebrates-new-tiny-home-village-for-unhoused-residents-mariachi-performers/3335101/
² https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/23/opinion/los-angeles-homelessness-affordable-housing.html
³ The exact amount spent by the state of California varies depending on the source, but in all instances is substantially more than $10,000/year. https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/california-homelessness-spending-audit-24b-five-years-didnt-consistently-track-outcomes/

 ⁴ The diagram is merely an approximation to provide an idea of the layout, which will ultimately depend on the plot being developed.

In addition to the above buildings, we will add sound studios, a softball field, and areas for growing crops. Buildings can be used for multiple purposes. For example, the dining room can also serve as a performance center, a dance floor, and a chapel. 

Cost estimate for 1000 units

One hundred acres of flat land substantially outside Los Angeles with water and power can be purchased for less than $1,000,000. The grading of flat land to accommodate prefabricated structures should cost no more than $1,000,000. The center with 1,000 units will consist of 50 blocks of 20 units each. The cost of each unit furnished should be around $4,000⁵, so 1,000 units will cost around $4,000,000. We expect to use porta potties and portable shower units to handle restroom issues⁶. The cost of the main buildings, which are glorified tents, should be roughly $2,000,000 fully furnished⁷. Thus the total cost of building a center with 1,000 units on flat land with water should be around $8,000,000, i.e., $8,000 per unit. Even if we are low in our estimates, this is still much less than the cost per unit the state is currently experiencing building residential units in Los Angeles without amenities.

Cost estimate for 5,000 units

The proposed layout shown above only uses 14.65 acres to accommodate 1,000 units. The 1,000 units take up about five acres. It would only take twenty more acres to accommodate 4,000 additional units. In other words, with a 50+ acre parcel, we could expand the number of units with no added land cost. Assuming an additional $500,000 for grading and an additional $1,000,000 for expanding and furnishing the main buildings, the total cost to build and furnish a 5,000-unit center would be around $25.5 million, or just slightly more than $5,000 per unit. 

⁵ Each unit costs $1,500, shipping is $571, and adding a large bed and dresser should be around $1,800. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Hot-sale-3-in-1-portable_1600424730861.html?spm=a2700.pccps_detail.0.0.186713a0O6kuwF
⁶ Such needs should be handled with the purchase of 40 deluxe porta potties at a cost of $1,000 per unit, eight portable shower units at a cost of $2,000/unit, and a $120,000 truck to dispose of the center’s waste. The cost of depositing the waste at the local waste facility is 10 cents per gallon or roughly $75 per resident per year. 
⁷ Easy-to-assemble tent warehouses are available for $12/square foot including shipping and assembly. Ten 5,000-square-foot warehouses can thus be created for around $600,000. Furnishing those warehouses with medical equipment, a professional-sized kitchen, computers, gym equipment, desks, chairs, etc. should not cost more than $1.4 million. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Waterproof-Large-Storage-Tents-Outdoor-Warehouse_1600915062514.html?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.normal_offer.d_image.3c456024X6H1tq

CARING FOR OUR RESIDENTS

We intend to fully care for our residents and make their lives as pleasant as possible, as well as provide them with educational and training opportunities to return to society. 

We will offer:

  • Educational Opportunities: In-class and online courses, with facilities to develop desired skills (sound studios, art, carpentry, auto shop, sewing facilities, etc.)

  • Employment: For a salary of $20,000/year, our residents can choose to shoulder some of the center’s work needs, including maintenance, cooking, security, and gardening. They can also earn money by growing crops for the community on a portion of the lot (possibly 50+ acres) set aside for farming. 

  • Medical Care: We will have an on-site medical team with five doctors and a dentist to take care of most of our residents’ needs.

  • Communal Services: Shared dining, recreation, and study areas to foster a sense of community. For example, nights for our musicians to perform, a standup comedy night, a cooking competition, tennis, basketball, and scrabble competitions, whatever the residents desire.   


ESTIMATED ANNUAL COST PER RESIDENT

We can obtain substantial savings by providing our entire community with the same services, including by using our own medical team.

Estimated Cost Per Resident:

  • Food: $3,000 ⁸

  • Incidentals: $1,000 ⁹

  • Medical and Prescriptions: $3,000 ¹⁰

  • Electricity and Phone: $1,000 ¹¹

  • Administration: $1,600 ¹²

  • Total: $9,600

⁸ Assumes a cost of $8 a day per resident, which is almost twice what prisons pay. Some of the food will be grown by the residents. https://lao.ca.gov/handouts/crimjust/2021/2021-Budget-Funding-for-Inmate-Meal-Costs-020221.pdf
⁹ Includes everything a resident will need besides food, such as clothing, towels, toothpaste, etc.
¹⁰ Assumes the center hires five doctors and one dentist for $250,000 per year and a $1,500 per year prescription allotment. That would provide the center with almost twice the number of doctors per resident as the national average.https://www.kff.org/health-costs/press-release/the-u-s-has-fewer-physicians-and-hospital-beds-per-capita-than-italy-and-other-countries-overwhelmed-by-covid-19/ 
¹¹ Residents would be encouraged to use communal facilities for studying, watching TV, interacting online, etc. There would be a limit on the amount of power that an individual could use in their residence. 
¹² Assumes the complex hires ten employees to oversee the complex for $100,000 a year each, and employs 30 residents to help with administration, cooking, maintenance, and security, for $20,000/year each. 


DECREASING HOMELESSNESS BY PREVENTING BORDERLINE EVICTIONS

It is far better to prevent homelessness before it starts. The cost of putting a struggling tenant back into an apartment after they have been allowed to live on the street far exceeds the cost of keeping them in that apartment. Our foundation will work with landlords to prevent evictions of deserving tenants by curing back rent. Such support will reduce the number of well-meaning tenants who end up on the street and increase occupancy rates. It is a win-win. There were 77,000 eviction notices in Los Angeles County between February and December 2023¹³. The average rent owed was $3,774. Paying $5,000 to keep a legitimate tenant from becoming homeless is well worth the expense.

 ¹³ https://controller.lacity.gov/landings/evictions

ABOUT US

The foundation is named in honor of Lotfi Zadeh, the creator of fuzzy logic, who was deeply sympathetic to the plight of the homeless. Dr. Zadeh was born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1921, the son of a Ukrainian Jewish doctor and a Moslem journalist. He immigrated to the United States in 1944, receiving an MS degree from MIT in Electrical Engineering 1946 and a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1949. He taught at Columbia for ten years and then joined the Electrical Engineering department at UC Berkeley. He created the concept of fuzzy sets in 1965 and fuzzy logic in 1973. According to Google Scholar, as of November 2021, his work has been cited at least 269,091 times in published works.  

DIRECTORS

CEO:  Norman Zadeh, Ph.D.  Norman Zadeh (aka Zada) is the son of Lotfi Zadeh. He received a Ph.D. in Operations Research from U.C. Berkeley and taught as a professor in a visiting capacity at Stanford, UCLA, Columbia, and UC Irvine. In 1983, he created the United States Investing Championship, a real money financial competition. He managed hedge funds from 1991 to 2012. He feels very strongly about reducing homelessness, and improving the quality of life, not only for the homeless, but for the residents of Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Norman Zadeh with his mother and father, Fay and Lotfi, circa 2003

TREASURER: Melanie Wright.   Melanie Wright received a B.A. in Legal Studies from UC Santa Cruz.  She worked as chief paralegal and office manager for Berman Mausner & Resser.  From 2018 to 2022, she worked for Snapchat, overseeing strategic initiatives and C-level executive operations. 

SECRETARY: Michael Ramsey. Michael Ramsey received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from San Jose State in 1969. In 1971, he created Ramsey International, an oil and gas trading company. He has considerable experience as a real estate developer, owning and developing mobile home parks, a shopping center, and mini-storage facilities.

CO-FOUNDER: Savannah Ryan. In 2014, Savannah worked as an Executive Assistant on Shark Tank. She subsequently founded two companies, Storytale Marketing, and GoFasti. Currently, Savannah serves as VP of Corporate Finance for Integra Capital, a global energy company.

SENIOR ADVISOR: Jerome Gourdine (Little Anthony). Jerome Gourdine, the lead singer of Little Anthony and the Imperials, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. He is best known for “Hurt So Bad,” “Tears on My Pillow,” and “Two Kinds of People in the World.” Mr. Gourdine will assist the foundation to prevent deserving musicians from becoming homeless.

WHY YOU SHOULD CONTRIBUTE


Our programs will be highly cost-effective. With contributions totaling $50 million, we can build 10,000 housing units with full amenities, enough to house a quarter of LA’s homeless population. With $1 billion, we can build 200,000 units, enough to house California’s entire homeless population. 

We will also reduce homelessness by working with landlords to keep borderline evictions from happening. The government is making considerable efforts in this area – we believe more needs to be done.    


HOW TO CONTRIBUTE 

If you would like to donate or have questions, please contact Norman@Lotfi-Zadeh.com.  

HOW TO HELP

We welcome input, suggestions, and help to achieve our goals.   

Contact: Info@Lotfi-zadeh.com.