People constantly ask how can we fix the homeless issue. As we can all see, homelessness has reached a critical juncture in Alaska, with elected officials scrambling for solutions in impacted communities. That of which brings the question, how precisely are the State and municipalities supposed to solve homelessness, when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a U.S. government agency "dedicated to making sure homeowners are treated fairly" by banks and mortgage service providers, are absent-mindedly providing no real help to homeowners who file complaints with the CFPB. Foreclosures by banks with unethical lending business practices provide a never ending stream of families (men, women, children) who end up homeless. This is completely unacceptable.

I have identified the CFPB as one of the sources for the homeless issues our State is facing.

The most vulnerable in our State and nation are often targeted for trafficking, therefore, I shall focus on the trafficking of children first. According to The National Foster Youth Institute (NFYI), over 60% of trafficked children have been involved in the Foster industry. That means over half of the children that have been or are still in foster housing are trafficked. This is completely unacceptable.

The government agencies responsible for creating a better life for vulnerable children, fail to do so, are negligent to a spectacular degree and as a result, these vulnerable children end up trafficked with child exploitation on the rise in America at a growth rate never seen before.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a mission statement as follows, "To fulfill President Lincoln’s promise “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans." Based on the data and conversations I have had about the VA; they have failed their mission.

The VA's reputation is dismal in America and veterans are marginalized, ignored, dismissed by VA employees who are going through the motions of 'aiding' veterans, but in reality, just collecting their paychecks. It appears the VA is under the 80/20 rule, where 80% of the workload is shouldered by 20% of VA staff who does actually care. Likewise, the other 80% of VA staff are coordinating the paperwork shuffle or handing veterans off to the State of Alaska (SOA), Adult Protective Service (APS). This is completely unacceptable.

Based on the energy data I have been tracking, we appear to be in a type of energy crisis in our search for clean energy. By this, I mean we appear to be unable to mitigate our energy industry effectively while being conscious of the environmental impacts we as consumers create. On one hand, the pressure is to maintain the status quo so that it does not impact jobs and profit. On the other hand, the pressure is to find clean ways to maintain our energy consumption without destroying the environment, while creating jobs.

With the ingenuity of human innovations, it does not seem reasonable that we have not collectively come up with a viable source of clean energy harnessing either the sun, wind, water, and/or earth power responsibly. Pollutants in our environment eventually end up in our food chain. Factoring in the 'domino effect', those pollutants eventually are ingested by our families that, over time, impact our health. This is completely unacceptable.