iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

A program director introduced him to others in four words: "Paul was homeless too." Paul: "That's all it took to be accepted. I knew, at 50 years of age, I had found my community." Belonging came first. Everything else followed.

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 7h

At 26, Paul Asplund was unhoused. For years after rebuilding his life, he told almost no one. He feared he'd be judged. Then, at 50, he said it out loud in a Tenderloin program room. The reply: "Me too." A thread on what changed 🧵 buff.ly/yVnSuuF

buff.ly

When I Started Talking to People on the Streets

Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 10/09/2026

Your vote is a housing issue. Election Protection: 866-OUR-VOTE. #HousingJustice #EndHomelessness

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 09/09/2026

We're on our own. We're not alone. Pull a lever now: call your rep on the HUD budget, back a local ban on immigration enforcement at shelters, and vote—housing status is no barrier to a say. Election Protection: 866-OUR-VOTE. Read Part 3: buff.ly/VLf4BKJ

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 09/09/2026

The belief that some deserve to thrive and the rest deserve nothing is one we've had to face down before. The resource that worldview can't touch is us: neighbors who show up for each other without waiting for a federal mandate to say so.

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 08/09/2026

A federal judge struck down HUD's plan to steer homeless dollars away from permanent housing on Aug 7. That protects the funding today. It doesn't undo the damage already done—thousands lost rental support when the Time-Limited Subsidy program was cut.

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 08/09/2026

After two years of decline, homelessness is rising again in LA—city count up 3.4%, unsheltered up 7.9%. Mayor Bass points to federal and state funding cuts. Part 3 of the Nerd Reich series traces how we got here, and what we do now: buff.ly/VLf4BKJ

secondgracela.substack.com

Nerd Reich: The Sequel to Revenge of the Nerds That No One Wanted | Part Three

Letters to the Housed | September 8, 2026 | By Paul Asplund | Second Grace LA

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 04/09/2026

People who need housing, treated as "disposable." The idea runs from a Silicon Valley blog into federal contracts — but it keeps losing. Aug 25: officials blocked a billionaire "private city," 3-2. Gil Durán: billionaires or democracy, not both. Read: buff.ly/KkrLCgi

secondgracela.substack.com

Nerd Reich: The Sequel to Revenge of the Nerds That No One Wanted | Part Two

Letters to the Housed | September 1, 2026 | By Paul Asplund | Second Grace LA

010

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 01/09/2026

Gil Durán puts it plainly: we can have billionaires, or we can have democracy — not both. Read this week's letter, then send it to someone: buff.ly/KkrLCgi

010

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 01/09/2026

Here's what they don't say out loud: it keeps losing. California Forever polled ~70% against, pulled its ballot measure, then tried to route through Sacramento. Aug 25, Solano County supervisors said no again, 3-2. Pushback works.

110

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 01/09/2026

Trace it back and there's one goal underneath: not better government, but exit from it — for people who can afford to leave the rest of us behind. Nation-states obsolete. Safety nets optional. Housing? Someone else's problem.

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 01/09/2026

Curtis Yarvin — the blogger who wants democracy swapped for a corporate CEO — once said the homeless budget might as well be spent on cyanide. That ideology now runs through federal contracts and billionaire land deals. New from Second Grace: buff.ly/KkrLCgi

secondgracela.substack.com

Nerd Reich: The Sequel to Revenge of the Nerds That No One Wanted | Part Two

Letters to the Housed | September 1, 2026 | By Paul Asplund | Second Grace LA

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 26/08/2026

On Aug 7 a federal judge vacated HUD's 2026 Continuum of Care funding notice for skipping required public comment — the 2nd such ruling this year. Naming the system matters for the solutions we build. Read the full piece: buff.ly/UPFfJar #EndHomelessness @naehomelessness.bsky.social

011

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 26/08/2026

'RAGE' — Retire All Government Employees — was blogger Curtis Yarvin's name for the idea. It became DOGE, which proposed cutting 84% of the HUD office that funds homelessness grants and 77% of fair-housing enforcement staff. A blog post, turned into policy.

010

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 26/08/2026

Project 2025 didn't appear in 2023. It's the 9th version of a Heritage Foundation blueprint first written for Reagan in 1981. The method hasn't changed: shrink the federal government, staff what's left with loyalists. Schedule F makes career civil servants fireable at will.

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 26/08/2026

The HUD cuts hitting LA's homelessness services didn't come from nowhere. Journalist Gil Duran traces them to a decades-old plan — and a Silicon Valley blog. Our new piece follows the line from a tech manifesto to a funding notice: buff.ly/UPFfJar #HousingJustice

secondgracela.substack.com

Nerd Reich: The sequel to Revenge of the Nerds that no one wanted

Letters to the Housed · August 25, 2026 · By Paul Asplund · Second Grace LA

030

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 25/08/2026

'This line item has a body count.' The cut to LA's homelessness services didn't come from a budget hawk — it came from a decades-old plan to gut the government. New clip; read Part 1: buff.ly/UPFfJar #Homelessness #HousingJustice

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 25/08/2026

Before the Paris Games began, people experiencing homelessness predicted — accurately — which interventions would fail and which would work. The city didn't listen. What if LA did? buff.ly/N6FxxCa

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 21/08/2026

Paris cleared encampments before its Olympics. But one small program did the opposite: 256 people housed with dignity, near their own support networks. When the offer was right, people said yes. Every time. LA can still choose this: buff.ly/N6FxxCa

paulasplund.com

Paul Asplund - House Them or Hide Them? LA’s Choice Before 2028 from Letters to the Housed | SecondGrace.LA

I will shed light on why our institutions can\u2019t end homelessness without us and introduce you to some of the most effective programs I\u2019ve found on the streets. Programs addressing the…

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 21/08/2026

Before the 2024 Games, Paris displaced 19,526 people — including 4,550 children. Encampments cleared. Services severed. Zero permanent housing created. LA is two years from the same choice. Or a different one: buff.ly/Nphjyuu

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 20/08/2026

What does it cost to keep looking away? Letters to the Housed on the pull between comfort and the call to show up for unhoused neighbors — and what changes when we stop resisting it → buff.ly/elBaXWO

secondgracela.substack.com

From Wrestling to Surrender: What Happens When We Stop Fighting the Call to Serve

Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of Second Grace LA

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 17/08/2026

Immigration raids don't just take people. They push families toward homelessness: a rent check missed, a wage earner gone. The solutions exist. The money exists. The question is whether we act before the next crisis → buff.ly/8nO5B4F

secondgracela.substack.com

When Fear Comes Knocking: Immigration Raids Push More LA Families Into Homelessness

Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA

111

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 14/08/2026

The World Cup brought the world to Los Angeles. What did we show them? The last letter in our Staying Housed series: on what we owe the neighbors still holding on, long after the cameras leave → buff.ly/f8PIHT1

secondgracela.substack.com

What We Owe Each Other: When the Party Is Over

Staying Housed: Part 4 of 4 | Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 12/08/2026

LA County was asked to imagine a department that could end homelessness. Then it had to make the numbers work. What got cut, and what it cost — the prototypes that didn't survive the budget → buff.ly/kKE4qNf

secondgracela.substack.com

What We Lost: The Prototypes That Didn’t Survive

from Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 11/08/2026

If you give this year—and I hope you do—consider asking what an unrestricted gift would let a nonprofit do that a project-specific one can't. It's a different question. It might be the more important one. buff.ly/dM8zPUF

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 11/08/2026

There's a name for the fix: enterprise capital. A one-year grant is a customer paying for a service—spent to zero, then you start over. Unrestricted, multi-year money is an investor buying equity: it lets a group survive a bad quarter without cutting the people doing the work.

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 11/08/2026

We file these groups under "charity." They're also major neighborhood employers. LA nonprofits in one survey employed 12,500+ people, and more than 4 in 10 spent $100K+ with local vendors. A grant to one isn't overhead—it's payroll, rent, and money moving where it's needed most.

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 11/08/2026

The nonprofit sector holding Los Angeles together is running out of runway. The problem isn't how hard these organizations work. It's how they're funded—restricted, one-year grants that can't build a single month of reserves. This week's Letters to the Housed. buff.ly/dM8zPUF

secondgracela.substack.com

Can We Survive This?

Letters to the Housed | August 11, 2026 | By Paul Asplund | Second Grace LA

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 10/08/2026

A job loss. A medical bill. A detention. Any one can start the slide toward homelessness. None of them has to end there — but they do, faster than most people expect. How housing falls apart, and where it can be stopped → buff.ly/0GPv9TI

secondgracela.substack.com

How Housing Falls Apart: Staying Housed, Part 2 of 4

Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA

011

Reposted by @SecondGrace.LA

Mayor Karen Bass @mayor.lacity.gov · 07/08/2026

When I took office, I signed Executive Directive 1 to cut through unnecessary delays because we couldn’t afford to let affordable housing sit in the approval process while Angelenos struggle to find a place to live.

54313

Reposted by @SecondGrace.LA

California Housing Defense Fund @housingdefense.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

HAA letter to Calabasas, CA for tonight's Planning Commission meeting re proposed 135-unit housing development project at 3831 Orchard Lane, which includes 27 low-income units. drive.google.com/file/d/1ZOS2...

drive.google.com

Calabasas - 3831 Orchard Lane - HAA.pdf

011

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 06/08/2026

Homelessness isn't someone else's problem waiting on someone else's solution. It's a community challenge that only community power can meet. That's the whole idea behind Letters to the Housed. Start here → secondgracela.substack.com/p/an-excerpt...

secondgracela.substack.com

An excerpt from Letters to the Housed

by Paul Asplund of Second Grace LA

010

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 06/08/2026

We built a Bluesky starter pack for the LA housing fight: the orgs, officials, and advocates working to end homelessness in LA County, gathered in one tap. Follow the whole community here → go.bsky.app/CpguNm

123

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 06/08/2026

The feds are betting the defunding happens quietly. These communities are betting enough people care enough to keep building. This week's Letters to the Housed is about who's right—and what housed neighbors can do. buff.ly/w8Ud8tP

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 05/08/2026

On a South LA church parking lot, 138 affordable units just broke ground—unlocked by SB 4, the "Yes in God's Backyard" law. California's faith institutions hold enough underused land to build a city the size of Stockton. Cost: below new construction. Federal dollars: zero. buff.ly/w8Ud8tP

buff.ly

Community Builds What the Feds Won’t Fund

Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA | August 4, 2026

000

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 05/08/2026

Community land trusts take land off the speculative market for good. Developed at market rate, it's gone forever. CLTs hold it in perpetuity—affordable today, in 30 years, in 50. T.R.U.S.T. South LA, El Sereno, and Downtown Crenshaw Rising are building it parcel by parcel. buff.ly/w8Ud8tP

secondgracela.substack.com

Community Builds What the Feds Won’t Fund

Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA | August 4, 2026

043

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 04/08/2026

While Washington dismantles LA's homelessness funding, a different housing infrastructure is quietly growing. No press office. No HUD line item. Just land trusts, church parking lots, and senior housing that's held its ground for 50 years.

010

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 29/07/2026

Disinvestment doesn't save the money. It moves the cost downstream: to ERs, jails, and people. Every dollar not spent on stable housing tends to become two dollars spent on emergency intervention. Read the full piece 👇 buff.ly/czPa2Hu @naehomelessness.bsky.social · @ternerhousing.bsky.social

buff.ly

The Investment We Chose Not to Make | LA Housing Cost

Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund | July 28, 2026

061

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 29/07/2026

Now the FY2027 federal budget proposes zeroing out CDBG, HOME, and the Continuum of Care — the coordination holding the system together. Disinvestment doesn't save the money. It moves the cost downstream: to ERs, jails, and people.

010

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 28/07/2026

We keep asking whether LA can afford to invest in housing. The real question is whether we can afford not to. New from Letters to the Housed — what disinvestment actually costs, and who ends up paying. A thread.

A broken calculator depicts our current article: The Investment We Chose Not to Make, Los Angeles Housing Cost from Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA

001

@SecondGrace.LA @secondgrace.la · 24/07/2026

This week in one line: LA's homelessness funding was suspended on evidence that doesn't hold up, and 11,423 people are caught in the balance. Aug 26 is the deadline. LAHSA is fighting it in court. We'll follow it 🔗 buff.ly/BZctRiK

buff.ly

LAHSA Sues Trump and HUD

Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA

000