From Rootless to Regenerative

My Story

I’ve been living off-grid and homeless for over a decade. I’ve taught permaculture, launched radical sustainability projects, and kept moving to survive. Now, I’m about to lose everything I own. I need your help to get home, recover my work, and start building again.

Urgent Needs

📦 Storage Unit Goal: $630 DUE IMMEDIATELY

(I have everything i own in a storage unit in chicago and I am about to lose everything, please help me now.)

$265 raised (42% of Goal) ($150 sw, $35 az, $30 am, $30 ze, $20 es)

🛂 Passport Renewal — Goal: $200

(I have only two blank pages left in my passport, I need a new one)

$1 raised

Basic Needs (Ongoing)

🏠 Housing

Goal: $5-10 per day in Asia Hostel ($1800-$3600 per year)

(Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam)/Ongoing

$15 raised

$15 spent for 3 nights beginning June 15th-18th at a Hostel

Housing is paid until 7/18/2025

Housing Fund has $0/0 Days

Bottled Water

Goal: $1.50 per day for 3 1.5 liter bottles or $547 per year maximum for bottled water

$1 raised

Crown Berkey Water Filter

Goal: $478

$1 raised

Food

Goal: $10 per day($3650 per year)/Ongoing

Food is paid until 7/18/2025

Food Fund has $0/0 Days

$1 raised

Clothing

(Crocs ($50), Merrell ($150), Teva ($50), Birkenstocks ($120) , Rockports ($90),Thirts ($6 each), Hanes Boxers ($24/6) - $96 for 24, Smartwool Socks ($23/pr), Carhartt Jeans ($36/pr), Thai Fisherman Pants ($5/pr), Hats($3-6 each), Scarves($2-3 each)

Goal: $--

$1 raised

Hygiene

(Soap, Haircuts, Bamboo Toothbrushes, Clippers, Laundry, Bathtowels)

Matthew Currently has more than 10 Bars of Soap (30+ day supply). The last time Matthew had a Haircut was about June 6th, 2025 (about 6 weeks ago)

Goal: $--

$1 raised

$1 spent for 3 bars of soap

Food Prep, Mobile Kitchen

(Cutting Boards $10, Knives, Pot $15, Stanley Thermos, Cups, Bowls, Ecobags $10 each, etc.)

Goal: $100

$15 raised

$15 spent for a Pot

Bags and Luggage

(Delsey Spinner lrg, Delsey Spinner med, Delsey Spinner lrg, Delsey Backpack)

Goal: $--

$1 raised

Unhomelessing and Permanent Houseing Needs

Housing in the (New York, Cold Climate) USA

📦 Shipping Container

Goal: $2500

$200 raised (3 Donations: $100/$70/$30)

🏠 Tipi

Goal: $2500

$1 raised

🏠 White Duck Wall Tent

Goal: $1200

$1 raised

🏠 Shift Pod Tent

Goal: $800-$2000

$0 raised

Image Concept & Design

by Matthew Stephens for Sacred Ecology Design

(Chat GPT Generated)

Housing in Asia (Thailand, Tropical Climate)

🏠 Small Asia Towner Minivan

Goal: $1,500

(mini hippie van) to Live out of In Asia for perpetual travel and camping

$1 raised

🏠 Bamboo House in Thailand

Goal: $300

a small portable locally made or diy self made shelter to Live out of In Asia on a friends property that is good for camping, staying dry and is organic, sustainable, biodegradable, and cheap.

$1 raised

Moving Needs

🚛 Truck Rental (South Dakota to Chicago) —

Goal: $900

$1 raised

🚛 Truck Rental (Chicago to New York)

Goal: $1000

$1 raised

Travel Needs

✈️ Flight back to the US

Goal: $500-1200

$1 raised

✈️ Flight to Africa

Goal: $500

$1 raised

✈️ Flight to India

Goal: $200

$1 raised

Office/Work/Teaching/Designing/Technology Infrastructure Needs

New Battery for Laptop

Goal: $200

$1 raised

Apple EarPod Headphones

Goal: $20/prx5($100 for 5 pairs, they last about a year so this will by me 5 years of headphone insurance)

$1 raised

Ipevo Document Camera

Goal: $100

$1 raised

Steadtler Pencils/Pilot Pens/Watercolor Paper

Goal: $40

$2 raised

$2 Spent on 4 EE Steadtler Pencils

Gopro

Goal: $220

$1 raised

Boox Palma

Goal: $220

$1 raised

Enloop Rechargable Batteries

Goal: $40

$1 raised

My Projects

Who Is Matthew Stephens?

BIOGRAPHY(2015) Matthew Anthony Stephens was born in Beverly on Chicago’s South Side. While the Windy City has not typically been the first place one would think of with regards to permaculture and urban sustainability, up until now, anyway, Matthew is doing his part to change that. As founder of the Earth Reforestation Project, Permaculture America, and Permaculture Chicago, Matthew has done forums for students at his alma mater, Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, and conducted after school mentoring programs about sustainability, design, and permaculture. Here he has been able to effectively put into practice his seven years of teambuilding, along with his study of urban food deserts and the nutritional dilemmas in urban environments that ensue from such designations. Gaining understanding and knowledge as a student under the tutelage of world-renown Permaculture Institute founders Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton, Matthew received his Permaculture Design Certification in Melbourne, Australia in 2009. Having studied Mollison’s work and permaculture design systems extensively since 2007, learning from the masters was a crowning achievement. Now, Matthew brings that abundance and wealth of international experience to local settings. He counts as part of that hands-on global know-how: Terrace Design and Farming study in both Vietnam and the Philippines; Rice Farming in Thailand; Terrace Garden Building for Moon River Lodge in Malaysia; and Garden Path Construction at Bill Mollison’s Tagari Farms in Tasmania. As a teacher of Introduction to Permaculture courses in Chicago since 2012, Matthew takes pride and satisfaction in having taken what he learned firsthand to create a global permaculture network and footprint on Facebook to facilitate cross communication between permaculture designers, with one group for every country on earth—one group dedicated to each continent—and focus groups for sharing information with respect to different fields of study within permaculture and sustainable agriculture systems. Since 2011, he has also worked with Chicago’s oldest community garden, Xochiquetzal (1986), as both a mentor and permaculture design consultant and educator. Today, in addition to his work as a local community organizer in Chicago’s historic Hyde Park neighborhood on the city’s South Side, Matthew works with the Unitarian Universalist Church on garden maintenance and design consultation where he counts to his credit putting in a low-maintenance shade garden with swales. This fits right in with his study of passive solar architecture—a passion since 1987—and his practice of indoor gardening since 2011. He’s the proud archivist of the work of Lee Porter Butler, creator of the double envelope passive solar house design, and America’s pioneering passive solar architect of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s last century. Placing exclusivity on the importance of neighborhood living, Matthew travels only by foot or bicycle and does not take public transit out of protest for safety and environmental conditions, concerns, and service quality. He has boycotted AT&T and Comcast since 2011 and Big Oil since 2010. Matthew Stephens is the founders and the designer of Hales Franciscan Food Forest, Chicago’s First Urban Food Forest in 2014.

Here is an interview I did with Moon Magazine:

The permaculture plan to save the planet | An interview with Matthew Stephens

Where Is Matthew Stephens?

Matthew Stephens is currently in Pakse,Laos

Matthew Stephens visa expires on 07/29/2025 and must exit the country by that date.

How Is Matthew Stephens?

As of --/--/-- considers his state of being to be:

As of 07/15/2025 considers his health to be: medium low. on a scale of 1 to 10, a 4 relative to what is ideal and possible under the right circumstances

As of 7/15/2025 his current immediate health needs are: Haircut, Laundry