Two millionaires give back -- with their own homes
Millionaires have plenty of reasons to give thanks.
But two wealthy American businessmen are looking less at what they have than what they can give. Though their methods are separate -- one is in Texas, one in California, and as far as we know they've never even met -- they have one mission in common:
Each of them is leveraging his own home to try to make the world a better place.
For wealthy real estate investor Steve Moore, that means living in a place that a Houston news affiliate calls the "city's most notorious apartment complex."
Moore moved into the Gardens at Bissonnet -- formerly known as La Promenade, home base of a gang called La Primera -- after he and his business partners assumed majority ownership in July.
"If I'm going to rent it, I should be willing to live there," he told the Associated Press in the video at the top of this post. He makes it a habit to take up residency in his low-income properties.
It's a lot more fun to improve families' living conditions than it is to be a slumlord, he says.
His own Bissonnet apartment is no better than any of the others in the complex. It's small and rundown, KHOU-TV reported, with "cracks in the floor, a gaping hole in the ceiling and air conditioning that doesn't quite cool."
"We had three leaks in there," Moore told the station.
He has imposed rules against littering, baggy pants and late nights out (the curfew is 10 p.m.); violators are subject to fines or eviction. He shrugs off the idea that he might be in physical danger, though last year he acknowledged that his life has been threatened.
He has also loaned half a million dollars interest-free to Bissonnet's condo association. (Though most Bissonnet residents are renters, it's technically considered a condo project.)
At another crime-ridden complex he took over, Moore moved in and helped bring crime down 80 percent, according to a city councilman.
Moore told AP he had no plans to move out and would continue splitting his time between Bissonnet and another low-income complex he owns in town.
More than 1,500 miles away in San Francisco, another millionaire is taking a different tack.
Lorry Lokey, the 87-year-old founder of Business Wire, is selling his $6.25 million condo high above the streets of San Francisco with the express purpose of giving away the money. (Click here or on a photo for a slideshow of the condo.)
"I'm not interested in hoarding for myself," he told the Wall Street Journal. His goal is to give away $1 billion in his lifetime, and selling this aerie on Russian Hill will help get him closer.
Lokey paid $4.6 million for the condo in 2006, but at this point, he told the Journal, he uses it only once a month.
"Besides, I want to give away the money," he said, adding: "I don’t like giving small amounts." Bigger donations maximize his impact, he said.
He has already seen after his children and his longtime partner, and he wants to die broke or close to it, he has said. He grew up during the Great Depression, and even then his parents gave away 10 percent of their income.
He's already given away 98 percent of his net worth, but he continues to make and donate money. He flies coach (unless the flight is longer than five hours, and even then he prefers to upgrade using his miles, he told the Journal), he has no yachts or jets, and he drives a hybrid, according to the San Francisco Business Times.
His gifts almost always focus on education nowadays, so presumably the millions of dollars that he stands to make on his condo sale will go toward education too.
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