The Berkeley City Council has voted to create a new city-run homeless encampment to help provide a safe and clean place for some of the city's unhoused residents to live temporarily.
According to a report from Curbed, the measure was supported by a majority of the City Councilmembers and will bring wind-resistant tents, bathroom facilities, and trash collection services to a yet-to-be-determined city-owned site. The services are set to be administered by city employees and is billed as a "stopgap" measure to help establish a certain level of cleanliness and safety for these types of camps while other permanent and transitional housing facilities get under way across the city.
According to the report, the temporary facility would be able to accommodate 50 residents for "less than a year."
The nearby city of Modesto launched a similar effort in 2019 that contains roughly 150 tents located underneath a bridge in the city, The Modesto Bee reports. The facility there is operated by a non-profit entity, Turning Point Community Programs, and features 10-foot by 10-foot tents, portable bathrooms, garbage bins, and other necessary necessities.
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While humane and ameliorating, none of this solves the core problem homeless problem this country faces: 1) Addiction treatment, 2) Mental issues, and 3) Controlling migraiton between cities
The core problems of homelessness are financial inequality, a tax system that rewards rampant speculation in real estate, structural un- and underemployment, and a complete failure of social systems including health care. Fix these and addiction, mental health, and transience will be radically improved if not eliminated.
Regulating "migration" was tried during the great depression- especially into California. Didn't work out so well telling people that lost jobs for no reason beyond national economic collapse that they couldn't look for work elsewhere.
Not to mention- what's the cut off?
Can you get an exception if you're a teenager fleeing risk at home because your parents don't like your gender/sexual orientation?
Or how young do you need to be to file for exception as your parents look for work so they can feed you.
How much money do you need to make to qualify for migration?
It's far more complex than "just" drugs, mental issues and restricting the rights of individuals.
Then a federal policy is critical in addressing means to fund housing and treating the influx of people into cities with welcoming climates. Salt Lake City managed to alleviate their homeless issue through homebuilding but they were dealing with a relatively small and stable homeless population, a unified civic-government coalition, and I would assume lower cost of construction.
Like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSF6SMYZKbo
or
Work Pays Americahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40sqSvwX_RM
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