homelessness

We must be cognizant that Berkeley — like all cities — does not exist in a bubble. The actions we take have a ripple effect across the region.

In an effort to address homelessness throughout the state, California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a 100-day challenge, allowing individual cities and counties to apply for Emergency Homelessness Aid.

My only true exposure to visible poverty, then, came when I traveled to places at a remove from my home. And this had a certain effect on how I perceived homelessness. While I saw many people without homes, their displacement was in some ways tempered by my own transience.

The city talks a big game about helping homeless individuals, but the results just don’t match that rhetoric.

From the homeless population in Oakland to the single mother in New York with an eviction notice on her front door, poverty is an uncompromising epidemic.

In this year’s homeless point-in-time count, it was reported that 1,108 persons currently experience homelessness in the city of Berkeley, an increase of 14 percent since the last count in 2017.

There was one encounter that made me question whether or not the lack of money is really the main reason businesses discriminate against homeless people.

For many years now, the city of Berkeley has left its homeless community without the crucial resources it needs — shelter, affordable housing and social support. But now the city is going beyond neglecting the homeless community.

We can all take a stake in shaking off the compassion fatigue and stepping up to the plate to break down barriers between the housed and the houseless.

Students face a number of obstacles in graduating from UC Berkeley –– hunger, malnourishment and homelessness shouldn’t be one of them. The campus must make supporting students’ basic needs a priority for all community members — this referendum will do just that.