Leaving people to languish in outdoor encampments is not an acceptable approach to homelessness. Let’s…
- Continue building interim housing to get people off the streets so they can restart their lives
- Create more supportive housing for those with continuing challenges
- Expand mental health and addiction treatment services to address an epidemic of untreated addiction and mental illness
- Enforce our laws so people experiencing homelessness don’t congregate in makeshift camps creating hazards for themselves and their neighbors
It is not humane to let people die on our streets. Organized, urgent, and well-conducted outreach and collaboration with our unhoused neighbors is a critical tool that improves the quality of life for both housed and unhoused people in our communities.
Urgent action is crucial. We can’t wait for permanent housing to save lives. We must use every tool available to build or convert existing space into emergency shelters. A safe place to sleep and access services is the first step toward permanently getting people off the streets.
We can fight every day to get people off our streets, but it will only be a pyrrhic victory if we don't prevent people from falling into homelessness in the first place. This means increasing wages, building more housing, and protecting renters as we recover from one of the most difficult decades in the city’s history.