How to Eliminate Homelessness

Michael J. Vandeman, Ph.D.

May 5, 2018

1. Whenever a motor vehicle is retired, you should put it into a legal parking space, and give the keys to a homeless person, so they will have a place to live and lock up their belongings. This will solve the traffic problem as well: you can't drive, if you have no place to park!

2. Of course, we should provide public baths and toilets, as Japan and Europe do. Hire the homeless to maintain them.

3. There is plenty of work that anyone can do. Hire the homeless to pick up trash, weed (remove invasive non-native plants from) our parks and open spaces, etc. Then they will have money to rent a place to live. When the homeless are working for a living, no one can complain that they are being given a "hand-out".

4. What ever happened to city planning?! There is a City and Regional Planning Department right on the U.C. Berkeley campus. But we never hear from them nor Berkeley's city planners, if they exist. They should be planning to provide more housing for students. And to accommodate the homeless and other poor, there should be a range of options, including buildings with shared bedrooms, shared bathrooms, shared kitchens, etc., managed by the residents. Since the Age of the Automobile is over, and global warming and species extinction are urgent priorities, we should be converting motor vehicle facilities such as parking lots, parking structures, and roads to housing and urban farms. We must stop destroying more wildlife habitat! All non-native plants should be removed and replaced by natives, to provide habitat for our native animals. What are we waiting for???