✆ “The issue is not how you can end homelessness in 10 years, it’s what can we do to aid people that are homeless now if it takes at least 10 years or longer who are sleeping on the street? Shelter is a concept that deals with the unfortunate reality that there are 84,000 people sleeping on the street right now. Private individual locking sleeping units at night would provide safety, privacy and shelter, could be produced easily, could be put on county public works land, which isn’t used at night, and could provide emergency, temporary relief to those tens of thousands that are sleeping outdoors without safety or privacy or security. You could have a couple of toilets, a shower, a sink, a dressing room and a faucet and some storage so that people could store their stuff during the day when they have to vacate these modules and get a claim check. This way, on county public works lands, or unused vacant parking lot space, industrial parking lot space, you could put small groupings of people up, and they could get their minimum basic, most necessary needs met as opposed to a 200-man room or sleeping on the street. Having privacy is what every human being needs at night, no matter how small, privacy is important, as safety and security and comfort. That’s what these modules would do. And you can talk about ending homelessness in 10 years, but if you’re on the street right now, every night is a crisis until the problem is solved. And so the idea is to deal with the problem, the immediate problem of people suffering right now.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 11, 2004. Read the original PDF.