> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Give ’em shelter - URL: https://www.smdp.com/give-em-shelter-editor/ - Published: 2005-04-25T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T06:46:34.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless *By Randy Walberger Santa Monica* To Peter Shopay (SMDP, April 15, page 4) and all the other homeless haters out there who feel comfortable living in a society that allows its poor to live and die on the street, I say this: Shelter doesn’t have to come in the traditional form of a house, apartment or room to share. Peter is right that the working poor can barely afford a room on their meager minimum wage as it stands now. The working poor deserve to earn a living wage, not a slave wage, which is their condition now. But to pit the working slaves against the homeless doesn’t solve either problems of abuse and degradation of human life. Haters pit the two and provide no alternative for either but misery as though that’s “their due.” We all know that many homeless individuals are mentally or physically disabled and thus are not capable of earning a living. Does it follow then that they should just die on the street because the working poor have to work for their paltry shelter? As it is now the homeless should at least be afforded private, safe sleeping modules that include a toilet, shower, dressing room, sink and faucet, plus storage to store their gear in the daytime. That’s exactly what S.H.E.L.T.E.R. wants to do now for those now sleeping in your alley or street. This kind of emergency temporary shelter should be available to all who need it all year round. This does not compete for housing with the working poor. I agree with Peter — until the working poor have a decent wage that allows them to meet their expenses plus save at least 10 percent of their income, there can never be “free” housing for all those who do not work. There really is an abyss of suffering for the homeless, but pitting them against the working poor does not pad that abyss or address slave wages. Check out www.s-h-e-l-t-e-r.org to see a solution. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 25, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042505.pdf?ref=smdp.com)