When highly diverse individuals are lumped into a single category, the result is terribly misleading. In the composite picture in the minds of those who promote anti-homeless laws, many different sorts of people are merged into one. The ensuing discussions get shipwrecked because nobody is having the same discussion.

One can’t help but notice that all this wrangling over intake forms, coordination, and “centralized intake” hasn’t managed to produce any additional low-income housing or shelter beds. Berkeley’s last low-income housing expenditures were about 15 years ago, and involved rehabbing some already existing low-income housing units.

Many people already question whether so-called affordable housing projects in Oakland and the Bay Area are really affordable to most disabled persons receiving their income through SSI, or for retired persons receiving Social Security. It is evident that all too many are not truly affordable to low-income people.

Although several deaths of young African American men at the hands of the police have received a great deal of publicity, hundreds more police-inflicted deaths have not been reported. Across the nation, police officers who have killed innocent African-American men are rarely punished by racially biased court systems.

The Supreme Court recognized dignity in all when it announced that LGBT couples have the right to marry. Let us hope that governments everywhere will someday address the issues of poverty in the same spirit. A disproportionate number of young people who end up on the streets identify as LGBT.

The horrific attack targeted a church that has a long legacy in the struggle for African-American liberation and civil rights. Acknowledging the effects of generations of racism and violence is a first step. Taking concrete actions to transform our society to end racism and violence is the next.

Sometimes at night, you recall who you once were. You were a kid and played with other kids. You had a mother and a father. You wanted to be a firefighter or an astronaut. You were loved. And in your darkest imaginings, you could never have seen yourself come to this place.

Berkeley homeowners have figured out that hitching a ride on Airbnb, although illegal, can make lots of money. People literally sleeping on the street cannot seem to move the hearts of City Council members, but homeowners looking to monetize their million-dollar asset seem to have no trouble getting through.

City officials intend to drastically cut funding for ten South Berkeley nonprofits serving homeless and other underserved people, including youth and people with mental health challenges. The City must either show respect and concern for its longtime residents, or else let the “market” drive out programs that serve our poorest citizens

The Downtown Berkeley Association tries to look respectable while pouring their out-of-town real estate money into robbing the poor of their blankets. The real-estate juggernaut prefers to knock down cheap housing and kick out the artists, hippies and musicians who pester them about civil rights and democracy.