Homeless In West Bekeley

This is West Berkeley's Sixth and University intersection (picture taken on 6th street). University avenue runs right into the University of California at Berkeley (right corner), a very good and famous public university. If you turn left on Sixth and University, you will reach Fourth street's Yuppies shopping center - expensive, chic hangout for the middle class and the rich. Instead of going to Fourth street, take the ramp on University that will lead you to the Freeway, San Francisco and beyond. This is a very busy intersection that the homeless in Berkeley like to flash their cardboard signs asking for handouts or hitchhike from cars that stop and pass both ways.




The ramp on University Avenue.





Under the ramp, some homeless people have been camping here for years. Below is the hitch-hiker who flashes his card asking people for a free ride to someplace (the ramp is on the left).



My children and I live close by and we walk by these homeless people every day. We take the bus either to work and to school on University and Sixth street corners.







These are the twin homeless-brothers. They used to have a home in this neighborhood according to our next door neighbor, but I don't know the reason why they are homeless now. Rain or shine, these guys come to 6th and University corner almost everyday to beg for handouts.



Before the end of December 2007, this used to be a bus number 19 stop, but the route had since changed so the two homeless guys moved in just a few days ago and made the sidewalk - bus bench their new home. Note that this bus stop and bench stand next to the India Chaat restaurant.



At first there was just one guy who put up his red sleeping bag on the bus-bench. He also had a love-seat and a grocery shopping cart full of his belongings. A day later another guy moved (in), who added another sleeping bag, a folding chair, a welcome mat, a box with a cover and a radio on the top.





They would just sit, talk, listen to music on their radio, smoke and sleep, but so far I haven't heard or seen them begging us or any passerby for anything, yet.





They seemed very comfortable, relaxed and don't give a damn about us or people that were going by. Last night the temperature was about 38 degrees Fahrenheit and it was pretty cold even inside the house. As we turned on the heater and slept comfortably in our beds, I thought of them sleeping in the open and felt really sorry for them. I wonder if the city has any shelters for the homeless to stay when the weather gets very cold? And why some of them would rather stay in the street instead of in the shelter? How long are they going to stay here before the Indian restaurant owner calls and asks the city to remove them?

Two weeks after they settled down, these guys were gone, but they left behind their soaking wet, dirty love-seat. Who told them to leave? The restaurant owner or the City? And who would take the love-seat away? And where would these people go? Where did they come from in the first place? And why did they pick this very open and busy corner? My children and I have lots of questions, but they will remain unanswered. Lastly how would you solve problems of homelessness in the United States and elsewhere? Or can they be solved?