Extra

Years of work by the Homeless Task Force, a community-wide effort to make recommendations on issues of poverty and homelessness, is being misrepresented in a distorted report by Councilmember Arreguin on the Berkeley City Council's Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015 agenda.

The task force does support the recommendations now re-organized in the "tiered" priorities, but the most obvious, most important, most cost-effective recommendation, to vacate municipal laws that criminalize homelessness and poverty, is now buried and literally de-prioritized despite not only being cost-free but a cost-saving measure for our city and county. 

Both the Department of Justice and Housing and Urban Development have issued statements recommending not only that laws which criminalize natural human acts such as sleeping and carrying belongings are constitutional violations, but that grant funding will be reduced to cities which have such laws on their books. Surely Councilmember Arreguin should recognize this priority, which is changing the dialogue nationally on homelessness and poverty. 

The community-wide voices which put long hours into this report deserve respect. Request that Councilmember Arreguin withdraw the report until such time as its priorities reflect the work of the consensus group that produced it.