"Homes for the Homeless" is always a bad idea

The only thing that causes a homeless person to be "the homeless" is lack of housing. If they get housing, they are no longer "the homeless."

Every single idea I have ever seen for "homes for the homeless" is really, really, really terrible.

Instead of dreaming up more cockamamie "creative solutions" for this space, let me suggest you work on solving the lack of affordable housing. There is a huge shortage of affordable housing in the US. This has been true for decades and has only gotten worse. See, for example: For every 100 families living in poverty on the West Coast, there are no more than 30 affordable homes

We tore down about 80 percent of our SROs over the course of about two decades. This used to be normal market rate housing available to anyone. Now, a lot of SROs are part of some program to house homeless people.

If you actually care about homeless people, please try to think of them as people, not "the homeless." We need homes for the people, not homes for the homeless.

Here are some better courses of action for trying to help poor people get off the street and stay off the street:

• Get politically active or involved in your local community as a housing advocate.
• Become a landlord providing low cost, decent housing.
• Support Habit for Humanity as a volunteer or donor.

Or find some other way try to provide actual housing for people without much income instead of putting more time and effort into dreaming up crazy schemes for something that would only appeal to someone as a slightly better alternative to sleeping in a dumpster.